Re: which one? leatherman squirt scissors or pliers?

I would keep the one with scissors. I tend to use the scissors on my little knife more than I do the blade. I cannot recall ever wishing that I had pliers with me unless I was fishing. You can always pick a hot pot off a fire with a folded handkerchief.

You might ask yourself whether you need everything that comes on a multi-tool. A lot of hikers, myself included, get by with a 0.7 oz Victorinox SAK Classic (knife, scissors, file, toothpick, tweezers), or less. The Classic weighs an ounce less than the Squirt. The Squirt is cool but forces you to carry stuff that you'll likely never use in the backcountry such as screwdrivers and a bottle opener(?).

You say that you already carry a knife. You may wish to re-evaluate your knife/other-tool system. Carrying both a knife and a multi-tool means that you are carrying unnecessary and redundant weight.

I find scissors much more useful than pliers when hiking.

Pliers. I have one in my pocket now. Scissors are nice but those pliers are sharply ground and work as tweezers as well. I have both kinds and the one with pliers gets used more. I've used it as a pot holder, fixed zippers, cut wire/guitar strings, etc.

If I am "camping", I'd take the pliers.

If I am "backpacking", I'd take the scissors.

I'm a lot of help, huh.

Keep em both!

Scissors. Having occasionally carried one or the other, scissors get used 10:1, easily. I always imagine having to repair something that requires pliars and it keeps not happening. Scissors OTOH seem to have a lot of uses, and offer a certain precision that a simple blade can't match.

My $0.02

Cheers,

I have quite a few multitools and I take them out of the drawer and open em and stuff now and then, but I NEVER TAKE EM backpacking cause the only time I ever needed it was with my sled, when I needed the pliers on a clevis pin, so when I sled the pliers multi tool which weighs 7 oz, goes in the side pocket in the sled. So I guess yeh I take a 7 oz pair of pliers in my sled, why do I do that? Thats stupid. So basically I think multitools for backpacking are a waste of weight.

I have to say, relative to Pika and the tiny swiss army knife, I believe that for bping basically you only need a knife to spread mayonaise on your food, so a wide blade is better than a miniature narrow blade, so in that respect I carry a Gerber LST a 1.6 oz knife with a 2.5" long nearly 1 inch wide blade.

The actual tools that I carry are a miniature phillips and straight screw drivers and a pair of tweezers. I would rather carry specific tools than generic tools.

Oh, and a pair pf nail clippers. So I guess nail clippers are like safety scissors, and they go well with the LST.
Jim

Gee, I use my fingers for that on the rare occasions when I take mayo along; I lick them clean when finished spreading. Mayo is a necessary ingredient of a BLT sandwich and helpful on a Philly Cheese Steak sandwich: both of these are short, slow trip items. I thought everyone used their fingers to spread mayo, butter, jam and hummus; right hand for spreading and the left for nose picking etc. I may need to re-examine my manners. Right?

I've gotta agree with Jim again. (I find I'm doing that a lot - I'm OK, aren't I? )

I messed with a Leatherman micro, but I found that, like many things designed to do several jobs, it didn't do any of them well.

I've gone back to carrying a Gerber LST (the middle-sized one), a pair of folding scissors (Coghlan or REI, I forget which), a tweezers, and a nail clipper. I don't use any of them often, but when I need them, they work perfectly. They weigh an ounce or two more than the Micro, but they're pounds lighter in terms of functionality.

As far as pliers or screwdrivers, I don't carry them anymore (no clevis pins or sleds to deal with.)

I've carried a pliars, scissors, nail clippers and tweezers off and on for over 30 years. I can't recall using any of them for anything but optional fiddling.

Seems like the consensus is for scissors -- and I'd have to say I've found scissors more useful than a knife. (I can spread stuff with a spoon handle if I don't want to have the manners exhibited by some folk ).

However, on one damp and windy hypothermia-promoting day hiking across the Tonto platform in the GC one January, I was grateful to have a pliers on a no-name, fairly junky multitool (only weighs about 3 oz.). My backpack strap broke and I was not able to deal with getting a knot untied with my fingers and then threaded and re-tied to effect a repair. The needle nose pliers worked like a super-tweezer and were the only tool that could have saved the day. I don't think I could have done it even in warm weather and as it was, the wind blowing across my wet hands (couldn't do the work with gloves on) made them impossibly clumsy on their own.

The two items on my Leatherman Squirt that I use most are the pliers and the nail file. Also the tiny screwdriver to tighten the screws on my glasses. So far I've found the knife blade, small as it is, quite sufficient when I need to cut something (moleskin, duct tape, frizz sticks for fire kindling, a point on a stick to replace a lost tent stake, my fingers...).

I have found quite a bit of use for the pliers. In addition to using them as a pot lifter (I've tried the bandanna, and either it gets wet or I burn a hole in it--both in the later case), I often use them where others with more dexterity would use their fingers. I never have had a lot of strength or dexterity in my fingertips, so I find the pliers (and occasionally a screwdriver) a big help for everything from adjusting pack straps to helping with fiddly knots.

I don't use mayonnaise, even at home, but when I spread hummus or peanut butter I generally use my spoon rather than my knife. I really don't want to try licking off that sharp blade!

I really would question the need for a second knife with the Squirt!

Also where you hike matters. I've used my pliers twice to pull cactus and dagger plant spines from my shin and calf. Those spines are about 1mm thick and about an inch long. Tweezers would not have worked. Also, in my ham radio hobby, pliers are essential out in the bush.

If you want a third option, wander into a Radio Shack and check out the Leatherman Squirt they sell. It's for electronics and has a really nice tweezer built into the thing. What would normally be pliers is a combination wire stripper/plier/scissor thing. A very nice tool, and nobody talks about it.

When going for lighter weight, I'll carry a Swiss Army Classic. I've modified the scissors to cut wire by grinding a tiny notch in the blades close to the pivot point, similar to a bicycle cable cutter. That notch can be used to grip things like cactus spines in a pinch. It will cut right through a guitar string!

For super all out light weight, a single edged razor blade works fine...not much good on spines though.

I have a fairly good set of plastic tweezers in my first aid kit that I use for cactus spines; that and duct tape for the little fuzzy spines called glochids that come with prickly pear. I carry a comb and good forceps when I am out with my dog.

Around here, the ouch-champ is the so-called jumping cholla. Spines from that can easily go in a half inch and they are barbed making them a real bi+ch to pull. I once had one go through a tendon on my right hand and into the bone underneath. I couldn't move one finger until I pulled the spine that had things nailed together. Bad stuff!

I use my Victornox multitool when I take my dog into the desert. Like others have said, I use it to pull cactus from her paws. I have also used the pliers when sewing gear to repair it.

Pliers.

I've experienced the "jumping cholla's" cousin the "pencil cholla". The spines have little paper like sheaths that stay in the wound. You really have to dig those out with tweazers and irrigate, irrigate, irrigate. That's bad if you're running low on water.
But, it does have nice strawberry type fruit that you can eat if you singe off the spines.

Tango

I carry the little tiny swiss army knife with blade and scissors, and I use the scissors on every trip but I can't recall ever needing the blade. I'd go scissors instead of pliers.

scissors are probably more practical than pliers on a hike.

scissors!

I have scissors on my Victorinox (Swiss Army) knife that are really handy. I also just got a tiny multitool as a trade show freebie and it looks like a mini Leatherman with pliers. At only 2.2 oz in a nylon sheath, I'll be taking that too.

For my skis, I have another tool in case I break a binding or lose a screw.

I have never found myself needed to have a pair of scissors for something a knife couldn't do, that said, I only really use the pliers for picking stuff up off the fire and untying stubborn knots.

I would especially recommend pliers if you are doing anything other than just hiking (snowshoeing, skiing, fishing, etc.)

"I have never found myself needed to have a pair of scissors for something a knife couldn't do..."

I think this is another case of differing "style", approach, whatever, as in backpacking I've never found a use for pliers but I use the tiny scissors on my 0.8 oz pocket knife a lot more than I use the blade. The scissors allow for much more control when trimming a blister, cutting duct tape or whatever to protect the blister, trimming finger- or toenails, making gear repairs, cutting holes in a yard waste bag to make a hasty rain tunic, ... cutting anything where a higher degree of control is desired.

What I can't think of are [m]any examples of things that I'm likely to encounter where very small scissors couldn't do what a knife blade can.

I'm not saying that the pliers aren't a better choice for some people, folks who do different things in the woods or approach problems differently than I do or whatever ... just that for my personal backpacking style, very light & small scissors are the no-brainer choice.

Very true, it is a style thing. I am lazy, so I tend to smash a square peg in a round hole rather than look for the round peg...that sometimes comes back to haunt me.

Scissors for backping and I agree with an earlier post that pliers are handier for car camping but you could take both for the car camping. I have a micra with scissors. Works great.

I have the Juice and always use the scissor. I'm scared to use the pliers because I've had them slip and create some wicked blood blisters...twice.

I have a Gerber, I have tried leatherman and aslew of others. Mine may be a bit large for the ultralight fanatics, but i tell ya what it is shure handy and doesnt pinch when the pliers slip. I work construction so there is seldom a day it does not see use. Seems to be indistructable. Only time it isnt on my side is when I have to where a suit!

I'm a little concerned about the "etc."

I'd keep the pliers, as they should have a blade included if you need to cut anything.

I have the same knife, with the pliers. Carry it in your pocket and forget the case; it's 1.9 oz. lighter.

I myself use the pliers a lot. I don't have a lot of strength in my fingers, so I need the pliers for adjusting pack straps and stuff like that where a good grip on the strap end sticking out of the buckle is required. I also use the pliers as a pot lifter (after having to discard several holey bandannas after trying to use them as potholders, lol).

Some people get by with a single edge razor blade, but I'm just not that spartan. I like the file on mine (use it on my fingernails) and the itty bitty screwdriver is great for tightening up the screws on my glasses (although I'd like to have a few less of those to save weight). I use the biggest screwdriver blade to pop the rubber caps off the bladders inside my dog's older model Ruffwear Palisades pack (modeled in my avatar). I of course do use the blade when I need to cut something. It's adequate for things like frizz sticks for fire starting and gutting small fish (the kind I actually prefer as they fit in the frying pan) as well as cutting holes in moleskin or similar activity related to first aid. If I caught a ginormous fish, though, I'd be in trouble--I'd turn him loose.

This probably doesn't help your dilemma from a year ago, but leatherman has replaced the squirt P4 and S4 with the PS4, which has both a scissors and pliers.

Hope this helps those of you who insist on both (like me) or are just plain indecisive (also like me)

Needle nosed vice grip pliers. Forget the wimpy squirty juicy leatherman tool especially when your life could very likely and possibly be on the line as you are out in the woods and not at home, and thus subject to whatever random and unforseen curveball mother nature throws at you. I also carry a real knife too (Frosts Mora or this year a Gerber gator serrated), that way if I get lost and actually have to survive by slaughtering something because I ran out of gorp I can actualy impale something and not just do its nails while talking it into my CAMPFIRE...yes I said campfire (loudly too) forget that leave no trace philosophy which is not only impractical but absolutely unrealistic ta boot....I am sure mother nature can handle a controlled campfire since she has on occasion lit herself on fire and a couple of cat holes full of POOP, as the animals also seem to POOP in the forest without much trouble....so anyway this is my first post and I welcome myself