Gear

Spring assisted pliers? I've not seen these in multitools, mind you, I've not seen SAK multitools, only older leatherman and gerber ones.

Gerber is another good maker of multitools

If you really want to saw stuff I'd think about a bahco laplander. They're light and really rip through wood, much better than little saws on penknives.

I've found that if I'm wanting to saw through deadwood, it's just easier to snap the sort of size a penknife saw blade can comfortably tackle. Anything of a decent diameter needs something better.

If you get the laplander then your choice of penknives gets wider and lighter. I use a Swiss Army knife Climber. Check out their tool finder page .

Cheers.

Leatherman Super Tool, no question.

A spring is something which can fail, perhaps it's better not to bother with such a feature.

I had a Gerber but found the bottle opener to be poor.

The more stuff you have the more unwieldy it becomes.

I used to have a SAK with a saw blade, and it was used once in ~10 years (a yacht my family had hired had a swim ladder with rungs that were uncomfortable in bare feet, so my uncle took a wooden chair from a rubbish dump and turned the seat in to better rungs with said SAK, lacking any better tool).  If you're going to want a saw, take a proper saw.  And if you're not planning on using a saw you're unlikley to need one on an off-chance.

My original one was stolen in a burglary and its replacement didn't have a saw.  That's 14 years almost to the day now, and I've not ever missed it.  The one I have now is the "Mountaineer" model and I use pretty much everything on it.  But the main thing about SAKs is they're very good steel and hold an edge for a long time, and sharpen easily if they do lose it.

I have a Leatherman too, which is good in its way but its heavy and more of a faff to get what you want out, so it tends to just go in the bike or boat repair kit on tour and not much else besides.  It's a kitchen-sink-and-all model and that adds significantly to the weight, which is what gets it left at home more often.

I did win the top of the line SAK in a letter-of-the-month thing a few years ago, but it was about an inch thick!  I sold it on to a colleague who'd lost one for £20, so we were both happy with the outcome.

In other words, think hard about the saw blade, and consider the utility of a separate saw when you actually need a saw.  The sort of thing the SAK blade goes through is stuff you can break easily enough anyway if precision isn't required, and if precision is required a dedicated tool will do it better.   Aside from that the thingsyou want are there  on a SAK and they work well.  If you do go for pliers then multi-tool ones are better than SAK ones.

Pete.

7 day shop have SAKs as good prices at the moment:

 http://www.7dayshop.com/catalog/default.php?type=0&man=0&filterwords=Victorinox&filterwordsalldb=1&filterwordsdescs=1&go.x=20&go.y=18&comp=

Victorinox Huntsman is a great choice.

For a tool with spring loaded pliers, Leatherman have just released their Sidekick tool. Please note - this tool has a  locking knife blade.

Gerber Suspension may work for you. I like mine. That said, I carry the Victorinox Waiter knife and Laplander saw combo for wild camping.

I am, however, finding wild camping, especially with a fire, more difficult in the UK than it is in the part of the US where I grew up. I was lucky enough to have the Great Smoky Mountains National Park within a 20 minute drive, and all the backcountry camp sites have a stone fire circle and you're allowed to use dead/fallen wood for fires. Not much dead wood lying around in England and Wales, and keeping yourself well hidden doesn't allow for a fire. None of that's a big deal for me, though. I don't mind not having a fire.

-Andy