My Xmas present to myself

Somehow I managed to lose my precious Leatherman Charge multitool recently and I've felt somewhat naked ever since - especially when I'm kayak fishing. I've practically turned my house upside down looking for it and no dice. So rather than hold out any longer, I decided to equip myself with a new multitool, just in time for my silly-season fishing blitz. I'd have been very tempted to buy another Charge model if I thought I could afford it (but I can't), so looked at other options. Inspecting the Leatherman display at Outdoors & Beyond, I noticed a new model had been released, and quite the eye-catcher it is to. But it wasn't the price ($149) or innovative assymetric design that attracted me to it so much as it's minimalist simplicity and skeletal open frame design.

The Leathernman Skeletool doesn't have anywhere near as many tools as the Charge model, but it does have the 3 tools that I use the most: pliers, knife blade (sheepsfoot style) and bit driver (with 2x phillips & 2x flathead bits supplied). And because it is lighter in the tools department, it's also lighter in the weight department. It also has a caribeener that doubles as a bottle opener as well as a pocket clip, which should make storage on the kayak nice and simple. Apart from the size and weight advantage, the other feature that I suspect will lend itself to saltwater fishing applications is it's skeletal design. Although that means salt water, blood and gunk can get inside the tool more easily, it should also be much easier to clean it out. That's my theory anyway, so here's hoping I'm right about that. I'll find out over the course of the next few days.

The one tool it doesn't have that I will surely miss is the diamond file, which I've used for sharpening hooks many times. I do, however, have a small diamond sharpening stone, which I should probably just throw into my tackle box.Speaking of sharpening, the Skeletool blade is made of 154 CM stainless steel, which is an American made premium grade stainless steel originally developed for tough industrial applications. 154 CM stainless is known for its best all-around qualities, offering great corrosion resistance with good toughness and edge quality. I will be interested to see how it compares with S30V stainless, which is used in the Charge, as well as my Al Mar Sere dive/utility knife.