Ideally, items that you carry with you every day will be light and compact, and the new Prylobite from North Carolina's Pangea Designs certainly ticks those boxes. The small steel blade weighs no more than a handful of coins and packs up neatly thanks to a friction folding design, which incorporates a couple of handy innovations to take this utensil into multi-tool territory.
The Prylobite is rooted in the simple and traditional friction folder knife design, which does away with springs and locking mechanisms and relies on friction within the pivot mechanism to hold the blade in place. These kinds of knives can typically be swiveled between open and closed positions with a single hand via an extension on the back of the blade known as a tang, and Pangea Designs has seen fit to equip this part of the device with a few of extra functions.
One of these is exactly what you can expect from a multi-tool in 2019 – a tiny bottle opener claw for popping bottles. But flip that opener 90 degrees and you have yourself a miniature pry bar, which could prove useful for opening a tin of paint, for example.
Within that extension a quarter-inch wrench can also be found to tackle nuts of the appropriate size, or for better purchase on a hex driver bit. When not in use, this also allows the Prylobite to be attached to belt loops or a pocket's edge, with a suspension clip enabling keys to also be attached and dangle below. Conveniently, the attachment point for this suspension clip also locks the blade away in the closed position when you're on the move.
All up, the Prylobite measures 9.9 cm (3.9 in) when open and weighs in at 23 g (0.81 oz), around the same as four US quarters.
Its makers have taken the tool to Kickstarter to raise funds for production, where pledges begin at US$99 for a single Prylobite. If the campaign runs as planned, they hope to begin shipping in July this year.
You can check out the team's pitch video below.
Source: Pangea Designs
