I guess every one of you has eventually found himself (or herself, nothing strange if a capable woman climbed on a ladder) in a situation where you’re up high on the last stair trying to replace the batteries of your smoke detector or change the light bulb and all of a sudden your detail-oriented eye captures the loose unit hanging with the mounting screws. And of course you’d instantly want to repair that mistake by tightening the screws, but you won’t have the necessary tools with you which means you’ve just opened a whole new task for yourself.
Oh, how much I hate getting down from the step stool or a ladder and spending time just to look for the tool I need for a job I didn’t plan on doing. Those are the moments when I literally feel gratitude towards whoever was that invented the multitool.
Why would you need a multi tool? You may ask. Let’s get something clear – a multitool is not a choice; it’s a must for every man (or woman, for that matter) that considers himself to be the one who runs the heavy errands around the house. Small repairs like changing a broken light bulb or tightening the screws around something shouldn’t be the kind of tasks that ask for the entire tool box to be carried around with you. The important thing about owning a multitool is to always have the convenience of being able to finish the task without having to fetch a tool. I’d say, the Leatherman Sidekick is an amazing example and I’ ll tell you more about all the things that make the Leatherman Sidekick THE multi tool to own.
When you first get it, the tool is completely closed and looks amazing, perfectly matching your hand’s grip. It’s a solid construction, well-built and weighs about 200 grams. When you open the handles, the pliers are smoothly presented along with the knife blade which is so elegantly deployed. The inner tools are just beautifully locked in place and can be released by the push of a button.
From all the good tools the Leatherman Sidekick offers, the liner-lock plain edge knife blade is probably the one you’d use the most. The blade is about 6.6 centimetres long and is made of stainless steel, 420HC to be exact. You can easily deploy the knife with one hand through the elongated thumb-hole, or you can use two hands if you find it easier.
The combination pliers have a spring-action which makes them very easy to use. The wire-cutter that’s also piece of the whole multi tool is made of two triangular cutting edges that aren’t very sharpened and thus tend to break smaller wires before they cut them which may be seen as a negative feature by some, but still, the tools are perfectly functional in getting the job done.
The multi tool comprises a number of other smaller tools that can do all sorts of other smaller jobs and they’re all perfectly designed and positioned in the compact package called Leatherman Sidekick. So, yes I do recommend it as a tool anyone should own in those moments of small damage.