The Leatherman - Part One
June 27, 2008
It’s still easy to recall the first time I laid eyes on it.
It happened one morning about 25 years ago while I was on the Columbia River fishing for walleye. The guide I was with had a tool of some kind hung on his belt. I hadn’t seen anything quite like it.
“What’s that thing you’re carrying on your belt?” I asked. “I notice you’ve used it three or four times this morning. It seems to have pliers as well as a knife blade.”
“It’s called a Leatherman Tool,” the guide replied.
“Well you must like it or you wouldn’t be wearing the darn thing,” I said, “have you found it useful?”
I’ve never forgotten his answer. “Stan,” he said, “this tool has bailed me out of trouble on more than one occasion. I’m lost without it.”
That guide was a friend and I had a high regard for his fishing skills and knowledge of the outdoors in general. He was as skilled a hunter as he was an angler. I purchased one of my own Leatherman Tools as soon as I got home from that fishing trip. I don’t think I’ve been on the water without one since.
It turned out to be one of the handiest tools I’ve ever hung on a belt, poked in a pocket or stuck in my tackle box. You don’t have to tell anyone who has used one much just how handy it is. Mine goes fishing every time I do, but that’s not all. It’s also on my belt every time I pull on a pair of work jeans. I don’t how many steps it has saved me one way or another. Be assured it has been a bunch.
There have been plenty of occasions, as the makers of this fine tool will tell you, where the Leatherman has prevented serious injury or even death. Over the years I’ve had a chance to read about some of them. Let me share some of them with you.
Consider, for example, the scuba diver who was exploring an underwater wreck in Mexico. Somehow he managed to stick a marlin hook that was embedded in his dive boat’s mooring line into his palm. He used his Leatherman wire cutters to cut the hook and free himself. Then he used the tool’s pliers to remove the remainder of the hook from the mooring line before ascending to the surface. When he did surface he was able to again use his Leatherman’s pliers again to get the marlin hook out of his palm.
Then there was a Florida firefighter. He arrived at an accident scene to find a vehicle upside down in 12-feet of water. A passenger was still in the car. The firefighter went down, broke a window of the car and cut the victim free of her seat belt with the knife blade of his Leatherman tool.
In Tennessee a police officer spotted a shooting suspect passed out in an abandoned school bus. The bus door was jammed shut and couldn’t be opened. The officer used his Leatherman tool to remove a window directly above the suspect. Then he reached in and grabbed the man’s gun. The suspect surrendered.
When a recreational boater’s craft started heading for parts unknown, he discovered that a humpback whale had tangled in his boat’s anchor line. The boater managed to use his Leatherman tool’s blade to cut the anchor line before the whale dragged the boat down.
You can bet the people aboard a Caribbean cruise ship’s open launch were glad someone on board had a Leatherman. The engine of the launch went dead about 200-feet from shore. One of the passengers’s Leatherman tool was used to disassemble and repair the craft’s fuel pump. It’s my understanding the owner of that particular Leatherman didn’t pay for another drink the rest of the trip.
Finally, there was the Alaskan pilot who used his Leatherman to avoid a crash landing. He used the tool to open his instrument panel. When he did he located a broken cable that was keeping his landing gear from engaging properly. While his co-pilot flew the plane, the pilot tugged on the cable with his Leatherman Tool’s pliers until the landing gear descended and locked into position.
You could probably fill a book with stories similar to what you’ve just read. It is experiences like these that have made the Leatherman so popular among the world’s outdoorsmen. 
Like I said, I’ve been using a Leatherman of one kind or another ever since my guide friend showed me his while were out walleye fishing decades ago. It was the full sized tool that first got my attention. Today I also always carry a little Leatherman called the Micra in a pocket regardless of what trousers I have on or what I’m doing. The little one has a nifty pair of scissors. Among other things they will snip those new hard to cut braided lines in half a heartbeat.
Sometimes, depending on the fishing I’m doing, I hang one of the Leatherman Micras from the front of my fishing vest. It’s forever coming in handy for one job or another.
There have been a number of new Leatherman introductions since I got my first one. And what brings all this to mind is the newest one that was just introduced this year.
The newest Leatherman is called a Skeletool. I think fishermen will find it of special interest. This new addition to the Leatherman line has already been named winner of the best 2008 new tool category in a couple of national magazines.
My guess is you’re going to find the Skeletool just as useful as the other quality tools have been in the past. I know I have. I’ll provide all the details on the newest addition to the Leatherman line up in my next “Pick of the Products” column.
-To Be Continued-