In Praise of the Alox Farmer-Is there Anything it Cannot Do?

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And don't forget...


Mobile Cigar Tool!

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A fine cigar only deserves the very BEST in folders, and in this case, the best dang folders the world will ever know, the alox SAK!!!;)
 
Hey look it's ranger joe. Nice knife and all but it can't do everything. Carry it in the bush for a week or 2 in the cold sloppy fall north as your depend on knife, she'd be toast.
 
man twisting and prying the knife like that cannot be good for the pivot, much less batoning with it
made me shudder a little bit

otherwise, very impressive
 
Is this guy brain dead?

He's got a saw, and a very effective saw at that. Yet he batons with the knife, instead of just sawing halfway through, turning it over and tapping the log on anything and letting the wood split along the grain. The whole idea of the farmer, is to let the saw do all the work. Why punish the knife and it's pivot by torquing it way beyond what is necessary?
 
Sharp_Canadian said:
Hey look it's ranger joe. Nice knife and all but it can't do everything. Carry it in the bush for a week or 2 in the cold sloppy fall north as your depend on knife, she'd be toast.
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I've lived in the bush for far more than a few weeks in the cold and sloppy fall north. Like Lake Athabasca north. It would never be a primary tool. But is a great back up to the serious stuff. They are compact, fine looking and useful tools. To each their own.
 
Totally agree, I never really said it wasn't a fine tool. I have a couple sak's myself. I just don't think I'd ever use it to split wood, even if I had lost my axe my sven and my fixed blade. It's called twigs rather then smash up your last remaining tool. I wasn't trying to knock it really. I think personally I'd try n keep it unused as a back up. So I wouldn't be left pulling skin from small animals or finger filleting fish if it was a last ditch survival effort.
 
Sharp_Canadian said:
Totally agree, I never really said it wasn't a fine tool. I have a couple sak's myself. I just don't think I'd ever use it to split wood, even if I had lost my axe my sven and my fixed blade. It's called twigs rather then smash up your last remaining tool. I wasn't trying to knock it really. I think personally I'd try n keep it unused as a back up. So I wouldn't be left pulling skin from small animals or finger filleting fish if it was a last ditch survival effort.
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I agree. I apologize for my previous harsh tone.
 
Let's just all re-read the title of the thread...what can the Farmer not do. The video simply shows the Farmer doing many things that most of us can and have done, and some things some of us would never do, yet the Farmer came through with flying colors when used in a manner that makes me cringe and makes my eyeballs sweat.;)
 
I find this combination a lot more useful.

EDC Pair by Pinnah, on Flickr



Let me reiterate and underscore my experiences with saws of this type that I've made in other Farmer thread...

Tiny saws are interesting tools for me like once every few months for some tiny job in the shop where some light and precise type of cutting is needed.

But in the woods, it's really useless and bad weight. If wood is big enough that I can't process it by hand, I want a real saw which for me, minimally, is something like the Silky Boy saw.

Winter fire tools by Pinnah, on Flickr

The primary point about splitting wood in the woods for me is to find dry wood and I'm not going to find reliably dry wood in stuff that can be cut by the Farmer's saw. 9 times out of 10, stuff that small I'm going to bust with my foot or by striking on a rock anyway.

The awl made sense in 1915 and the can opener in 1945. Leather straps and canned goods aren't part of my back country kit.
 
Pinnah said:

Tiny saws are interesting tools for me like once every few months for some tiny job in the shop where some light and precise type of cutting is needed.
But in the woods, it's really useless and bad weight. If wood is big enough that I can't process it by hand, I want a real saw which for me, minimally, is something like the Silky Boy saw.
The primary point about splitting wood in the woods for me is to find dry wood and I'm not going to find reliably dry wood in stuff that can be cut by the Farmer's saw. 9 times out of 10, stuff that small I'm going to bust with my foot or by striking on a rock anyway.
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Acquiring firewood isn't the only use for a saw in the wild. You might need a staff, crutch, fishing pole, tent pole, splint, stretcher poles, etc. I've used one to cut a splint to reinforce a trashed ski pole, and seen one used to cut some little bushes from a ledge to clear a belay stance. The SAK saw handles all of this quicker and easier than a knife. If I'm canoeing I generally have a larger saw, but if I'm hiking and not planning to build fires the SAK saw is well worth the few extra grams.
 
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iSaur said:
Acquiring firewood isn't the only use for a saw in the wild. You might need a staff, crutch, fishing pole, tent pole, splint, stretcher poles, etc. I've used one to cut a splint to reinforce a trashed ski pole, and seen one used to cut some little bushes from a ledge to clear a belay stance. The SAK saw handles all of this quicker and easier than a knife. If I'm canoeing I generally have a larger saw, but if I'm hiking and not planning to build fires the SAK saw is well worth the few extra grams.
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Exactly! Complex alien traps would be a breeze with a Farmer! :D

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:p
 
iSaur said:
Pinnah said:
Acquiring firewood isn't the only use for a saw in the wild. You might need a staff, crutch, fishing pole, tent pole, splint, stretcher poles, etc. I've used one to cut a splint to reinforce a trashed ski pole, and seen one used to cut some little bushes from a ledge to clear a belay stance. The SAK saw handles all of this quicker and easier than a knife. If I'm canoeing I generally have a larger saw, but if I'm hiking and not planning to build fires the SAK saw is well worth the few extra grams.
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IME, it depends on the knife.

If the knife is a smaller camper/scout sized knife, then yes, a saw is faster for me since I just can't get a good grip on the small frame of the knife.

But, if the knife is big enough to give me a good grip and if the knife has a blade in the 3" or longer, I can cut out 1"+ sized brush much faster with my knife. My pref is an Opinel #9 but there are many others.

I also don't want to give up small pliers for equipment repair (including ski poles!!). My backcountry combo.

Outdoor Carry by Pinnah, on Flickr
 
I find the video impressive, not because it's showing what you should use a SAK for, but because it shows what you COULD do with a SAK. I was surprised like anyone else to see him batoning the blade into the wood, and then twisting it to break a piece free - not something I would have wanted to test myself, but after seeing this happen without destroying the knife my opinion of the simple, lowly SAK goes up a few notches.
 
Not something I would do with a SAK. I have twisted one apart putting too much torque on a Philips screw before. It was cool to see it stand up to to it though.
 
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