Some multi-tools have half a dozen functions. Others have a dozen or more. Then, there are those that go all balls to the wall and throw everything they can inside the frame. Despite the many functions in contemporary multi-tools, the reality is most people use the knife a lot, the screwdriver a few times, and everything else in sporadic occasions. That’s why for the Gerber Armbar Slim Drive, the outfit decided to narrow its function set to just the basics.
A minimalist multi-tool, it houses just a blade, a screwdriver, and a bottle opener, making it the perfect EDC tool for folks who just need the bare minimum. After all, there’s no point carrying a thick and heavy multi-tool when all you really use are those three things, allowing you to free up precious pocket space while still having access to your most utilized functions.
The Gerber Armbar Slim Drive is a compact multi-tool that comes in a body barely thicker than a pen, allowing you to tuck it inside any pocket, whether on your pants, your shirt, or the backpack carrying all your gear. It measures 3.8 inches with all the tools folded, so it looks a lot like a pen, making it a lot more convenient to bring along compared to your typical multi-tool, while still having a fairly substantial handle that you can grip during use, giving you plenty of leverage for cutting, driving, and prying actions alike.
The plain edge blade measures 2.5 inches long, so there’s a pretty long cutting edge that you can use to slice, cut, and shave a variety of items. It has a frame lock, too, so the darn thing will hold steadfast even when cutting through harder and tougher objects, so you don’t have to worry about the knife accidentally closing in the middle of a job. With the blade deployed, the whole thing measures 6.75 inches, so it feels a lot like a real knife rather than a compact multi-tool.
The Gerber Armbar Slim Drive also has a two-inch bit driver that folds out of the frame, allowing you to tighten and loosen a variety of screws using standard bits. It comes with a two-sided bit (Phillips and flathead) that can store right on the frame, by the way, so you can use the driver even when you don’t have your own driving bits at home. At the rear end of the frame sits an exposed bottle opener that you can use to crack open sodas, suds, and whatever other beverage you want to enjoy at the end of a long day.
It comes with large tool tabs and access points for each of the functions, making it easy to deploy either the blade or the bit driver using nothing but a thumb. There’s also a ring at the end that, the outfit says, you can use it to integrate it into your keychain, although it appears a fair bit bigger than your standard keychain multi-tool.
The Gerber Armbar Slim Drive is available now, priced at $32.