A one-piece stainless steel tool for everyday carry exploring functional reduction through design constraint and shared geometry.

This project explores designing by subtraction asking how much of a multitool can be removed while still retaining meaningful utility.

Rather than adding features, the focus was on reducing the tool to a small set of essential interactions and resolving them within a single, continuous piece of material. Geometry was carefully considered to accommodate functionality while remaining minimal and considered.

Constraints included one-piece construction, no moving parts, and CNC production. The design prioritises simplicity, durability, and clarity of use.

The result is a flat, monolithic tool that proposes a more restrained alternative to feature-heavy multitools. The intention is a pocket tool that is small enough to carry, practical enough to use and simple enough to always call on.

Design Team

Ben Millett - Founder, Industrial Designer - STOKE Tools & MWRKS Studio

This project explores the idea of designing by subtraction, questioning how much of a multitool can be removed while still retaining meaningful utility.

Rather than adding features, the process focused on reduction, using constraint to resolve a minimal set of essential functions within a single, continuous piece of material.

Modern multitools often prioritise feature count over usability, resulting in objects that are rarely carried or fully utilised and that can look bloated, complicated or not intentional. Many multi-tools include features never used that are only included for marketing or sales specs.

This raised a fundamental question:

How much functionality do we really need and how much can be retained in a single piece tool that looks considered, minimal and unlike anything else on the market.

In contrast to feature-heavy tools that attempt to do everything, the aim was to identify a minimal set of essential interactions and resolve them within a one-piece geometry.

The design process focused on reduction through constraint. Rather than layering functions, the project explored how multiple interactions could be resolved within shared surfaces and edges. Each feature was evaluated not in isolation, but in how it impacted the overall geometry and how it could coexist with neatly within the same geometry as other features.

Key considerations included:

• identifying a core set of essential functions

• creating geometry that carried the chosen features while remaining considered in appearance

• maintaining intuitiveness of use

• preserving structural integrity within a minimal form

This required careful balancing between function, form, and manufacturability.

Constraints

The project was defined by a strict set of constraints:

• single-piece construction

• no moving parts

• CNC machinable geometry

• pocket-scale dimensions

• usable ergonomics

• desirable appearance

These constraints acted as the primary design driver, shaping both the form and the function of the final object.

Realisation

The outcome is a flat, monolithic tool that integrates multiple functions within a single continuous geometry.

Edge conditions, cutouts, and surface transitions define interaction points without the need for additional components. Functions are embedded into the form itself, rather than added onto it.

The result is an object that is visually simple but functionally dense.

It is designed to look like it does less than it actually can.

Materials & Manufacturing

The tool is CNC machined from solid stainless steel.

The design was developed alongside manufacturing constraints to ensure efficiency, repeatability, and material honesty. Toolpaths, internal radii, and edge conditions were all considered as part of the design process, rather than applied afterward.

This approach allows the final form to be both structurally robust and efficient to produce.

Stainless steel was chosen for its inherent beauty and timelessness.

Outcome

What started as a simple curiosity and annoyance has been developed into a production-ready object called Scout. The intention is a small pocket-tool that provides some real every-day functionality, is small enough to carry and forget, is minimal enough to want to carry and is crafted well enough to last a lifetime. The hope is it helps people to be ready for the small tasks that crop up when it's really useful to have a small tool to hand.

Scout is the first design-focused tool from new brand STOKE Tools and is currently running in a fully funded Kickstarter campaign, serving as a real-world validation of the design approach of tools that prioritise simplicity, durability, and everyday usability over feature count.

Credit

Ben Millett, Industrial Designer - STOKE Founder / MWRKS Studio

www.stoketools.com

www.MWRKSstudio.com

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