Brad Gadberry
14 de abril de 2022
This is The One
OK, this is the one.I have carried a Swiss Army Knife every day for over 50 years, and I own over 50 SAKs.In the past, here on Amazon, I have lauded the Climber, the Huntsman, the Small Tinker, the Executive, and several others. And those are all great! The Climber is arguably the best Urban EDC knife. The Huntsman is arguably the best all-arounder. The Small Tinker is a little jewel: it's the best knife for a kid, and the best gift for someone you can't sit down with to do a SAK workshop (like, groomsman's gifts for a wedding). The Excecutive is a sleeper, but really good. (Fun factoid: In addition to being a legendary pilot in war and peace, Chuck Yeager was an outdoorsman of renown. All his life, well into his 70s, he and a friend would go spend a couple weeks in the Sierra Nevada mountains, living off the land. And, guess what knife he took? It was the Victorinox Executive.)Anyway.For years, I didn't see the point of a SAK bigger/thicker than the Climber, unless you went all in for the SwissChamp, because you only experience the value of a SAK when you carry it all the time. All. The. Time. And a three-layer like the Climber was my limit.But then I discovered the TEC P-7 Keychain Suspension Clip. With one of these, any SAK is perfectly comfortable in your pocket. All. The. Time.So, you could go for the SwissChamp, but, while it's fine in your pocket with the clip, it's just too big in the hand.But the Handyman isn't. It's comfortable in the hand. It's a nice, satisfying, hand-filling pocket knife. And, it has all the important tools.Let me repeat that: it has *all* the important tools. No, it doesn't have a Phillips screwdriver, but it doesn't need one. The driver-end of the can opener works better on Phillips screws than either the back-mounted or in-line Phillips that you can get on SAKs. By getting a knife with a Phillips you are not getting an extra tool. And if you get one that has the back-mounted T-style Phillips, you're actually giving up a great tool: the corkscrew. OK, so maybe you don't drink wine (I do, and I use it as a corkscrew). Even so, the corkscrew is very useful... it's great for untying stubborn knots, and it holds the mini-screwdriver (which, in addition to working with small screws, is the best-ever tool for working with split rings). I could go on.For me, the Handyman (with the pocket clip) is a Huntsman (the best all-arounder) that also has the pliers and file, both of which are excellent tools that I use all the time.I don't miss the fish-scaler that I would get with the SwissChamp (even though the straight edge and ruler are actually useful, and the hook-disgorger tip is a great little fork/tool for getting olives out of the jar). I don't miss the in-line Phillips, for reasons discussed above. A magnifying glass is cool and (with my old eyes) useful, but it's plastic, and that just feels wrong. So I don't miss the extras I would get with a SwissChamp. Instead I have... and can't live without... a pocket knife that does everything I could want and actually feels like a pocket knife when I use it.(To get full credit, you also should get the "Plus" scales, so you can have the ballpoint pen. And, no, it's not silly and too skinny to use: you're supposed to open the parcel hook, slot the back end of the pen in there, and then (partially) close the hook. Then it's fine. It's comfortable to use as a pen.) (So far as I can tell, these days the Plus scales are only available on eBay and Etsy.)Ver másVer menos
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