June 2009
Best Tool in Peru
I bought my Leatherman Wave as a 6th grade Boy Scout with money that I had saved from cutting lawns. I am 19 years old now preparing to start my sophomore year in college in the fall as an Aerospace Engineering major.
Looking back, the Leatherman Wave was one of the best purchases I have ever made. The tool still works like new and has been extremely useful on camp-outs, repair projects, and in countless other situations.
My Tool Tale is from a recent engineering project in a remote part of the Peruvian Andes:
I was part of a team from the University of Maryland chapter of Engineers Without Borders that designed and recently implemented a water chlorination system in Compone, Peru, a town of 1,500. Our project included building and installing chlorine dowsers in each of the town's five water districts as well as constructing a 20,000 L (5,300 gallon) water tank in one of the districts.
Although we brought down a lot of specialized tools and equipment, there were multiple times during the three week project when my Leatherman Wave was the best tool suited for the job.
For example, there was a day when I was far up the hill (the Andean region of Peru is very hilly) from the tank construction site working on the chlorine dowsers. Somebody came all the way up the hill from the construction site just to use the saw blade on my Leatherman because it was the only tool around that would cut the pipe that they needed.
My Leatherman kept us nourished as well. Without the can opener on my Leatherman, there would have been days where our lunch of crackers and sardines would have been only a lunch of crackers.
One new use that I had for the tool was for personal hygiene. There were no showers where we stayed and cleanliness was not a priority. However, I was able to scrape some of the dirt and concrete from under my fingernails and keep them trimmed using the screwdriver, scissors, and file.
Since day one of the project, my Leatherman became known throughout my team for being extremely useful and versatile. I used it almost non-stop during the project (I say "almost" because my teammates borrowed my Leatherman a lot). To be honest, I was surprised nobody else owned one. Something tells me that in the future this will not be the case because everybody saw the usefulness of Leatherman tools.
My team members were not the only people who liked the Leatherman. The locals who were helping us were also intrigued with the multi-tool and how useful it was. They were most impressed when I told them how old the tool was.
So, thank you Leatherman for making such great tools. Your tool not only helped me and my teammates, but also the 1,500 people for whom we were working so that they could have clean drinking water for the first time.
Many Thanks,
A. L.
Silver Spring, MD
P.S. - I bought my dad a new Wave last year and he uses it all the time when working in the yard.
OK, you voyeur, you. Enough of reading other people's stories. It's time you told your own tale of gripping heroism or even just neat DIY'ism. We know there's a Shakespeare in you somewhere. Don't make us use the Steens to find it.