Just broke my Gerber Prybrid utility knife from use, but hadn’t used the prybar once. Wondering what you all use your mini prybars for!
When I was a kid I cut myself on one of those peel-up cat food can lids, so badly I saw my own bones for a moment.
Ever since then I’ve preferred to use a tool for opening those cans, if only out of paranoia.
You mean those can with pull-up tab? How could that cut you so bad?
Skill issue
I have yet to see a context in which this is a kind or helpful thing to say.
This particular brand used a very stiff lid. It always came off bent instead of curled because of how unnecessarily heavy it was.
I admit it was a freak accident and the odds it could ever happen again are near nil, but I still have the scar, physical and otherwise.
It’s a glorified doorjam. I’ve used them for some slight metal tweaking on roll up doors etc.
To pry things that don’t require the leverage of a full-sized or extra long prybar. Or self-defense. Or to open a bottle. Technically, the bottle opener on my keychain is just a very small prybar. I’ve used it for actually prying small electronics apart since I don’t have one of those kind of spreader/spatula things made for that.
If you work construction there’s a similar thing for pulling nails that you absolutely need.
They’re made for removing finishing/brad nails.
To say they have one. Actually I think I may have used mine to pry a soft drink tab up as I had no nails.
I have a Gerber shard and I don’t think I’ve ever used the prybar on it. I’ve used the bottle opener a ton and to a lesser extent the two screwdriver ends.
I use mine exclusively for its prybar but it’s hardly my EDC. It’s handy around the house for the jobs not requiring anything bigger. If I’m caught unprepared in urgent need of a prybar of all things, I already must have screwed up in an amazing manner.
I have found the usual small prybars useful, but I have since discovered variants like this:
It provides a much better grip and the curve give it a lot more leverage. I’ve been surprised at how much more effective it is than straight bars of a similar size. (This one was made by Teale Designs on Etsy.)
I have a little pry tool keychain thing. It has a bottle opener and flat head on it. The pry bar bit can also act like a big flat head for things that have a coin slot meant to tighten or open it. It’s not meant for nails or opening wooden crates.
Really it’s useful for any poking of prying that you shouldn’t be using a knife for but have a strange urge to. Also a package opener if people around are nervous about knives. The utility knife thing with a bit of crowbar glued to it probably doesn’t comfort others as it looks like how someone would design a tactical box cutter.
Any weird little prying/scraping/poking jobs I don’t want to use my knife blade for either for fear of damage my knife or the surface of whatever I’m poking at.
It’s opened some paint cans, pulled a few nails, probably the best use though was when I needed to pop open the dome light in my wife’s car to replace the bulb, didn’t really want to be stabbing at the headliner with a sharp knife
It’s not an everyday use thing, but I find enough excuses to use it that I don’t regret it.
I don’t EDC a knife. I use my countycomm mini pry bar almost daily to:
- pull out staples from documents
- pull out metal shavings from shoes
- open packages
Surprisingly useful but I did initially buy it as a joke. Mine is literally a tiny crowbar looking thing and I thought it was funny.
I got impulsive one day and decided that I absolutely just had to pull the old nasty carpet off my basement stairs. Since this was spur of the moment I decided to use what I had on me, which included my small pry bar.
It worked well on loosening the wooden strips that held the carpet as well as some random staples that were there for…some reason.
I’ve found a few scenarios where I can use it, even if it’s just prying something open and I don’t feel like marring my pocket knife. While I don’t have a specific use case for my pry bar or half my tools for that matter but it’s always nice to have the bar just in case.
To take out mini head crabs. - Doctor Freeman
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