I'm sure a lot of you are familiar with the Victorinox Farmer. If you're not, I'll give you a brief run-down of its features; then I'll let you know how it performed as my only EDC for a week. No other knives were carried on my person for the week; no Classic on my keychain, no Leatherman on my hip, no Opinel in my pocket. If it had a blade, I didn't carry it. Attached to the Farmer I had a MagLite Solitaire in AAA. The Farmer is model number 53964. Here's a quick run-down of its functions and features...
3-5/8" closed, 1/2" wide. Anodized aluminum oxide (ALOX) handles with a waffle texture. 1-1/4" can opener / small screwdriver. 1-1/4" bottle opener / large screwdriver / wire stripper. 1-3/8" reamer. 2-7/8" wood saw. 2-3/4" (2-1/2" edge) blade, 1/8" thick. 3/8" keyring. Aluminum (not stainless) liners in between the tools. Made in Switzerland. Cost is about $26 in stores.
The Farmer is considered by many people to be the best SAK (Swiss Army Knife) for minimalist camping, and is often tossed into a survival bag. Just go to the SOSAK website and you'll see how many people love the Farmer. But how does it do as an everyday carry (EDC) tool? We're going to find out.
I typically carry my SAKs in one of two ways: in a tight belt sheath, or in my pocket with a lanyard attached. The Farmer has a keyring, so I slapped a lanyard on it and put it in my pocket. I wouldn't recommend putting it in the same pocket with your coins or keys, as they'll quickly scratch up the finish on the ALOX. Some people prefer this "used" look, but I don't. I thought I'd really miss the toothpick and tweezers found on most SAKs, and I was right. I could really care less about the toothpick, but those tweezers are just nice to have around. Since the Farmer is an ALOX model, no tweezers or toothpick will be found. It's just what it is; a slight disappointment on an otherwise great tool.
The blade is what I used the most, and it took very little time to get hair-shaving sharp. It was able to handle most of the chores I needed to do, whether that was slicing open cardboard boxes, cutting nylon ties, or opening my buddy's Slim Jim after he tried frantically to tear it open with his teeth. He must have really wanted that beef stick. Yes, the blade will dull relatively easily after slicing cardboard, but it will resharpen even quicker. I realized before I started that I'm not getting ZDP-like edge retention, but that's fine with me. The blade on the Farmer is large and sharp enough to get through most of your daily chores with no problem. Even when it does get dull, you can put a very nice edge on it with cardboard and a glossy magazine cover as an improvised strop. No sharpener necessary.
The saw got a little bit of use, mostly on oak pallets when I got bored. the teeth are angled straight down, so the saw cuts on both the push and the pull strokes. It got through the oak pretty quickly considering to its size, and did very well in resisting "filling up" with pulp. There's flex to it of course, as it's a saw. For fun, I wanted to see how large of a log I could saw through with this thing, within reason of course. I found that just under a 5" diameter is the largest size I can saw through while still keeping it practical. FYI, 5" is the size of a compact disc (CD). So you can saw through a log (or tree) as thick as CD if you've got the time: it took me about 16 minutes, counting the break time from lactic acid build-up (the burn). Some people have said that you should put lubrication on every saw you use to resist binding, but I didn't. I think the saw on the Farmer is thin enough (1/8" thick) that it won't bind up easily, and my testing seems to be correct in that assumption.
The reamer is a nice little tool. It's pointed and is for making holes. In the summer, this tool sees the most use poking holes in the top of the lid so the fireflies can breathe. In my week-long test, I used it to start holes for screws and punching holes in leather as an improvised belt. I was concerned about tip breakage or bending from the torque of starting drill holes, but it never failed. The tip is just as straight and strong as it was new. The reamer also has an edge on it; very nice for striking that flint to start a fire. Miss the toothpick in the other SAKs? You can use the tip of the reamer like I did, but be careful; sticking metal in your teeth can damage your chompers. I found it to be a nice improvised nail cleaner, and a wonderful tool for marking where to cut wood.
The can opener tool got used a little bit. I used it mostly for the small flathead screwdriver, which serves admirably as a Phillips driver. I used the can opener only twice to actually open cans, and in that task is proved its usefulness. The other use I had for it was a striker for my flint; it worked like a charm.
The bottle opener was rarely used. I just don't have bottles with pop-off lids, so I only used the large flathead screwdriver on this tool. It's a screwdriver. It worked. There's not much else to say about it. I did use the opened tool to pry apart a few piece of oak from the pallets, and it worked well with no bending.
For such a compact and lightweight tool, the Victorinox Farmer is a pretty nice thing to have. The high quality and loaw cost make it even better. In addition to the standard silver color, you can find the Farmer in red or blue, so you can pick between Bloods or Crips. I prefer the blue myself since most SAKs are red anyway. Pick up a Farmer if you want a high-quality pocket tool. Heck, for the price, pick up all three.
Here's the Farmer showing all of its tools...
And here's one showing a few variations of the Farmer...
3-5/8" closed, 1/2" wide. Anodized aluminum oxide (ALOX) handles with a waffle texture. 1-1/4" can opener / small screwdriver. 1-1/4" bottle opener / large screwdriver / wire stripper. 1-3/8" reamer. 2-7/8" wood saw. 2-3/4" (2-1/2" edge) blade, 1/8" thick. 3/8" keyring. Aluminum (not stainless) liners in between the tools. Made in Switzerland. Cost is about $26 in stores.
The Farmer is considered by many people to be the best SAK (Swiss Army Knife) for minimalist camping, and is often tossed into a survival bag. Just go to the SOSAK website and you'll see how many people love the Farmer. But how does it do as an everyday carry (EDC) tool? We're going to find out.
I typically carry my SAKs in one of two ways: in a tight belt sheath, or in my pocket with a lanyard attached. The Farmer has a keyring, so I slapped a lanyard on it and put it in my pocket. I wouldn't recommend putting it in the same pocket with your coins or keys, as they'll quickly scratch up the finish on the ALOX. Some people prefer this "used" look, but I don't. I thought I'd really miss the toothpick and tweezers found on most SAKs, and I was right. I could really care less about the toothpick, but those tweezers are just nice to have around. Since the Farmer is an ALOX model, no tweezers or toothpick will be found. It's just what it is; a slight disappointment on an otherwise great tool.
The blade is what I used the most, and it took very little time to get hair-shaving sharp. It was able to handle most of the chores I needed to do, whether that was slicing open cardboard boxes, cutting nylon ties, or opening my buddy's Slim Jim after he tried frantically to tear it open with his teeth. He must have really wanted that beef stick. Yes, the blade will dull relatively easily after slicing cardboard, but it will resharpen even quicker. I realized before I started that I'm not getting ZDP-like edge retention, but that's fine with me. The blade on the Farmer is large and sharp enough to get through most of your daily chores with no problem. Even when it does get dull, you can put a very nice edge on it with cardboard and a glossy magazine cover as an improvised strop. No sharpener necessary.
The saw got a little bit of use, mostly on oak pallets when I got bored. the teeth are angled straight down, so the saw cuts on both the push and the pull strokes. It got through the oak pretty quickly considering to its size, and did very well in resisting "filling up" with pulp. There's flex to it of course, as it's a saw. For fun, I wanted to see how large of a log I could saw through with this thing, within reason of course. I found that just under a 5" diameter is the largest size I can saw through while still keeping it practical. FYI, 5" is the size of a compact disc (CD). So you can saw through a log (or tree) as thick as CD if you've got the time: it took me about 16 minutes, counting the break time from lactic acid build-up (the burn). Some people have said that you should put lubrication on every saw you use to resist binding, but I didn't. I think the saw on the Farmer is thin enough (1/8" thick) that it won't bind up easily, and my testing seems to be correct in that assumption.
The reamer is a nice little tool. It's pointed and is for making holes. In the summer, this tool sees the most use poking holes in the top of the lid so the fireflies can breathe. In my week-long test, I used it to start holes for screws and punching holes in leather as an improvised belt. I was concerned about tip breakage or bending from the torque of starting drill holes, but it never failed. The tip is just as straight and strong as it was new. The reamer also has an edge on it; very nice for striking that flint to start a fire. Miss the toothpick in the other SAKs? You can use the tip of the reamer like I did, but be careful; sticking metal in your teeth can damage your chompers. I found it to be a nice improvised nail cleaner, and a wonderful tool for marking where to cut wood.
The can opener tool got used a little bit. I used it mostly for the small flathead screwdriver, which serves admirably as a Phillips driver. I used the can opener only twice to actually open cans, and in that task is proved its usefulness. The other use I had for it was a striker for my flint; it worked like a charm.
The bottle opener was rarely used. I just don't have bottles with pop-off lids, so I only used the large flathead screwdriver on this tool. It's a screwdriver. It worked. There's not much else to say about it. I did use the opened tool to pry apart a few piece of oak from the pallets, and it worked well with no bending.
For such a compact and lightweight tool, the Victorinox Farmer is a pretty nice thing to have. The high quality and loaw cost make it even better. In addition to the standard silver color, you can find the Farmer in red or blue, so you can pick between Bloods or Crips. I prefer the blue myself since most SAKs are red anyway. Pick up a Farmer if you want a high-quality pocket tool. Heck, for the price, pick up all three.
Here's the Farmer showing all of its tools...
And here's one showing a few variations of the Farmer...
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