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Skeletool CX / Leatherman

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The Skeletool CX starts from a subtractive question: what can be left out? What remains is an open-frame, pliers-based tool stripped to essentials, a premium 154CM stainless blade, needle-nose pliers with wire cutters, a bit driver, and a carabiner that doubles as a bottle opener. The skeletal frame is the design, structural and visible rather than wrapped in housing, with a carbon-fibre scale on the show side. At around 142 grams it sits in a pocket rather than dragging on a belt, and the 154CM blade is good enough that the tool reads as a proper knife that happens to carry pliers, not the other way round. A spare driver bit stores in the handle. It does a handful of things well and declines to pretend it does more.

Design intent

Cutting scissors, saw and secondary tools to the bone keeps weight and bulk down and removes the hunt for the right implement; what is left is what most people actually use.
The premium 154CM blade is chosen so the knife, the most-used tool on any multi-tool, performs as a primary cutter rather than a token folding blade.

Trade-offs

Without scissors, file or saw, the Skeletool reaches its limit quickly on jobs a fuller tool would manage; the design is explicit about that bargain.
The bit driver takes Leatherman's flat proprietary bits, so standard quarter-inch hex bits need a separate adapter to use.