The Knife I Take Hiking

 I had a question posed about the knife I hike with. This is the knife that I keep in my belt pack while hiking and backpacking. It's the Leatherman Squirt ps4.

I had been looking at this knife, but then my sister-in-law gave it to me as a gift. The two primary reasons I wanted it were its size and the fact that its best feature is a sturdy pair of pliers. If you need pliers, there is really nothing you can substitute. And repairs to tent poles and various other fittings usually require pliers.

Let's back up and talk about what I previously carried. For decades, I had used a Boy Scout knife with four tools. It has a blade, a screwdrver/bottle opener, an awl, and a can opener. I used all of these regularly- well maybe not the bottle opener any more, but it's just a part of the screwdriver. However, this wonderful knife weighs 3.9 ounces. In addition to that I had to carry a small pair of pliers. I'm not sure where they are now, but they probably weighed another 3 ounces.

Now, let's see what else the Leatherman has. This is the blade. Instead of 3 inches long, it's not even two inches long. The length isn't all that big of an issue, but the problem is that the cutting edge is the curved one, and the flat edge is the spine. I find this both counter-intuitive and awkward to use.

In between the Boy Scout knife and this one was a Leatherman knockoff, very similar to this ps4, but it was a piece of junk. I actually bent it using the pliers.

This knife also includes a file. It seems good enough, but I've never used it.

The other tools are a pair of scissors- somewhat useful, but we have to carry a small but better pair that will cut moleskin. There is a regular screwdriver with a bottle opener (not very much needed any more), and a pointed one which you can use in phillips-head screws.

This knife weighs 2.3 ounces. So, that's a savings of about 4.6 ounces, and some space. There's a big plus.

Things I do not like. I don't like the shape of the blade, as mentioned above. I really miss the can opener. I don't carry cans while backpacking, so that's not a big deal, but I did use it basecamping fairly often. I also miss having the awl.

I've had this for over ten years and it's held up well, although I don't use it anything like every day. This model is still available for under $50, which is pretty reasonable.

If you are going to do hunting or fishing, or think you need a knife for protection against large animals, of course this isn't going to do the job. But I don't think the weight of a large knife is a reasonable tradeoff for the value of something larger.

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