tools
Spoot: Spotted Early keeps tools in one place: 10 stories so far. The section currently leads with “Nextool's new F20 multitool has three handles and a whole lot to prove”, “The Arrowmax S1 picks the bit and torque so you don't have to”, and “Home Depot Has a Gerber Multi-Tool That Costs Less Than a Good Lunch”. Nextool's new F20 has three handles. The Arrowmax S1 electric smart driver looks at the screw, identifies the bit you need, sets the torque, and then just waits for you to hold it steady. Spoot: Spotted Early New things, caught while they're still new and a little weird. Spoot finds fresh gadgets, clever inventions, crowdfunding campaigns,… The list below is every tools story on Spoot: Spotted Early, newest first.
Nextool's new F20 multitool has three handles and a whole lot to prove
Nextool's new F20 has three handles. Three. That's one more than usual, and it's not just for show, it's the company's bet that you've been carrying the wrong multitool all along. The logic is clean: big multitools are too heavy for daily pocket time, and tiny ones can't actually do a day's work. So Nextool built something that lands in the middle, a palm-sized thing that ditches the redundant implements and keeps only the ones that earn their keep. It's a Goldilocks play, and I'm here for it. Whether it delivers big-tool performance without the bulk is the question, and the spec sheet is where the razor clams hide. If you're into tools that earn their carry, you might also dig our piece on the Arrowmax S1, another tool that thinks for you.
The Arrowmax S1 picks the bit and torque so you don't have to
The Arrowmax S1 electric smart driver looks at the screw, identifies the bit you need, sets the torque, and then just waits for you to hold it steady. That's basically all the dumb human has to do, drop the bit in, hold the driver to the head, and let the powered head do the work. It's a step or two removed from a fully autonomous robo-driver where you sit back and watch. The HD camera system doing the bit-spotting is the razor clam here: everyone else is selling you more torque, and Arrowmax is selling you less thinking. I genuinely love the audacity of calling this "self-driving" for screws. It's on Kickstarter, so we'll see if it ships, but the idea itself is already a win.
Home Depot Has a Gerber Multi-Tool That Costs Less Than a Good Lunch
Home Depot has a Gerbi multi-tool that costs less than a good lunch. The Suspension NXT 15-in-1 Multi-Tool is deeply discounted right now, which is the kind of price that makes you stop scrolling and start wondering if you actually need a reason. You don't. It offers approachable utility for everyday use, the sort of tool that lives in a junk drawer or a glove box and quietly solves problems until you forget it wasn't always there. Fifteen functions for less than the price of a sandwich is not a compromise; it's a victory lap for practical thinking.
That multitool bit stash is finally getting a proper home
How many times have you pulled out the screwdrivers on your multitool only to find they're all wrong? A bit holder helps, but a multitool rarely has space for extra bits. So you're stuck with what came in it, or you're rattling around with a handful of loose bits in your pocket. The EDC experts at Ant Design have a better solution. The Apex V2 is an ultra-slim, rectangular driver with a flip-out arm that holds bits and space to store an entire magazine of them. Instead of carrying one or two along, you can bring up to 14. That's a proper home for a bit stash. It's titanium, it's lightweight, and it's on Kickstarter.
Amazon's Prime Day price cuts on DeWalt tools are a garage-sized trap
Amazon just dangled a stack of DeWalt tools in front of your garage door and whispered *come on, you know you want to*. And sure, the Prime Day price cuts are real, the kind of discounts that make a cordless hammer drill feel like a necessary life upgrade, even if the most ambitious project you've got planned is hanging a single shelf. The trap isn't the price. It's the question nobody asks until after checkout: *what does your garage actually need?* Spoot has been poking around the October sales, and we found that the same impulse buying energy applies to smaller things too, like the six surprisingly useful items under $25 we rounded up in "Prime Day's cheap seat." Sometimes the best deal is the one you didn't have to justify to your spouse.
Leatherman's sharpest EDC tools quietly slashed to half off
Leatherman just slashed prices on its sharpest EDC tools by up to 50 percent, and if you've been waiting for a reason to finally pocket one, this is it. Whether you're after a full-sized pocket powerhouse or a keychain addition that quietly does more than it should, the discounts are live and they're real. No fine-print gymnastics, no "up to" nonsense hiding the good stuff. The company's famously overbuilt pliers and blades are suddenly half off, which feels almost wrong, like finding a razor clam in a spec sheet nobody read. If you're already circling back on those Prime Day DeWalt deals we mentioned, this is the same energy but smaller, sharper, and ready to live in your pocket. Stay spooty.
Gerber's dual-force pocket tool slashes 52% off and still bites hard
Fifty-two percent off a Gerber that still carries high-torque pliers, a center-axis bit driver, and ten-plus other tools? That's not a discount, that's a dare. The dual-force pocket tool doesn't need to shout about its specs because the bite is already in the name. It's the kind of deal that makes you wonder why you ever paid full price for anything with a pivot joint. We're gently skeptical of anything that claims to be a pocket powerhouse, but this one has the torque to back it up. If you're circling back for more EDC bargains, our piece on the M6 Mac Mini's price tag pairs nicely with this kind of practical thinking. Stay spooty.
Ace Hardware's big-ticket tool bundles just got a lot easier on the wallet
Ace Hardware just made the smartest move a tool aisle can make: it slashed the price on big-ticket bundles until your wallet stops wheezing. This is the kind of deal that turns a bare garage into a full ecosystem, and it's not buried in fine print. The bundles cover the heavy hitters, the drills and drivers and saws that actually do the work, and they're priced like Ace wants you to stop window-shopping online. We like that energy. It's a rare chance to grab a cohesive setup without the usual retail tax, and for anyone who's been nursing a mismatched collection of hand-me-downs, this is the nudge. If you're already circling the hardware aisle, you might also enjoy our piece on the Blackjaw, a multitool that skips the pliers entirely.
The Blackjaw is a multitool that skips the pliers and trusts its own kit
The Blackjaw skips the pliers. That's the first thing you notice, and honestly, it's the best thing about it. Tsuchioto Works has taken the classic Leatherman formula, peeled out the jaw, and trusted the rest of the kit to carry the load. It's a curated bundle of implements for daily life, DIY, and the outdoors, all packed into a tight body. We like the nerve of that. It's a gamble to drop the one tool everyone expects, but it feels like a dare worth taking. The spec sheet reads lean, and that's the point. It doesn't want to be a swiss army knife on stilts. It wants to be the thing you actually use. We're gently skeptical, sure, but we're also circling back for another look.
The sofa that fixes itself: five everyday objects quietly refusing to die
A sofa that fixes itself. Not a sofa that looks like it fixes itself, or comes with a branded repair kit that costs more than the couch. A sofa that actually, structurally, refuses to die. That's the razor clam in this Dezeen roundup, and it's a good one. While governments drag their feet on right-to-repair legislation, designers are just… doing it. Reimagining our most-used objects so anyone with a screwdriver and some patience can keep them alive. It's quietly radical. The EU has some of the strictest rules around, but the real momentum is in the workshops. If you like this stubborn streak, you'll love our piece on tiny EVs that dare to be small and sharp. Same energy, fewer seat cushions.