Lionsteel, a European knifemaker, recently announced the EGGIE, a multi-tool that can be carried in your pocket or on a keyring.
The Lionsteel Eggie multi-tool, a collaboration between the knifemaker and “Audacious Concept Design,” is made out of titanium and is fitted with 6 tools and screwdriver bits, plus a magnetic bit holder at the center.
The top cover unscrews to reveal the built-in bit storage slots.
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Unsurprisingly, given Lionsteel’s core competencies, the tool comes with a small knife blade.
The bit loadout includes the knife blade, a slotted screwdriver bit, four sizes of Torx driver bits, and a tungsten carbide tip.
The slotted screwdriver bit is double-ended, sharing its opposite end with a Torx bit tip. So, in total there are two tools (knife, carbide-tipped point), and five screwdriver bit styles and sizes, plus the fixed bit holder.
Lionsteel says that the bits are made from stainless steel.
The included bits look to have a proprietary design, but hopefully the hex bit holder can accommodate industry-standard screwdriver bits and accessories. Lionsteel has not been clear on this.
There will be 3 color options – blue, grey, and bronze – presumably all anodized titanium. Each comes with a small titanium carabiner and what looks to be a keyring swivel.
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Lionsteel Eggie Specs
- 1.93″ (49 mm) length
- 0.96″ (24.4 mm) diameter
- Weighs 2.42 oz (69 g)
- Materials: titanium (holder/handle), A-420 steel (bits/inserts)
Pricing and availability information is not available yet.
Discussion
Torx screwdriver bit tips are common when talking about knifemaker pocket tools and multi-tools, but what about the slotted screwdriver? I assume the carbide tip is intended for emergency glass-breaking applications, and the knife blade is self-explanatory.
The egg-shaped handle looks to be compact, and with a nearly 1-inch diameter, it’s about the same size as many finger-grip screwdrivers.
This looks to be an interesting multi-tool. I’m not completely sold on the aesthetics, but I’m also not turned away by it.
I would expect for Lionsteel to make this in Italy, where they are headquartered.
Seeing as the main part of the tool and carabiner clip are made from anodized titanium, and the bits are all custom-designed and machined from stainless steel, expect a premium price.
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Chris
Why make one bit double sided but not the rest?
Stuart
Probably to help manage costs. Or, maybe it was mostly designed, and then they decided to add a slotted screwdriver bit tip, the glass-breaker, or knife blade, and making one bit double-ended was the easiest way to accommodate one more function.
MM
That was my first thought too! There’s no reason there couldn’t be some additional tools added that way. I doubt cost was much of a factor. Modern CNC machinery could spit out double-ended bits for hardly any cost increase over single-ended. And given the choice of stainless for the tools and titanium for the body I don’t think that they were aiming for a cheap price point.
I like the knife blade idea though, that’s brilliant. The carbide tip is interesting, though I’d rather have a more pointed shape so it could be used as a scribe or awl.
Eric
I could see myself being tempted if it had another flat head and a couple of phillips head bits. It’s pretty rare that I find myself wanting to drive torx screws by hand, especially at low enough torque that I would use something like this.
N. Berg
I had heard about this already because it won the “Accessory of the Year” award at Bladeshow recently. I’m really curious why they included 4 sizes of Torx. I assume its intended for the common sizes found on knives, but I’ve disassembled dozens of knives and I’ve only ever come across T6, T8, and T10. Lionsteel’s Facebook page says it includes those three and a T15, but I can’t think of any good reason why, especially since it means one bit has to be double sided.
Tim D.
I assume they correspond to bits used by Lionsteel knives. Like you said, t6-10 are quite common in knives. Perhaps some of their knives use a t15 for larger screws, maybe pivots?
It was commented earlier as well, but its strange that they seem to have only made a single double sided bit? Why not go ahead and throw a phillips on the other end of another, even if your knife doesn’t use it? Or additional bit options, like hex (also commonly used in knives).
MM
While looking for something totally different I randomly happened across some Lionsteel fixed-blade knives yesterday and those appear to use at least T15 screws for the handle scales. Lionsteel also seems to act as an OEM for other brands. Apparently they made a lot of folders for Bastinelli (among others). I’m sure there’s a T15 in there somewhere.
Matt the Hoople
Where’s the bottle opener feature? I thought everything had to have a bottle opener these days.
SmartASS
It’s there, just in a different format…
Glass breaker.
Spencer Dunn
More gimmick junk
Ed Aguirre
Where can I order? Try tried several ways but cannot find where to order multitool keychain
Stuart
I don’t believe it’s available yet.
Jared
I don’t think this one is for me. It seems 90% similar to a stubby Picquic.
It’s definitely not the same, with its blade and bit load out, but I might actually get more use from the Picquic.
Carl
Kinda neat, but I don’t even want to guess at the price.
Nathan
400 dollar price tag if that’s really going to be milled out of TI. maybe more.
Stuart
I’d bet under $100.
It’d be unsellable at $400.
Eric
They could sell at $400. Not as many as they would at $100 though. The EDC community will spend ridiculous amounts of money of stuff.
Stuart
Maybe, but Lionsteel’s typical products are mid-priced.
The EDC community will indeed spent a lot on certain things, but you have to get something for the money. These would have to be flame-anodized and with a damascus-style knife blade, then maybe some would buy it at $400.
MM
Eh, this is very similar to the typical size and shape of the kind of parts my old machining business used to make. Same material as well, we did a lot of Ti work. The surface finish on these looks like they’ve been heavily tumbled, blasted, or perhaps chemically etched prior to the anodizing. That covers up a lot of sins in machining; surface finish doesn’t have to be very good, and precision isn’t all that important either since it’s just a handle with storage holes in it, nobody is going to notice if some feature is off by a few thou. If someone had a modern lathe with live tooling they could crank out handles and caps in one operation each. If they had a lathe plus a mill and cheap labor they could do nearly as good. Off the top of my head I’d probably have been able to make these for around a hundred bucks a pair if someone was ordering at least a few hundred. Someone who wasn’t paying US wages and dealing with US safety and environmental standards could get it even lower.
Yadda
The concept isn’t new, just the implementation. Before the turn of the 19th century there were wood handled “pocket tools” with exchangeable bits .
Koko The Talking Ape
I like stubby screwdrivers, and I’ve got a few stashed here and there on my bike, in the car, etc.
But I’m not going to carry this metal egg in my pocket.
Bob
I think it’s competing weight and price wise with a mini multi tool. And this doesn’t have pliers. I might like it if I got to handle one in person. And you can probably get more torque to the fastener with this than a mini multi tool. Bit knife is genius. Never seen that before. Glass breaker is redundant. Any of the tips will break glass. An awl or scribe would be more useful. Hope it accepts standard 1/4” drive bits. I hate proprietary bits. I’m talking to you leatherman!!!
Neat idea. Good to see a company trying to innovate. High quality materials too. Kinda looks like a hand grenade lol
D K H
The knife means you can’t fly with it.
Daniel L.
It bums me out to see designs like these, that get real close to being extremely useful real-world compact multitools, but yet seem to be the functional equivalent of trying to pass a car on the highway, attempting to downshift, completely missing fourth gear and instead landing in reverse.
TX 10-25, ph&pz 1&2, slotted (like, i dunno, around 4mm), hex 2.5mm, 4mm, 6mm, 1/8″, 5/32″, 1/4″. Those are the bare essentials, for me at least. Hell, add on a sq#2 to keep it all even.
Or, offload the 2.5mm, 1/8, TX10, ph&pz1 to a multi-bit precision driver. Add in 2.5mm-3.5mm slotted sizes to that one. Then throw a ph, pz, and Sq #3 on the larger driver.
What I don’t get is why so many of these go crazy with offering spanners, torque set, tri wing, etc while ignoring basic tools like what I listed. That knife in this one looks like it’s perfectly designed to slice into ya while you fiddle with the bit.