A UK friendly specific EDC gadget thread!

[scorpio00x]

Just a quick bit of advice needed my parents want to get me something thats useful and good quality, so as i have been wanting a leatherman for when out and about or around home they double checked with me before buying. Is there something as good as quality full size without the locking blade? Had cheaper smaller multi tools but they never lasted as long and were just too small for my hands

[tanstaafl]

All this knife legality business puts me right on edge. Us citizen types are just kids to them, little people to make statistics of.

When I think that the law and land is so flakey, and that opinions of high school bullies (now cops) or oxford grad judges are in charge of our fates, it makes me feel very vulnerable. I would like to avoid ever coming into contact with any police ever, and that is my intention. Weather legally carrying or not, that one person has the power to ruin you or let you go free on a whim.

Aaaaaaanyway - back on topic.

I decided while on holiday in Spain that my emergency phone charger could be smaller. I love my Nomad 3.5 and my Guide 10, but my kit never got used - it's an emergency only item when visiting cities. It's small enough to fit into my cargo pants pocket, but really, it's too big when you think it's not likely to be needed. It looks like this:



I'm thinking of something like this as an optional 'holiday' EDC item. I actually watched one sell on eBay yesterday for £3.19.



http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/5000mAh-Solar ... true&rt=nc

Not sure how good it's going to be. There are some horror videos on youtube showing terrible build quality and pathetic performance regarding both capacity and solar charging. But they're selling a lot of them on eBay and there doesn't seem to be all that much bad feedback anymore. If buying from China they often give a full refund if you're not happy, I'm thinking it's worth taking a chance.

If it works, even to 50% of what it promises, it should (with a little effort pointing it at the sun) provide me with at least 75% of a charge off a full battery, and about 15 - 25% per day if relying solely on the solar panel. That's enough in a true emergency.

If this fails, there are better quality versions on the market. There is a Freeloader version for £50 called iSIS (I bet they're regretting that name now):



And there is also the Easyacc version for about £33, but I'm not sure if they've stopped making it, I can't seem to find it for sale anywhere:

.

I had a few and did not find them that brilliant , so just have a powerbank type thing that you charge via USB that I use now, mine is about cigar sized but you can get all sorts........but dont use it much since I got my LGG2 last year.......fantastic battery life easily lasts a day with everything on, all smart phones should be like this....

[tanstaafl]

Just a quick bit of advice needed my parents want to get me something thats useful and good quality, so as i have been wanting a leatherman for when out and about or around home they double checked with me before buying. Is there something as good as quality full size without the locking blade? Had cheaper smaller multi tools but they never lasted as long and were just too small for my hands

http://www.britishblades.com/forums/sho ... -multitool

http://forum.multitool.org/index.php/topic,8384.0.html




This is nice http://www.amazon.co.uk/Leatherman-Juic ... rman+juice

[dangerman]

I had a few and did not find them that brilliant , so just have a powerbank type thing that you charge via USB that I use now, mine is about cigar sized but you can get all sorts........but dont use it much since I got my LGG2 last year.......fantastic battery life easily lasts a day with everything on, all smart phones should be like this....

I had the LG G2 and I'd have another in a heartbeat - removable battery, expandable memory. Plus, because it's an older model you can but all the accessories really cheap now too. I broke mine and the insurance gave me the LG G3 instead. It's fantastic. I need to reinstall and reset it now though, it's starting to slow down quite a bit.

Have you looked at getting spare battery for it? I got one for free after I complained that it wasn't as powerful as it claimed on eBay. It is still very useful and I keep it in my wallet. It's about 80% as good as an original LG one. You should always have some back up power for your phone on you, even if your battery life is the best ever and you hardly use your phone, it will die in a day or so. No good for emergencies or prolonged delays.

Regarding the power bank, I know it's not going to be great - but I just want it to be something as a pocket friendly emergency back up. If the solar panel works even a little bit it's worth having. I'll be rigorously testing it over the next month or so - a true worst case scenario in the winter time. I'll be putting it into the windscreen of my car, in the conservatory, I'll put in into a sandwich bag and leave it outside all day (that works for some reason, and makes it rainproof). I'll also have a day out walking and attach it to my hat - a full day pointing straight up. If the solar panel proves to be a gimmick, I'll complain and demand a refund. If they let me have it for free, I'll dismantle it and put the video on YouTube.

Also, I'm thinking of patenting my solar hat idea, so I don't want none of you lot nicking the idea! Got it?

Just a quick bit of advice needed my parents want to get me something thats useful and good quality, so as i have been wanting a leatherman for when out and about or around home they double checked with me before buying. Is there something as good as quality full size without the locking blade? Had cheaper smaller multi tools but they never lasted as long and were just too small for my hands

@Scorpio00x - I've been in the same position as you. In the end I was fortunate enough to be able to buy a SOG Paratool from the US for about £30 - but you'd pay a lot more for it if you bought it from here. Unless you had a good look around and got really lucky. The SOG is a fantastic UK legal, full size multi-tool. I'm very happy with it.

[munchh]

Just a quick bit of advice needed my parents want to get me something thats useful and good quality, so as i have been wanting a leatherman for when out and about or around home they double checked with me before buying. Is there something as good as quality full size without the locking blade? Had cheaper smaller multi tools but they never lasted as long and were just too small for my hands

Ive gone for the leatherman wave, but i did look a a couple without locking blades, go on the leatherman website, you can compare them along side eachother. It came down to the tools themselves but the sidekick was one i looked at and the wingwan, pretty sure they dont have locking blades?

[ForgeCorvus]

scorpio00x: I bought a SOG Powerlock (the 62 I think) and took the knife blade out (I always have a suitable knife on me anyway).

I've recently had a play with one of these.

Thinking of dropping a tenner on it.

[dangerman]

scorpio00x: I bought a SOG Powerlock (the 62 I think) and took the knife blade out (I always have a suitable knife on me anyway).

I've recently had a play with one of these.

Thinking of dropping a tenner on it.

Looks nice! Might have a crack of that myself. Although I've avoided scissors where pliers were available, since as useful as they are they're usually much more neatly stored.

That's a good idea about removing the knife on multi-tools too. I wonder if I could remove the one on my Gerber Suspension. That's a really nice and affordable little thing, but the locking knife makes it 99% unusable.

[Hoipoloi]

I've recently had a play with one of these.

Thinking of dropping a tenner on it.

What is it and where from?

[metatron]

I've recently had a play with one of these.

Thinking of dropping a tenner on it.

What is it and where from?

heinnie.com sell them, I bought one for a friend, the build quality is very good and the tin snips are a nice addition.

[tanstaafl]

I've recently had a play with one of these.

Thinking of dropping a tenner on it.

What is it and where from?

Paul Chen Multi Tasker http://www.heinnie.com/hanwei-paul-chen-multi-tasker had one , they are pretty good but no pliers ....