Leatherman multitools are so widely used that the brand name is often used synonymous for every multitool. Most people know models like the big Super Tool or the Wave (even when they don’t know them by name). But not so many know the more uncommon, specialized tools like the Leatherman Style PS.

There are two things special about the Style PS which distinguishes it from many other tools:

• It’s very small. So small, you would just add it to your keychain. It even comes with a carabiner to do just that.
• It doesn’t have a blade.

These two factors might make you wonder why anyone would like a multitool too small for harder work and without one of the most basic tools. It becomes clearer when you learn that the Style PS had one design goal: To make it legal to keep it on you while flying in a plane. Leatherman did a great job with that. In fact, the TSA even certified the Style PS to be legal to carry it on a plane.

The tools of the Leatherman Style PS

Despite its size it has the most useful tools you can use when travelling:

• Pliers with 3 “zones” (Pointy, regaular and wire cutter)
• Tweezers
• Nailfile
• Flat screwdriver (which has the exact size to fit into one slit of a phillips screw head)
• Scissors
• Bottle opener

This tools clearly is from the “better than nothing” and every day carry category. You wouldn’t take it with you when you expect hard work to be done (to be honest that’s no job for any sort of multitools but for specialized tools) not even when you expect the need for a multitool to arise. This is one you put in your EDC pouch or on your keychain and just keep it there for the unexpected. You might not be able to use it for breaking free from a trainwreck but it comes in handy in all sorts of situations you may encounter in your daily live.

Details about the tools

The pliers, while really small, still help a lot when it comes to pull small things like nails or staples out of something. I used it for tightening nuts on screws, too.

You can remove tweezers from the Leatherman Style PS from the body and use them as a makeshift tick remover or to pull splinters out of your fingers. They are a bit bendy but way better than nothing.

The nailfile won’t help with your manicure but it’s quite handy when you ripped of part of a finger nail or broke the nail. Of course you’re not restricted to nails but you can use it to sharpen a pencil or smoothen edges on plastic pieces. You can’t use it a as a makeshift saw because its edges are blunt.

The scissors on the Leatherman Style PS are short but quite tough. I used them for opening blister packages, cutting paper (for small notes) or even removing a broken part of a fingernail which I then smoothed out with the nailfile. The scissors are really handy for cutting band aids on the go, too. I know, you can always cut them with a knife, but the scissors give you a cleaner cut which helps with not getting stuck and pulling off the band aid.

The screwdriver sits at the top of the file just fits the most common screws. I wouldn’t recommend it for tightening long screws into big logs. But it’s very useful to open battery slots on electronic devices (the safety ones on kids toys) or to re-fasten screws on your gear like smaller folding knives.

The bottle opener opens bottles. Period. Oh yes, and it doubles as a quite big carabiner to fix the Leatherman Style PS on keyrings, zipper pulls, lanyards etc.

How I use the Leatherman Style PS

I used to carry one of those in my EDC pouch and one on my keychain. Unfortunately I just relied on it being legal on planes and both of them got confiscated at the Maldives airport. I had to learn the hard way that Maldive law say it’s illegal to carry any multitool when boarding a plane not only those with a blade. By now I have a Leatherman Style PS again and put it into my EDC pouch. I reorganized my keychain and so I don’t want a multitool there anymore.

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