Anyone know of any good card multi-tools?

LadyKaos - July 9, 2021

Gear

For a few years I’ve had one of those light weight credit card size multi-tools in the velcro pocket in the top of my hat (tilley wanderer), that way I always have it with me and it’s surprising how often I use it

I’ve tried a few of them now and they all seem cheap and tacky, does anyone here know of any decent quality ones? or of any other UK legal EDC multi-tool that would be slim/light enough to keep in my hat pocket? budget around £50 ish

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How has the tilley wanderer held up for you? Do you ever snap up the sides?

 

Quote – How has the tilley wanderer held up for you?

Really well actually, I thought it was a lot of money to pay for a hat at first but it’s lasted better than any hat I’ve ever had, I’ve worn it most days from the spring through to fall for two years. The inside is a little stained and the origanal DWR coating is long gone, but the fabric doesn’t let much water through anyway so that’s not really a problem

Quote – Do you ever snap up the sides?

the only real reason I could see for that was to stop the wind catching it (or for archery), the chin strap is very secure if you use it the way tilley recommend so there’s no chance of it getting blown away, although if the wind is pulling on it it, even with the sides snapped up it can get uncomfortable. Because I do a lot of day hiking in wild weather I added some snapps closer to the front on each side so it folds up to form a point (like a pirate hat LOL) that way it catches the wind a lot less, shades you’re eyes less too though, so it’s a trade off

 

Nice additions! 

Makes sense about the wind and snapping up the sides in turbulent weather. If you don’t want to use the chin straps during fair weather do you just tuck them up into the head portion of the hat?

They have some DWR sprays you can use to apply to the outside of the hat to rewaterproof it again.

 

Quote – If you don’t want to use the chin straps during fair weather do you just tuck them up into the head portion of the hat?

correct, providing you get a size that has plenty of room (mine has just enough room to wear a thin buff underneath to add warmth on colder days) then you just have the strap inside the hat instead

 

LadyKaos, I’ve had two credit card sized multitools before but didn’t remember what they were called so I looked them up and found them.

The metal looking one is a very common tool you will find on sites like Wish.com, Ebay, Amazon. And is only like $1-$5. I carried this in my wallet for about a year or two and never even used it, so out it went.

I had the red version of the Swisscard pocket tool and used that more. It has a ruler, pen, knife, pair of tweezers, scissors, magnifying glass, multi head screwdriver, and flash light. Great little EDC mutlitool to keep in your wallet or in this case your hat as it has all the essentials you would really need for a modern life. It has a few features that not even a dedicated multitool has like a pen and flash light. I’d pick up one of those if I were you. 

 

Cool, the Victorinox one looks really nice, I didn’t know they made a card tool, Thx 🙂 if the knife and scissors are made to the same quality as the swiss army knife ones I’ll definitely get one of those

The metal one you mention is the first one I had, and although I did use it quite a bit for opening packaging and bottles etc… I know what you mean, most of the stuff on them is not all that useful

 

I carried the SE you linked to, and overall I didn’t find it useful. Like you mentioned, it’s something that I rarely even used and I kept it as a “last resort” type of thing. On the occasion I did actually end up using it, it was hard to use and highly ineffective to the point of being basically worse than not having a tool at all.

The Swisscard is really interesting, I may take a look at it.

 

If (big if) you can locate one, a vintage Walle-Hawk, might work.

Hard to find, worth the hunt.

 

You are right, I tried just doing a search on what a Walle-Hawk even is and I was having trouble even finding that. I did finally see someone using it on a bushcraft forum though and that is pretty cool.

Some vintage stuff is so much better than what they have available today.

Also, while looking at that Walle-Hawk, I came across a Bob Hansler Survival Card. I’d like to take that out into the field and see if it even works or is just a gimmick.

There was also an emergency escape dog tag tool. I wouldn’t expect to be able to escape your captors using this for the first time, this is one that you will need practice with.

There’s a lot of cool stuff out there. Check out https://grimworkshop.com/. They have all sorts of EDC tools such as mini saws, files, and sewing kits the size of a credit card.

 

Grimworkshop has shiny (good, cool) stuff.  Been drooling over the cordage tool, just haven’t thrown the money yet.