We ran a piece by Cowan! earlier this week on several multitools, so we thought it would be appropriate to talk about another.  We actually used this specific tool twice to “unpierce” some nipples at Nancy’s Squat ‘n’ Gobble. You’d think at their age the “girls” would know better than to use fishhooks, but what’re you gonna do? Mad Duo

Review: SOG Powerlock EOD 2.0 

Dave Merrill

I’m either the best or the worst person to review a multitool.

See, for whatever reason I ended up with many over the years. I received my very first one for my tenth birthday. It was the classic Leatherman with the leather sheath, you know, the one where if you squeeze it too hard it cuts your hands. That was my trustworthy companion for several years until someone walked off with it. I’ve never gone out of my way to purchase a multitool nor do I steal them, but for some reason they end up being gifted to me.

The reason I have so many is that they’re damned useful. While you’re not going to go through your toolbox specifically to find a multitool to use as screwdriver, having one in your pocket or on your belt prevents you from rooting through the Snap-On tool kit in the first place.

Much to my wife’s chagrin, I can barely open a drawer in the house without coming across one. I throw one in the range bag, one in the truck, another in the safe. Just before writing this I spent literally three minutes looking and found five.

Like an all-in-one printer, they usually do everything in a kind of mediocre manner, though some are more mediocre than others.

If I have one skill in the world, it’s breaking things. I’m not sure you can call that a ‘skill’ but I’ll take what I can get. Really, when I talk about my handful of multitools I should say I have several, but all with different levels of functionality. Knives break. Parts and pieces fall off. Pliers get stuck. Tools stop opening. The list goes on. Just yesterday I was at the range, pulled out a Gerber to use the screwdriver, and it snapped off in my hands. Awesome. To the trash with the empty ammo boxes it went.

A while back a package from SOG found its way to my doorstep. I hadn’t ordered anything but it had been coordinated through my boss and he forgot to tell me. I looked at it and asked myself, “What new wonder will this be?”

I grabbed a multitool to open the box. It was one that I was issued more than a decade ago and still haven’t managed to break. The hinge mechanism still felt new and it opened like butter; likely because it was previously in the bottom of my gun parts box and some lubricant got into it. I’m all about PMCS of firearms but the sharp things invariably get neglected.

When the contents of the box were revealed I grinned, not because it was a SEAL Pup in purple Kryptek (oh god, who wouldn’t grin at how silly that would be?) but because I just opened up a brand new multitool that was visually the same as the one I was holding, but in black.

It turns out that it wasn’t exactly the same. Some of the contents of the handles were different. The new SOG was the Powerblock EOD 2.0 Scissors. It’s an all steel construction, completely coated in black oxide (who doesn’t like murdered out tools?), and aside from the normal array of tools (knives, screwdrivers etc) it has a 1/4” power driver and, you guessed it: scissors.

I’m not going to cover all of the tools it includes, as that information is both boring and readily available. It also came with a case, which I immediately lost. No big deal there, as it wasn’t anything to write home about and multitools fit perfectly in spare pistol pouches.

I was fairly certain I was going to like it for several reasons:

-The precise leverage you can get from the Powerlock mechanism

-Rolled covers so you don’t rip yourself open when applying force

-Replaceable tools are available for when you inevitably break one

-I’ve used a similar model for over a decade without breaking it (something no other tool has yet to accomplish)

And I wasn’t wrong.

Alright, so it isn’t sexy and it’s rarely the best tool for the job — but boy can it do a lot of jobs. It’s not going to be featured in the next Expendables as the real ultimate death weapon but for everything from carving pumpkins (done that), cleaning fingernails (done that), pulling seized bolts from steel targets (done that), eating a meal in the field (done that), and general cutting it works.

If you want an awesome screwdriver, get a Craftsman. If you want a lot of functionality, get a multitool. If you want it to be bombproof, get a SOG.

-DFM

Mad Duo, Breach-Bang& CLEAR!

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About the Author: A combat veteran of the United States Marine Corps, Dave “Mad Duo Merrill” is a former urban warfare and foreign weapons instructor for Coalition fighting men. An occasional competitive shooter, he has a strange Kalashnikov fetish the rest of the minions try to ignore. Merrill, who has superb taste in hats, has been published in a number of places, the most awesome of which is, of course, here at Breach-Bang-Clear. He loves tacos, is kind of a dick and married way, way above his pay grade. You can contact him at Merrill(at)BreachBangClear.com and follow him on Instagram here (@dave_fm).