Squirt at 5 years. An update.

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Oct 2, 2004
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Soooo, I thought I'd do an update on an old post from 2015. The year I got a Leatherman squirt.

It was a little touch and go at first, but by the end of one year, I was in danger of being hooked. I never would have predicted that little two and a half ounce lump of tool would become so useful, and I would become so attached to it.

I tried the Leatherman micra, but the inside opening tools were just a turn off to me. But the squirt was just the right set up for my particular mental make up that it took over from both the Victorinox classic and Leatherman micra. As an old fart with arthritis issues, the small pliers have become so handy that I won't leave the house without my squirt.

By year three I was very attached to it. I've been through three of them so far. The very first that was gifted to me on this forum was 'confiscated in 2016 by the better half. You married guys know how that works. She still has it and its in her purse every day. I bought a new one at R.E.I. and had that one until May of 2019, when the scissors spring broke. I sent it back to Leatherman and in a little less than two weeks a new one was in my mailbox. Unbelievable fast service taking consideration the en-route mail time, it must have been a one day turn around at Leatherman. Outstanding factory service.

I've done a few "experiments" and walked out the door on purpose with just the Squirt in my pocket for the days EDC use. The world kept on spinning, the sun still rose in the east, and I survived the day just fine. The chisel ground knife blade opened packages, cut twine, plastic wrappings, and whatever I needed a pocket knife for. But...that three letter word, it had one failing and that was food duty. Not something I need regularly, but once in a while. I could muddle though by turning the sandwich over and slicing through the bottom as far as the little blade would go, then carefully Turing the sandwich back over and cutting though from the top. Worked out okay with a couple cuts. My years of experience with the little Case peanut gave me thinking outside the box for small blades.

I love the way the squirt carries like a peanut in the pocket. Just drop it in, and the compact weight of it puts in right down in the bottom of the pocket. Its always there when I reach down and don't have to grope around for it.

The screw driver is handy for light prying and larger Phillips screws by using the inside corner of it. Bottle opener works once you get used to the idea of it being so small that you take the cap in two bites instead of one. It works, just a bit slower and you have to be carful to hook it under the crimp. I've opened cans of Minwax stain, cans of putty, small paint cans with no problems.

The scissors, while not as precise as the Victorinox scissors I used for so many years, it will in real world use cut stray mustache and beard hairs just fine and trim a broken finger nail. Aside from a design flaw that seems like squirts break scissor springs on a not uncommon basis, I have no complaint on them.

I don't know where the Leatherman micra is, I think that its in the back of some drawer someplace, and I no longer even own a Victorinox classic. The smallest Victories I have is the executive that I got a year and a half ago, and that is a real everyday carry in my jeans watch pocket while the squirt is in my left pants pocket. They make a good team. The executive is my precise cutting tool with two nice thin knife blades, a sort of serrated edge on the orange peeler that actually is handy for some things, and the scissors that is typical Victorinox. But the squirt is my dirty deed tool. The heftier screw driver, pliers, wire cutters that snip right through plastic zip ties, file, and thicker chisel grind knife blade is up to stuff I may not want to use the SAK on. The chisel grind is soooo easy to touch up and when sharp, cuts like the dickens. Breaks down pizza boxes and other cardboard boxes just fine.

I still may not have use for the bigger Leatherman stuff, but I have fallen in love with the squirt. After five years now, I won't be without one. It I lost this one somehow, I'd Rush out to get an other one before sundown.
 
They’re a pretty handy little tool for sure. So handy that I picked up several, for the car, truck, and a few different tackle boxes I use while fishing. I keep a regular sized multitool in my boat and vehicles, and also a Victorinox SAK in each. But I tend to grab the squirt when I need something, or the girls need a tool when we are out and about.
 
Jackknife thanks for sharing.
The smallest I have is an original juice s2 in orange, which I've had nany years. Great for when you want to have something but discreet, like picnicking or BBQing , or weight isvan issue.
 
Too many people dismiss small multitools and cannot see the value. There is a lot of value in simply being available and good enough for 95% of things that need to be done.

Thats kind of the bottom line, isn't it?

I freely admit to being a minimalist for most of my life, and in that respect I know I take after my dad. I watched my dad get by in life with his little Case peanut and a Sears 4-way keychain screw driver on his keyring. In his own words to me as advise, it was a set up that was easy to carry, but handled 98% of what he needed. So many times in life I carried way to much crap in the belief that I was ready for anything. The harsh truth is, you can't prepare for 'anything'. But you can taken your life style, who you are and what you do and where you do it, and prepare for most of what the odds are you will run into.

A small tool that gives you flat and Phillips screw capability, bottle opener, file, scissors, small pliers, wire cutting, and small knife blade will handle that 90 something percent of what we will run into in American suburbia or European cities. In my 'experiments' as I called them, I walked around often with the little squirt as my sole EDC. I was fine.

The more I hang around these forums, the less I end up carrying as I back away from the whole knife nut thing. I backed away from the gun collection thing the same way. I found when I stopped reading gun magazines and knife magazines and cut way back on my forum visits, my interest/obsession faded way away. Now I just have a small SAK or squirt in my pocket and go about my life much more uncluttered with excess stuff. Its very liberating.
 
Thats kind of the bottom line, isn't it?

I freely admit to being a minimalist for most of my life, and in that respect I know I take after my dad. I watched my dad get by in life with his little Case peanut and a Sears 4-way keychain screw driver on his keyring. In his own words to me as advise, it was a set up that was easy to carry, but handled 98% of what he needed. So many times in life I carried way to much crap in the belief that I was ready for anything. The harsh truth is, you can't prepare for 'anything'. But you can taken your life style, who you are and what you do and where you do it, and prepare for most of what the odds are you will run into.

A small tool that gives you flat and Phillips screw capability, bottle opener, file, scissors, small pliers, wire cutting, and small knife blade will handle that 90 something percent of what we will run into in American suburbia or European cities. In my 'experiments' as I called them, I walked around often with the little squirt as my sole EDC. I was fine.

The more I hang around these forums, the less I end up carrying as I back away from the whole knife nut thing. I backed away from the gun collection thing the same way. I found when I stopped reading gun magazines and knife magazines and cut way back on my forum visits, my interest/obsession faded way away. Now I just have a small SAK or squirt in my pocket and go about my life much more uncluttered with excess stuff. Its very liberating.
On the topic of forum visits and the such i totally agree. My obsession has diminished a lot. I carry the knives my kids gave me and find it more enjoyable than trying to keep up with the Jones'.
As small multitools go i have a micra on the key chain and it does good for me. I tried a gerber dime but haven't really connected with it. I have looked at the squirt but funds have not allowed me to get one yet.
 
On the topic of forum visits and the such i totally agree. My obsession has diminished a lot. I carry the knives my kids gave me and find it more enjoyable than trying to keep up with the Jones'.
As small multitools go i have a micra on the key chain and it does good for me. I tried a gerber dime but haven't really connected with it. I have looked at the squirt but funds have not allowed me to get one yet.

Yeah, the forums have some kind of psychological drive thing that I don't understand, but its all abut keeping up with the Jones's. Like the traditional forum, and what's your latest GEC, or the multitool forum and whats your latest Leatherman?Like already having a dozen GEC's or 14 different multitools isn't enough? My hands may be too old and arthritic to open a peanut, but for the past year and a half I've been carrying a Victorinox executive, and I've come to love it as much as the peanut that I can't handle anymore. My EDC is the exec in the watch pocket and squirt in my left pocket. Thats it. If I stay away from forums, thats all I need.

A small SAK in one pocket and squirt in the other gets me through any day in my current life. After staying away from the forums for a while, its like coming out of some kind of temporary insanity and looking back on it all and thinking "What the hell was I doing?"
 
I carried my squirt everyday last year since I got it in early December or late November of 2018 and it's a great little tool.
Not too long ago I replaced mine with a NOS Sebertool M4 I got off eBay and I love it as well but can't really say it's better than the squirt and will likely go back and forth between both.

I like the drivers on the Sebertool better and I like the fact that they lock, while I like how the squirt has tweezers when the Sebertool does not.
The Sebertool does have tweezers, but the squirt pliers actually do just fine.

The pliers on the Sebertool are much sturdier and beefier which sounds better on paper, but in reality I have not found it to really matter.
I also like how thin the squirt pliers are because they can fit into certain places which has proven invaluable on occasion.
It seems the squirt is not perfect or the best, but I have found that sometimes the squirt really is just what I need.

Now I do not carry multitools for the knife let alone little ones like this ( rather have a little slipjoint of the same blade size ), but that chisel ground blade on the squirt and Micra does sometimes prove to be the perfect blade for certain tasks here and there.
The Sebertool blade does not have that chisel ground blade that I value for rare occasions and worse it's edge was contacting the frame dulling it severely, so I turned it into a very fine awl / pick which has in conjunction with the tweezers become invaluable for removing splinters.
I'm talking super deep 1/2" long American walnut splinters here.
The leatherman blades prove specifically useful just enough that I'd not compromise them.

 
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Well Carl, I finally decided to give the Squirt a shot. I found a well used Squirt P4 on the Bay and pulled the trigger. Just had it two days but I'm really liking it. I had to do a bit of peening to tighten of the tools, but once that was done and I sharpened it up it's good to go. Did a bunch of work on the lawn the past two days and the blade cut open fertilizer bags and the pliers pulled out a load of long string bermuda grass that got caught between the wheel of the dethatcher I borrowed from a neighbor. Right off the bat I like not having to open up the tool constantly like on the Micra. Micra is a great tool but if you're using it a lot that can get annoying. Anyway, thanks for beating the Squirt drum for a while. I'm digging it.
Soooo, I thought I'd do an update on an old post from 2015. The year I got a Leatherman squirt.

It was a little touch and go at first, but by the end of one year, I was in danger of being hooked. I never would have predicted that little two and a half ounce lump of tool would become so useful, and I would become so attached to it.

I tried the Leatherman micra, but the inside opening tools were just a turn off to me. But the squirt was just the right set up for my particular mental make up that it took over from both the Victorinox classic and Leatherman micra. As an old fart with arthritis issues, the small pliers have become so handy that I won't leave the house without my squirt.

By year three I was very attached to it. I've been through three of them so far. The very first that was gifted to me on this forum was 'confiscated in 2016 by the better half. You married guys know how that works. She still has it and its in her purse every day. I bought a new one at R.E.I. and had that one until May of 2019, when the scissors spring broke. I sent it back to Leatherman and in a little less than two weeks a new one was in my mailbox. Unbelievable fast service taking consideration the en-route mail time, it must have been a one day turn around at Leatherman. Outstanding factory service.

I've done a few "experiments" and walked out the door on purpose with just the Squirt in my pocket for the days EDC use. The world kept on spinning, the sun still rose in the east, and I survived the day just fine. The chisel ground knife blade opened packages, cut twine, plastic wrappings, and whatever I needed a pocket knife for. But...that three letter word, it had one failing and that was food duty. Not something I need regularly, but once in a while. I could muddle though by turning the sandwich over and slicing through the bottom as far as the little blade would go, then carefully Turing the sandwich back over and cutting though from the top. Worked out okay with a couple cuts. My years of experience with the little Case peanut gave me thinking outside the box for small blades.

I love the way the squirt carries like a peanut in the pocket. Just drop it in, and the compact weight of it puts in right down in the bottom of the pocket. Its always there when I reach down and don't have to grope around for it.

The screw driver is handy for light prying and larger Phillips screws by using the inside corner of it. Bottle opener works once you get used to the idea of it being so small that you take the cap in two bites instead of one. It works, just a bit slower and you have to be carful to hook it under the crimp. I've opened cans of Minwax stain, cans of putty, small paint cans with no problems.

The scissors, while not as precise as the Victorinox scissors I used for so many years, it will in real world use cut stray mustache and beard hairs just fine and trim a broken finger nail. Aside from a design flaw that seems like squirts break scissor springs on a not uncommon basis, I have no complaint on them.

I don't know where the Leatherman micra is, I think that its in the back of some drawer someplace, and I no longer even own a Victorinox classic. The smallest Victories I have is the executive that I got a year and a half ago, and that is a real everyday carry in my jeans watch pocket while the squirt is in my left pants pocket. They make a good team. The executive is my precise cutting tool with two nice thin knife blades, a sort of serrated edge on the orange peeler that actually is handy for some things, and the scissors that is typical Victorinox. But the squirt is my dirty deed tool. The heftier screw driver, pliers, wire cutters that snip right through plastic zip ties, file, and thicker chisel grind knife blade is up to stuff I may not want to use the SAK on. The chisel grind is soooo easy to touch up and when sharp, cuts like the dickens. Breaks down pizza boxes and other cardboard boxes just fine.

I still may not have use for the bigger Leatherman stuff, but I have fallen in love with the squirt. After five years now, I won't be without one. It I lost this one somehow, I'd Rush out to get an other one before sundown.
 
Well Carl, I finally decided to give the Squirt a shot. I found a well used Squirt P4 on the Bay and pulled the trigger. Just had it two days but I'm really liking it. I had to do a bit of peening to tighten of the tools, but once that was done and I sharpened it up it's good to go. Did a bunch of work on the lawn the past two days and the blade cut open fertilizer bags and the pliers pulled out a load of long string bermuda grass that got caught between the wheel of the dethatcher I borrowed from a neighbor. Right off the bat I like not having to open up the tool constantly like on the Micra. Micra is a great tool but if you're using it a lot that can get annoying. Anyway, thanks for beating the Squirt drum for a while. I'm digging it.

Great!:thumbsup:

I've grown to love the tool, and feel weird if its not on me walking out the door. BUT...its still the only Leatherman tool I like and carry. Small enough to be forgettable while in the pocket, but enough for the od job here and there that life tosses in your way. And I love how easy it is to get the chisel grind blade scary sharp.:eek:
 
JK,
Curious...you carried the Peanut & a 4 way screwdriver on your key chain(great little tool)! Just ideal 2 small tools.Now a EXECUTIVE AND a Squirt... what happened to the 4 way screwdriver??
I know your wife carries an Ope...so sandwich cutting is covered! Bet you could get along great if you"just" carried the squirt....leave the EXECUTIVE at home for a week...!
Jim
 
JK,
Curious...you carried the Peanut & a 4 way screwdriver on your key chain(great little tool)! Just ideal 2 small tools.Now a EXECUTIVE AND a Squirt... what happened to the 4 way screwdriver??
I know your wife carries an Ope...so sandwich cutting is covered! Bet you could get along great if you"just" carried the squirt....leave the EXECUTIVE at home for a week...!
Jim

The executive is my cutting tool, like a dedicated knife. With two knife blades a serrated edge, scissors it cuts. My Squirt is my little pliers that helps out old arthritic fingers that has a hard time dealing with some things. It also is hardier screw drivers. The squirt is the dirty deeds hard worker and the small SAK is my package opening, box cutter, mail opener, twine cutter, and even nail trimmer. Two very different tools with two different missions. The 4-way keychain screw driver has been retired.
 
This is a Sebertool M2 , if you wanna try it out just let me know and it's yours.
It's a completely different animal than your beloved leatherman squirt and I know you're downsizing lately but I figured I'd just throw the offer out there.
It's smooth , sturdy, and simple, and it's very compact.
 
I completely agree with Jackknife. I'm not a Leatherman fan. I have a Wave but I never carry it, my SAK SuperTinker can do 95% of the Wave and is lighter and more portable. If I need pliers I want a real pair of pliers. All that being said if I was to carry a Leatherman it would be the Squirt, it is by far the most functional EDC Leatherman there is IMO.
 
Noticed that the spring for my scissors is broke off on my Squirt. I only noticed because I actually used the scissors this week for the first time. Oh well.

Overall, the Ps4 Squirt is quite a useful little tool.
 
This is a Sebertool M2 , if you wanna try it out just let me know and it's yours.
It's a completely different animal than your beloved leatherman squirt and I know you're downsizing lately but I figured I'd just throw the offer out there.
It's smooth , sturdy, and simple, and it's very compact.
If this is an open ended offer, I'd like to give it a try...
 
Noticed that the spring for my scissors is broke off on my Squirt. I only noticed because I actually used the scissors this week for the first time. Oh well.

Overall, the Ps4 Squirt is quite a useful little tool.

Yeah, I've had that happen. Thats one area that Leatherman should copy Victorinox, a scissor spring that can be owner replaced and a cheap repair. Apparently there is a design flaw with the Leatherman scissors spring, and they need to address it. They have a reputation of breaking. The scissors are the one tool I don't use all that often as my Victorinox executive in my cutting tool and the Vic scissors are way superior to the Leatherman.
 
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