Striker designed their new folding multi-blade to help drywall guys perform the normal steps for slicing up drywall without grabbing extra tools. Striker thinks it’ll save some time on the jobsite — we’re not sure, but it certainly looks cool.
Designed to be part of your basic camping gear, the 15″-long Gator combo axe by Gerber packs an axe and a razor-sharp 6″ saw in one 1lb 12oz package.
Wizard Industries crams a few tools you use all the time — a straight edge, marking gauge, ruler, level, and compass — into one tool to make their Measure Level. With this 8.7oz tool you can measure, transfer measurements, mark straight lines, find level, and create circles and curves.
Even though the Frog Tool comes with a belt pouch, you probably don’t want to carry this multi-tool around with you — it’s more like a tool you throw in the glovebox for emergencies. It’s not the prettiest tool, but at $5, at least it’s cheap.
If you saw someone holding Bahco’s model 31 adjustable wrench in their hand, you probably wouldn’t think twice about it — until they put it down. Then you’d notice that although one end looks like most adjustable wrenches, the other end sports alligator jaws for gripping pipes.
With the Folding Pocket Wrench you can carry around an entire set of open-end wrenches in your pocket. The double-ended wrench folds down to 5″ x 2″ x 3/4″ to fit comfortably in its included nylon belt pouch. Its integrated spacer blades act as shims to adjust the wrench to the fastener size, rather than using a thumb wheel that needs constant adjustment.
A couple years ago we posted about Ridgid’s plastic nut basin wrench. Ridgid has since updated the 2006 model of this tool to be a “multipurpose under-sink plumbing tool,” and they renamed it the Faucet and Sink Installer. The notched ends of this tool still fit 2, 3, 4, and 6-tabbed plastic mounting nuts on faucets, sprayers, and ball cocks — but now the tool does so much more.
We’ve posted about drywall combo tools before, but Marshalltown has made something a little different with this multi-tool — it’s a combination panel lifter, non-clogging rasp, and bottle opener. Why a bottle opener? According to Marshalltown, it comes in handy when beer-thirty rolls around.
When you were a kid, do you remember visiting your Grandma and she’d have that bowl of 15-year-old hard candy sitting out on her coffee table? Well, here’s something to replace that bowl for the modern-day Toolmonger: the Victorinox candy jar. Imagine the look on your kid’s or grandkid’s face when they first spot this candy jar!
Earlier this year Gerber released the Artifact mini-tool. Coated with titanium nitride, this eight-function tool measures just 3-1/2″ when closed and weighs about as much as two quarters. What’s unusual about the Artifact is that instead of having a built-in knife, it uses #11 hobby blades.
The next time you catch crap from your tool buddies for carrying such a gadget-geeky cell, tell them to kiss your iPhone-carrying ass. Then point them here to see how handy Apple’s finest can be in the hands of a Toolmonger. I’ve found dozens of shop-friendly uses for my phone. Here’s five.
1. Carpenter’s Square
Sure, the iPhone’s not big enough to replace a real carpenter’s square, but it kicks the crap out of “that looks close enough” when your square is miles away back in your toolbox. In the picture above I was building a bit of impromptu signage (read: an 8′ tall stand to hold a banner). The result: close enough that it stood straight even in some pretty stiff wind.
The Fusion Contractor 2×4 diverges from the path of your normal multi-tool. Scramble a pencil sharpener, a level, a wire stripper, a pocket knife, storage for one nail, and a faux circ saw blade — and you get the functions a contractor will need? The website aims its spiel at the Father’s Day/birthday crowd, intimating that you might know a contractor who needs this “thematic” knife.
I’ve seen a lot of comments about the Utili-Key from Swiss-Tech; imagine my surprise, when I went searching through Toolmonger archives for our post on it, to discover that we haven’t written one. So if you’re one of the readers who has suggested the Utili-Key, bear with me — for anyone who hasn’t seen this tool, you might want to take a closer look.
A lot of tools get combined together into ungainly messes that were probably best left on the drawing board — but one that you might actually keep with you is Rapid Tool’s Shark. (I think they should have named it Bruce.) It combines a handy retractable utility knife with a set of pliers-style wire strippers, good for handyman and professional electrician alike.
Love ‘em or hate ‘em, companies keep coming out with multi-use tools. Some multi-use tools, like the combination square and the layout square, have stood the test of time and have found their way into just about every handyman’s pouch. Does the Universal Square fit into this category, or is it yet another tool doomed to be forgotten?
D-Unique, the makers of the Universal Square, designed this 12oz aluminum tool for framers, but they claim other tradesmen such as iron workers, electricians, carpenters, and cabinet builders will find it useful too.
When cheap knockoffs of your product start cropping up, you know you’ve got a winner. The Zilla-Tool looks like it wants to be a Skelatool but has no idea how to get there — other than to drill 4,000 holes in it and hope no one notices.
Maybe the designers at Wenger are fans of roll-on truck bed liners, because the newest knives in the Evolution (Evo) line look like they got the roll-on treatment. Wenger’s touting the EvoGrip as the next step in the progression of their Evolution platform.
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Tool Talk #53: Old Hardware Stores & Pocket Knives
Tool Talk #52: Listener Calls & Reader Projects
Tool Talk #51: DIY Wedding Rings & Heirloom Shopsmiths
Tool Talk #50: Router Safety & Pointless Tools
Tool Talk #49: Bookcases & Ending Laziness
Tool Talk #48: Christmas & (Paint) Strippers
Tool Talk #46: Kitchen Drawers And GAS
One Beer Projects: Repairing Wood Surfaces
One Beer Projects: Fixing Simple Problems With Your Dryer
One Beer Projects: Winterizing/Storing Your Bike
One Beer Projects: De-Badging Your Truck
One Beer Projects: Staining Your Fence
One Beer Projects: Doing Your Own Brakes
One Beer Projects: Balancing Your A/C For The Summer
One Beer Projects: Installing A Dimmer Switch
Hands-On: Milwaukee M12 Power Port
Hands-On: Caterpillars Fix Wiggly Outlets For Good
Head 2 Head Hands-On: Bosch SPS10 vs LI3000 SmartDriver
Hands-On: Striker Magnetic LED Light
Hands-On: Dremel Duo Kit -- Dremel Driver
Hands-On: Elmer's ProBond Wood Filler
Hands-On: Duo-Fast DF350S Framing Nailer
Hands-On: Watco Danish Oil - Cherry Finish
Budget Shop Truck Build, Part 3: Building An Engine Stand
Budget Shop Truck Build, Part 2: Pulling The Engine
Budget Shop Truck Build, Part 1: The Truck
How-To: Cut Angles With A Circular Saw
Project Garage: Yukon Engine Swap (Part 5) -- Complete!
Project Garage: Yukon Engine Swap (Part 4) -- Installation!
Project Garage: Yukon Engine Swap (Part 3) -- Fabricating Engine Brackets
Project Garage: Yukon Engine Swap (Part 2) -- GM Performance Parts
