What's in my bag | Sam's Shop Tools

Sam's Shop Tools

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I carry a medium tactical backpack everywhere I go. My family calls it my man purse, and they aren't wrong. It holds a small, deliberate set of tools that has gotten me out of more scrapes than I can count, usually nowhere near a shop.

I've leveled a wobbly table at a restaurant to help out a waiter, and re-hung a patio gate that was sagging off its hinges on a wrought-iron fence, with nothing but what rides in this bag. None of it is filler. Every piece earned its spot by being the thing I actually reached for when something broke.

This is that kit. I'm adding the rest of it here piece by piece.

In the bag

The subset I actually carry. Each piece links to where I get it. More going in as I document the rest.

Knipex

Knipex Mini Pliers Belt Pouch Set (Pliers Wrench + Cobra)

The pocket-size Pliers Wrench and Cobra I carry literally everywhere.

This is the pocket-size version of the two tools above: a 6 inch Pliers Wrench and a 5 inch Cobra, in a polyester belt pouch. It goes with me literally everywhere. Together with a few other tools we’ll get to, it makes an on-the-go kit small enough to carry every day and far more capable than its size lets on.

It has gotten me out of a lot of scrapes. I’ve leveled a wobbly table at a restaurant to help out a waiter, and re-hung a patio gate that was falling off its hinges on a wrought-iron fence, both with nothing but what was in this pouch. If you want one thing off this page to start with, and you want it on you when something breaks, this is it.

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