Victorinox Outrider:
Victorinox has such a vast range of multi-tools on offer that there is bound to be a model to suit everyones requirements, whether you are an equestrian, a fisherman, a waiter, sailor, hiker, backpacker or Bushcrafter...there is a combination of tools in one nifty little red scaled (sometimes blue, clear, green or Alox!) knife for you! On the flip side, there are so many models, with a variety of sizes (58mm, 74mm, 84mm, 91mm, 93mm, 100mm, 108mm & 111mm) that sometimes it can be difficult to find the one that exactly meets your needs. I personally have probably been through only 5 or 6 different models through the years, now settling with the Farmer or Soldier Alox models for my EDC carry, and about a year ago upgrading the Huntsman to the Outrider for the woods. You can find information in the form of a review on both the Soldier and the Farmer in another piece, but for now I will give you my thoughts and opinions on the Victorinox Outrider, my preferred knife for everything outdoors.
The Outrider is a 111mm model that features a locking main blade using a slide lock located on the side of the scales. It has 4 layers with one double layer and feels very solid in the hand. The featured tools on this knife include: Main blade, wood saw, scissors, screwdriver, cap lifter, can opener, key ring attachement point, tooth pick and tweezers. I have never really been a fan of the tooth pick or tweezers, they just dont work well enough for me, I guess you could use them in a pinch (see what I did there! :-) but I will not go into any detail in this review.
When looking for a beefed up Victorinox to replace my trusty Vic Huntsman, my absolute minimum requirement was that the tool had to have a wood saw, it had to have scissors and the main blade was lockable as well. The Outrider is really the only model that satisfies these requirements, being the smallest model to incorporate the scissors, and one that didnt sport all manner of additional tools that I didnt want. The scissors were important for the small jobs to save the main blade from dulling, the wood saw speaks for itself. The picture below shows the Outrider next to the Huntsman. There is an obvious size difference here, with slightly larger tools on the Outrider and the locking blade instead of the slipjoint of the Huntsman.
The Outrider is a 111mm model that features a locking main blade using a slide lock located on the side of the scales. It has 4 layers with one double layer and feels very solid in the hand. The featured tools on this knife include: Main blade, wood saw, scissors, screwdriver, cap lifter, can opener, key ring attachement point, tooth pick and tweezers. I have never really been a fan of the tooth pick or tweezers, they just dont work well enough for me, I guess you could use them in a pinch (see what I did there! :-) but I will not go into any detail in this review.
When looking for a beefed up Victorinox to replace my trusty Vic Huntsman, my absolute minimum requirement was that the tool had to have a wood saw, it had to have scissors and the main blade was lockable as well. The Outrider is really the only model that satisfies these requirements, being the smallest model to incorporate the scissors, and one that didnt sport all manner of additional tools that I didnt want. The scissors were important for the small jobs to save the main blade from dulling, the wood saw speaks for itself. The picture below shows the Outrider next to the Huntsman. There is an obvious size difference here, with slightly larger tools on the Outrider and the locking blade instead of the slipjoint of the Huntsman.
The blade on the Outrider maintains a relatively keen edge, with just a stropping and occassional run through the gerber small portable sharpener required. Its a mystery steel to me, and a mystery steel to most I believe as Victorinox tend to keep their steel a secret. Its stainless, and so rust resistant, its fine for using for food preparation and it does a good job on things like notching, pointing the tips of sticks etc. Its a folding blade, its there to cope with small tasks where maybe a fixed blade knife is a little overkill. Nessmuk didnt do too bad with his trilogy of the Double Bit hatchet, a fixed blade and a three bladed trapper knife. The Vic Outrider is my modern day equivalent of his folding blade.
The saw is very capable indeed and as with the saws on pretty much all Victorinox knives, will enable you with the right technique to cut through branches or saplings when required, up to about 10cm thick. Yes it will take you some time and some patience, and you wont be able to go right through the round, but with a circular rotating action, biting into the round and moving on, its possible.
I wont go into too much detail on the other tools, pretty much every SAK has them, and pretty much everyone on the planet has owned or at least used a SAK in their life at some point. There has always been a debate over whether the Wenger is better than the Victornox, and there have always been fans of each brand sticking to their guns as to which model is 'best'. I confess to being a Victornox fan. I have never, ever owned a Wenger knife, so I have stuck to what I know and love.
The Outrider is not a legal EDC knife for the Uk, in that unlike the smaller versions that do satisfy the requirements of UK knife law, the locking blade on this knife confines it to the woods and outdoors situations only, where I can perfectly justify the use of it. Thats fine, I have my Soldier and Farmer for EDC use, its just a shame that the Outrider, which is so useful, is limited in its capacity as a tool to be used more often.
I did an introduction video to this knife for my YouTube Channel when I first acquired it, just to carve a simple tent peg. Here is the link to the video if you want to watch it...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1Ci1Vn2oT0
...along with a couple of photographs/stills from the video if you dont want to sit through the whole thing.
The saw is very capable indeed and as with the saws on pretty much all Victorinox knives, will enable you with the right technique to cut through branches or saplings when required, up to about 10cm thick. Yes it will take you some time and some patience, and you wont be able to go right through the round, but with a circular rotating action, biting into the round and moving on, its possible.
I wont go into too much detail on the other tools, pretty much every SAK has them, and pretty much everyone on the planet has owned or at least used a SAK in their life at some point. There has always been a debate over whether the Wenger is better than the Victornox, and there have always been fans of each brand sticking to their guns as to which model is 'best'. I confess to being a Victornox fan. I have never, ever owned a Wenger knife, so I have stuck to what I know and love.
The Outrider is not a legal EDC knife for the Uk, in that unlike the smaller versions that do satisfy the requirements of UK knife law, the locking blade on this knife confines it to the woods and outdoors situations only, where I can perfectly justify the use of it. Thats fine, I have my Soldier and Farmer for EDC use, its just a shame that the Outrider, which is so useful, is limited in its capacity as a tool to be used more often.
I did an introduction video to this knife for my YouTube Channel when I first acquired it, just to carve a simple tent peg. Here is the link to the video if you want to watch it...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1Ci1Vn2oT0
...along with a couple of photographs/stills from the video if you dont want to sit through the whole thing.