Tactica M.020: this credit-card sized multitool is the single most useful bit of camping kit you can fit in your pocket

An Australian brand specializing in multitools and tactical implements with a lightweight twist, Tactica was formed in 2017 after a highly successful Kickstarter campaign led to the launch of their first product: a credit card–sized multitool that fits in your wallet and weighs about the same as a couple of coins. This concept kept evolving and the brand started exploring how to make the best multitools for camping, hiking and other outdoor adventures. The range is now extensive, with tools for everyone from bikepackers to EDC enthusiasts, plus camping knives and compact cutting devices for all kinds of outdoor escapades.

The M.020 is the second iteration of Tactica’s popular camping multitool. On screen it looked really impressive: carefully crafted and intelligently designed, with 11 separate applications. I obviously knew it would be small and light – that’s literally the USP of this piece of kit – but I was still a little surprised at just how little it weighed when I first unboxed it. I’m accustomed to messing around with chunky tools like Leathermans and Victorinox Swiss Army knives – could something so svelte and affordable as the Tactica M.020 really prove anywhere near as useful as those ingenious (but bulky) devices? I’ve been busy testing in the field (and campsite and by the fire and trailside) to find out how good it really is.

Design and construction

Made of 420C stainless steel with a PVD coating, the Tactica M.020 is available in three colors (the orange is the smartest choice, since it makes the little tool much easier to find, but the black and the silver versions look pretty). It fits in the palm of your hand and slides easily into most wallets. Tipping the scales at 35g (1.2oz), there are cookies that weigh considerably more than this tiny tool kit. Measuring about the same as a credit card, it slides right into a wallet, making it good piece of everyday carry kit, but if you’re not someone who takes their wallet backpacking or camping, then the M.020 also fits easily into the pocket of hiking pants, not to mention fleece jackets and waterproof shells (the clever design means there are no exposed sharp edges that could cause damage to such garments) and of course backpacks.

Applications

So, what can the Tactica M.020 actually do? There are 11 named uses for this multitool, but since I started carrying it around I’ve also discovered plenty of other ways that it can come in very handy, including as a tire lever and a carrot peeler (see below). The following are the applications it was actually designed for:

The most obvious feature is the ferro rod firestarter; the rod is a separate element to the main tool, but fits securely to the top of the M.020 with a rubber pinch handle. You strike this rod along the serrated blade edge that runs along one side of the largest gap in the main tool, to create sparks for lighting tinder and starting fires (or, conceivably, for igniting a gas camping stove if the piezo ignition has stopped working). This serrated blade can also be useful for other tasks, from peeling carrots to cutting stubborn ropes and plastic cables if the dedicated rope cutter, found in the shape of a straight bladed hook further around the same edge of the tool, needs some help.

Next to the ferro rod, with their pointy edges cleverly covered up by the rod’s rubber handle, are a pry bar and a can opener, and right beside the latter is a flat head screwdriver. On the inside of the pry bar is a blunt-edge hook, which is designed to operate as a tent peg puller (but could also be used to hook and pull all sorts of things).

Along the two straight edges of the tool is a pair of rulers, with measurement increments in metric (mm and cm) on one side, and imperial (inches) on the other. The two small eyelets that feature in the middle of the tool are intended for use as a rope tensioner (if you’re missing one on a crucial tent guy rope, for example). At the wider end of the tool is a large gap with a bottle opener, and around the edge of this are markings and eyelets that enable you to use the M.020 as a sundial (employing a straight twig or the ferro rod as a gnomon).

In the field

In all honesty, it’s hard for this style of tool to compete with a Leatherman or a Swiss army knife in terms of multifunctionality, but I have been seriously impressed by how smart the design of the Tactica M.020 is, and how genuinely useful it is for myriad tasks when you’re out on the trails and setting up camp (not to mention going about your everyday life). For its weight, size and price, it is absolutely brilliant.

Inevitably, some elements and applications will be employed far more often than others, but these will vary from user to user, depending on what kind of camping and outdoor adventuring you do. For many of us, the bottle-opener might see the most action, but even if you primarily carry it for that purpose, there will be times that other features – such as the flathead screwdriver, rulers, pry bar, serrated blade and rope-cutter – will be an absolute god-send.

The ferro rod fire starter might feel like a novelty garnish, but these things really work (with a little know-how, some dry tinder and a bit of patience). The piezo ignition on my otherwise brilliant Jetboil Flash no longer works, and if I forget to take a lighter with me, then this tool will allow me to fire it up. Likewise the sundial – which might appear gimmicky at first, but could prove to be a literal lifesaver in certain circumstances (again, you need a little bit of bush knowledge to make this work).

I’m a bit mystified about the centre hole, which is exactly sized to accommodate the ferro rod – there are probably numerous ways this could prove useful, I just need to figure them out. Such is the nature of these things that, as soon as you start playing around with them, not only do you chance upon additional applications that the tool can be used for (bonus!), but also find yourself thinking of extra features that could, perhaps, have been included in the design. I think the rope-tensioning holes are too big, for example, but I also reckon they could have been shaped as two different-sized bolt eyelets – likewise the spaces either side of the bottle opener – so the M.020 could then be used as a spanner set too. Also, could one end of the ferro rod feature a Phillips-head screwdriver (made with strengthened tip)? Maybe the reverse face of the tool could be mirrored, for emergency signalling and as an extra fire-starting option… Tactica may well have thought of these ideas and discounted it for some good reason – perhaps around keeping the cost down – but it’s fun to think up extra possibilities for future versions.