Gear Reviews: Backpack

Juice S2

Manufacturer: Leatherman

Reviewed by: MotherNaturesSon

After despairing at the ineffectiveness, superfluity and bulk of other multitools and conventional pocketknives I've seen, I went on an internet reconnaissance mission to find the best one out there. The main problem with most pocket knives these days seems to be Inspector Gadget syndrome. The "Mountaineer" Victorinox pocket knife boasts 18 different tools, but I can't remember the last time I used a metal file, reamer/punch or nail cleaner while mountaineering, and what exactly is a "multi-purpose hook"? I appreciate that many hikers enjoy a glass of wine at camp, but it's almost always more practical to have it in a container other than the classical glass bottle, so is a too-short corkscrew really useful? The same goes for a bottle opener, and I can't imagine anyone using the tiny, apparently ornamental nail file found on practically every knife in production these days. I therefore set out to find a multitool that combined practicality and simplicity, going over every model supplied by every major manufacturer. What I found was the Leatherman Juice S2. Leatherman has been promoting their Skeletool recently, and for good reason; it's a very elegant example of form following function. That being said, it's a rather incongruous set of tools, and maybe a little too bare-bones for a lot of tasks. Pliers, a blade and screw-drivers are plenty useful for tasks around the house, but if that's all you're using it for, why go ultralight? And if you're using it for backpacking, what's the point of having every screw-driver bit available but no can-opener? And are partially-serrated blades useful for anything? Anything at all? By that measure, the Juice S2 is an electric-orange gem. It has a blade, the signature Leatherman pliers, a pair of remarkably sturdy scissors that, in addition to their infinite other uses, beat out any file for nail-care, a surprisingly useful set of compact screw-drivers, and, perhaps most ingeniously, a hybrid can/bottle opener. It's annoyed me for years that these two tools which are essentially the same shape have been consistently and redundantly been included separately on other tools. What really struck me about this particular knife is how versatile it is. It's been used to cut out news-paper articles for homework assignments, open cans of delicious salmon miles out into the wilderness, install Hello Kitty cell-phone charms (not by me I swear), cut back painful toenails on a switchback-filled hike in Yosemite, preform exploratory surgery on an X-Box 360, repair a sawmill, open bottles of Coca-Cola from Mexico (where they still make them with classical metal caps), fix an external DVD drive, and countless other small but vital tasks, backpacking-related or not. At first I was turned off by it's garishly orange shell, but it prevents it from getting lost quite nicely. It's not as stripped down, weight wise as the Skeletool, what with it's beveled pliers, but it actually weighs less, being smaller and more compact. Its size may be its only slight defect; Ka-Bar types may not find the blade to be long enough, and there's definitely some difficulty involved with getting peanut butter out of the jar, but it still gets my vote as the best all-around knife on the market today. I would also recommend getting the available lexan belt clip from their website; it holds onto both the knife and your belt with a tenacity rarely seen outside rigor-mortis victims, while still relinquishing it willingly when you need it. It makes a handy berth for the slippery little knife, which is always trying to escape your pockets. P.S.: I know this is listed as a backpack, but there doesn't seem to be an option for "knife".