The beauty of these tools is they feel like a fetish item in your hand and, due to their size, you can always have them with you. They're handmade by Peter Atwood and have incredible strength because he uses a specialty stainless steel made via a powder metallurgy process ("The powder is compressed under significant force to a homogenous, solid state and the steel is rolled to required stock size. Molecules are uniform, inclusions of impurities are insignificant").

Both of my EDC knives -- a Swiss Army Cybertool and a SOG Multi Tool -- have slightly bent tips on the main blades because I tried to open or pry something I shouldn't have. That will never happen with the Mini Son of Prything I carry in my pocket or my Prybaby. The trend in tools is to include more and more features. An Atwood piece - and there are a variety of them worth checking out -- is generally designed to do a couple of things really well, and it does: open a package, pull a nail, cut some tape, strip a wire, etc. There are obviously other discovered tasks -- like propping up a new power supply in my computer while I get a couple of screws in -- but it's calling on that intended purpose that is most gratifying.

-- Greg Needham

Atwood Mini Tools
$35+
Available from Atwood Knife & Tools