Rolson 36010 10-in-1 Mini Multi-Tool

Ideal for a ladies handbag. Didn't check the size when bought. Tiny but still handy and useful.

Swiss Army Pliers. Tiny when folded. Very handy.

This little tool is so useful for many little jobs around the house or for keeping in the car. Just have to stop my husband from pinching it!

Already had one, it was stolen with my bike. Really like it, compact dies everything I need it for, well made.

This tool is is the minature version of what you can buy at Argos for instance. In the picture it looks the same. But you get an unpleasant shock when you receive it . Returned mine.

To begin, I would say that the build quality of this little Rolson tool is surprisingly good for the money. I'm just starting to ride a bike again after 20 years of fat lazy car addiction and I'm putting a cycle tool kit together, so I purchased this multi tool partly on the strength of the praise Rolson multi tools have received for the built-in pliers. I needed a small pair to carry with me for tightening cables and other emergency measures far from home so my reasoning was that, as it's not much dearer or bulkier than a pair of pliers alone, I may as well get this multi tool and have the knife and other built-in gadgets as well. After all, even if I don't use any of them it can't hurt to have them.Well, for the most part, so far so good. This little multi tool is better than you might expect at this price point and the pliers are indeed the star of the show, so I'll spend a moment expounding. Unlike with other cheaper pliers I've owned - and some of them weren't all that cheap! - the jaws on this little Rolson pair close almost perfectly flush together. My eyesight is no longer up to the job of micro scrutiny but it appears that even the tiny serrations cut into the gripping surfaces actually 'dovetail' together which really enhances effectiveness. The sprung opening action is very useful and grip is reasonably comfy in the hand. They feel strong; you can apply quite a lot of pressure without feeling that anything is about to 'snap', although as someone else suggested, I wouldn't use them to try to wrench out a rusty bolt - there are limits. And speaking of limits, the jaws open to a maximum 16mm. Doubtful if that will ever cause any frustrated cursing but worth noting.Similarly impressive - at first - is the wire cutter portion of the pliers. The little cutting blades are slightly offset so that they have an overlapping 'scissor' action helping them to slice through wire, rather than just biting down on it and relying on the brute strength of the user, like so many other budget cutters do. These cutters slice cleanly through 1.5mm galvanized wire with ease, but.. At some point during my testing of them, I must have tried them on something that they didn't like because the little cutting edges now have a couple of tiny kinks in them. I'm not sure at what point this happened, and they still cut ok, but I guess they're not as tempered as a more expensive tool would be. Not surprising at this price, but a bit of a shame nonetheless. Still, I bought this gadget for mainly emergency use and it looks like that's what I'll be keeping it for from now on. I think it's important to test a tool before you need to rely on it for a roadside repair, but not to destruction! I'm confident that these pliers will grip if I need them to; until then, they'll stay mainly in the tool bag.If you're wondering why I've only awarded 3 stars it's largely because of the other tools. To start with, the can opener is - frankly - pants, at least on my sample. On the plus side, the tip is sharp and pierces easily, the tool stays open in use and there is commendably little lateral waggle; it opens out smoothly without any sloppiness and the whole thing, at first, feels reassuringly solid and well made. Sounds good, doesn't it? BUT..! this feeling only lasts until you atart to open your tin. (Warning: DON'T attempt to use this opener on a can of anything tomatoey while wearing a white shirt!!)The problem is that the opener's undertooth - the little hook shaped bit that's supposed to 'bite' into the underside of the rim while you lever the cutting point down and forward through the lid's circumference - simply won't grip the underside of the tin's rim. It's hard to say or indeed see why this happens, but every time you try to apply any pressure it (the undertooth/ claw) just slips off. This is all the more frustrating because, as I say, in all other ways this can opener tool feels so well made and this glaring fault is so damned unnecessary! To be fair, this style of can opener is never exactly a joy to use; even on my old (now sadly lost) £35+ Victorinox Swiss knife the operation took a while, but I used it a lot and it always did the job.There's a glimmer of good news though in that I've found a way to get the Rolson's tin opener to work, after a fashion. What I had to do was alter the angle so that the piercing point was aimed much more towards the middle of the lid, using it more like a punch than a cutter. This way the underclaw can - just - get a grip on the underside of the rim. Making a patient series of individual piercings all the way around he lid a couple of millimetres apart it was then possible to join these up by tearing through the remaining 'dividers' that were left between cuts in the lid. Bit hard to explain, but if you've ever tried to cut a (very) rough circle in a piece of wood by drilling a series of holes and then using the drill bit as a saw to join the holes up you'll have an idea. The point is that you can make this thing work in an emergency but not by using it the way it's meant to be.My next disappointment is the saw. It's just 3.5cm long and not very sharp. I tried it on a piece of dry, lightweight softwood and it was a real struggle; 1/4" of cutting progress took 2 minutes before I gave up. Hard to imagine even finding a use for it, much less visualizing an emergency where it might save the day. In this respect a hacksaw blade/metal file would be potentially far more useful.Next the screwdrivers. They seem ok but at least one of them is a waste of space. I refer to either of the two 'dedicated' flat bits, i.e. the two blades that do nothing else (and the fact that neither of them has another built-in function is in itself a wasted opportunity). The 'big' flattie has a 4mm tip which is fine, but this tip could easily have been placed at the end of the saw with almost no penalty in functionality. It could also have gone on the end of the nailfile, but more on that in a minute. There is also a 3mm flat screwdriver bit on the tip of the bottle opener. This works well; do we really need both? Then there is the tiny flattie which seems to work well enough but - and this is my real point here - this makes a total of 3 flat bladed screwdrivers and there is only one Phillips. This is nominally a no.1 size, and IMO one of the flat blades could far more usefully be replaced with a Phillips no.2, the commonest screw head in the UK. And even on its own terms the included Phillips isn't great; the metal, after one use, shows signs of 'rounding off', and the grooves are too shallow to be truly effective at gripping.What else? Well, with space and weight at a premium a well designed can opener can easily double as a bottle opener so that the latter could be replaced with something more useful (like a Phillips no.2 screwdriver, for a start). The nailfile with it's nail cleaning tool on the end is almost an insult on an emergency type multi tool. Maybe on a beauticians multi tool, but if your car/ bike breaks down are you really going to give yourself a manicure before setting off again? Ok, maybe this comes down to personal preference, but to me the inclusion of this tool is just silly.And there are numerous little touches that could have been thought through better, such as the inclusion of two wire stripper notches near the base of both the bottle opener and the can opener. Why make both wire strippers the EXACT same size? Why not think "Hmm, this is a good idea, so lets have one slightly bigger..". And again, even on their own terms, these wire stripping notches are not as effective as they might be due to being too shallow and too rounded to get a good grip. Yes, I know this is a budget tool, but if they're going to provide these functions there's no reason not to think them through.Sorry for the long review; it got away from me a bit.. To sum up: given the huge price difference between this tool and the top brands like Leatherman and co. this is still a reasonable buy, but if I'd had the chance to try it out first I honestly don't think I would have purchased. Yes, the pliers are pretty good, and yes, the whole tool isn't bad for the price, but with just a bit more thought and attention to detail it could have been so much better, and would then have been worth twice the price. Why is there no middle ground with products any more? Either ridiculously expensive or so cheap that the manufacturers have to cut corners..Having looked closely at the pictures and descriptions, I'm fairly confident that this item is more or less the same as this one: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B001B4PIMO/ref=cm_cr_rev_prod_title. The individual tools seem to be arranged slightly differently but I would expect them to be of identical quality.

Disappointed to find this was the mini version -looks the same in the picture as the full size version.