And now for something completely different…

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A new mobile tool needs a new mobile home!

Can you guess what’s inside?

I was highly skeptical before I even pulled the trigger on this bag, I was not sure that it would even accommodate it’s future occupant. Back to Amazon it could have gone. But it fits!

And knowing Klein’s screwdrivers (their bread and butter) have lost some of their former greatness, I was also concerned about general quality. Especially for the money.

But what arrived a folded, plastic wrapped, bundle of canvas in a huge, otherwise empty box, became the bag I present today…

The Klein Tools 500320, 20″ tool bag. Overall I’m pleased. Should do the job for a long time, and is just about perfectly sized for my application.

It’s made from a heavy #8 canvas with a Bison like leather substance on the bottom that is surprisingly resilient. Metal reinforced, stitched and riveted, with seat belt handles that wrap all the way around the bottom, under the leather.

The “Bison-like leather” claims to be real leather, and the bag is “made in the USA, of US and global components.” So, yeah. Kinda reminds me of BMW’s upgraded leather; soft, suspicious, but in fact pretty durable. I poked and scratched at it with a nice new, sharp flat-head and nothing.

The trimming of the canvas and stitching are rough and somewhat sloppy, but it’s all adequately done, and even double and box stitched in places. I suppose the roughness is part of the design itself at this point. Inside, each half of the bag is lined with pouches of varying sizes. They’re there if you want to use them, otherwise they neatly lay flat out of the way.

The seat belt nylon handles and leather handle work as expected. It has D-rings for a shoulder strap, but does not include one. I have a fancy pants Tom Bihn strap that is stuffed away, unloved somewhere that I will eventually add.

And finally, the only thing that particularly irks me about the bag, are the leather strap closures. They don’t hold the bag tightly closed. It seems if the whole buckle and strap arrangement were reversed, and the holes in the strap punched with a little more care, it could be perfect.

But not really a big deal. I don’t expect this bag will get tossed upside-down very often, or that it will be subjected to unrestrained rodentia, two legged or otherwise very often.

So what’s in the dumb bag, you ask?

And here we have it nestled in it’s new home…

A cradle of high density foam…

Contents…

Top: cut resistant gloves/ear plugs, speed square, tape measure

Bottom: safety glasses, vise grips, tube of assorted marking devices, paintmaker/pencil, smallish pair of linesman’s pliers

The black and red-trimmed pouch is a 7-1/4″ blade index! Only one I’ve ever found. Made by Husky. I got it off the bay. Holds six blades. I’ve got; wood, steel, stainless, aluminum, and a solid surface/multi-use blade.

Still missing from the kit are; a bit of string, a metal file, a wood rasp, stick lube (metal cutting), and a backup arbor wrench.

I know I’ve got a rusty old set of hex keys somewhere, I’ll make a cut-out in the foam for the appropriate single key, when I find them.

Anything else I’m missing that you guys can think of?

It’s not meant to be comprehensive. I have other bags with advanced layout and marking tools for more complicated work.

Besides purely transporting the saw, I plan to keep the other contents as few as possible, quick and dirty accessories.

For example, so that I don’t have to steal a tape measure from my main bag to go cut up reclaimed 2x4s on the other side of the building, I can just grab the saw bag and go. I know it has a tape measure.

But ehh… There you go, my new oddball EDC bag.

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