Multi Tools

[Skybird]

Fulfilled myself a long-held dream, and replaced my long held Victorinox Champion Swiss Army Knife with a Victorinox Spirit CX Plus Multi Tool with ratchet.



Obviously there were two brands to be considered, Victorinox, and Leatherman. But I had Leatherman tools in my hands twice before, and both devices, while not being bad, not at all, in detail showed slightly inferior manufacturing quality in comparison, the steel showed little signs of rust which says something about the steel they use, and some of the tools (the Lesatherman I tried was a Wave), had tiny burrs (hope that is the correct word, I mean "Grate" from the casting process). The Swiss device is perfect in all these regards.

The size is such that it fits better into my (more of a tinier) pair of hands, the Leathermans are a little bit bigger, though not much. The Spirit's snapping-locking mechanisms have no noticable clearances, yet move absolutely smooth. Once locked, they are fixed for eternity for sure. From the mechanical point of view, its the proverbial Swiss perfection on display.

I know Swiss knifes since my childhood. I swear on their steel quality, I know no other knifes and tools that are close to these ones. Whatever they do to get this steel, they must add magic. The knife's sharp edge usually is extremely sharp and holds this sharpness for incredeible ammount of time. The steel in general is very hard and tough, even after having abused especially screwdrivers sometimes with all force I had, after years the tip of these tools still show no scratches. Compared to that the screwdrivers in my toolbox, all ordinary craftsman quality, look worn.

I love this little toybox, and I like to now have pliers with me, which I frequently missed on my big pocket knife Champion, it was the only tool missing on it. The selection of tools on the Spiurit is very well choosen and pragmatic, oriented to practical life, no exotic, rarely used, hardly missed waste, only items that indeed are being used on occasions for sure. The knife blade took me a second look to get used to, but I appreciate its design already now. And its sharp like sin and hell and all that devil stuff, and has no pointy tip that might break easier than the rest of the blade. Thwe saws on my Champion also both havbe repeatedly shown that they are not toys, but they have been sued on metla and wood in real work, and I cut a standing tree trunk with 8 cm diameter with it. These saws may be short, but they don't take jokes for a laughing. Just think of how to prevent the blade getting stuck by a standing trunk'S weight (saw edges).

Its a Swiss Victorinox tool, and I expect it to stay with me for the rest of my life, judging by the longevity of the Victorinix things I had in the past 50 years. Solid, good craftsmanship used to form somethign with solid, extremely well choosen material. It feels good to hold such things in your hand, not this China rubber plastic replica that is modern these days. Add a drop of oil in the right places once a year, and you have a companion for life. Heck, I love these kind of things!

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My only quarrel with Victorinox has been about the lense on some of their pocket knifes. I just failed to make fire with it. Its not too difficult to make fire with suitable lenses when you know how to do it and when you collected the right kind of tinder, but with the lenses by Victorionox, at best I could burn smoking holes into leafs, paper, grass, even at high noon. The same kind of stuff I could get burning when using for example a credit card fresnel lense (work fantastic, these things!!). The trick with the Victorinox however is this, and I just discovered, or better stumbled over it by despair and random chance earlier thjis year: you do not use it to create a tiny flame directly, but you use it on dry, light solid pieces of wood (not lighter tinder) to create a tiny spot of charcoal. And when there is big enough a black spot of charcoaled wood, then you laser it and set it on fire - which this lense then indeed does without further complaining. Its worth to keep this on mind when using a Victorinox lense, and I could imagine that it might be like this with other lenses of small diameters as well. Its not always the light tinder you try to laser with a lense to get fire - with some lenses you are better off to indeed try solid wood, charcoaling it before "lasing" it.

Of course, having a lighter is to be preferred. But trying these kind of things can be fun.