The same thing happened to me with my Leatherman Micra. I have come to the conclusion that most airport security measures are props designed to make us believe that we are safer.

I’ve been there too. Forgetting to take it off my keychain.

For those not familiar it’s a keychain multi-tool. Mine had scissors. But it also has a really short blade. It’s sharp but really small. No worse than knitting needles..

https://www.leatherman.com/micra-20.html

I usually carry on my slr camera and lenses. And they poke through my bag. One time they detected something. So the tsa agent is asking me about something metal and T shaped. But they won’t let me near my bag. It was a portable microphone. I remember the agent checking my bag holding it up to the scanner persons and yelling, “it’s a microphone”

Same here. The TSA brand of paranoia assumes you could seriously injure or kill someone with an implement that small. Sigh... Tiny brains, stupid rules.

There was a (Wired?) article about what kinds of weapons one could build from things available to buy after the gates.

I believe this is the original talk from treefort: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uo8xUsYo8IE

Lucky, last time I had a nice steak dinner at an airport they would only give me a butter knife.

If you have time, you can go backwards out to the regular airport and mail yourself anything you don't want to throw away.

...if you have time, if there is a shipping center in the airport, if it's open, and if the cost of materials and shipping is worth the $35 Leatherman...Might even be the same cost to check it vs ship it at that point.

The first I went through TSA with an avalanche probe and collapsible shovel, they didn't stop me, so I thought it was allowed. On the way back they did and I had to rush check it

My only experience here was outside of the US, but once when screening found a pair of scissors in my carry on I did this. They gave me a lanyard to let me use the crew line to get back to the front of screening so it didn't take much time.

I have a colleague who travels frequently to perform installations of equipment at client sites. Every time he travels internationally he buys a new copy of his preferred screwdriver kit and takes it as carry-on through one of the busiest airports in the US. Every time he flies home, he has to throw the out when the foreign airport doesn't let it through.

I made the same mistake but in the US, TSA has a machine they direct you to where you can mail yourself the item with, which I did but it took like two weeks to arrive.