Victorinox Sportsman Swiss Army Knife, 13 Function Swiss Made Pocket Knife with Large Blade, Corkscrew and Wire Stripper - Red

I own many Victorinox knives from the Swiss Champ, Champion Plus, Ranger, Huntsman, Huntsman Plus, Climber, Spartan, Camper, and Cadet. This Sportsman is just perfect, why? because it is a little more compact at 84mm (3 1/4") and it has all the essentials:Large Blade, for cutting work like opening letters, peeling oranges, it is very sharp.Nail file, some other knives don't come with nail file, unless you have the 3 layer mountaneer that has one or the Huntsman that is a 4 layer knife. It is useful when you chip a nail and need to file it smooth. The nail cleaner is also good for digging dirt out of the nails, specially after playing on the sand at the beach.Can opener is very useful, when you are at a park and need to open it and forgot your regular can opener. The little screw driver tip also works as a phillips head too. Tried it a few times already when the flat head screw driver tip was too big for the phillips screw I was trying to tighten.Bottle opener, this one I use a lot, specially to open bottles of beer, most beers i enjoy are imported and they don't have the twist open function. The metal is very thick and strong and I also use it as a prybar to open things like can's of paint.Corkscrew, small but very useful, I use it all the time to open wine, as I enjoy a good Cabernet Sauvignon with my steak. For the people who don't use the corkscrew, it is used to house a mini screwdriver that you can get separately, this works on sunglasses, glasses and the little remotes for car alarms. It served me well the other day when I needed to change the battery on my car's alarm remote.Awl, i use it to open boxes with it, cuz I don't want to dull the blade's edge with this task.All in all this is a 2 layer knife that is very compact and one that you can carry in your pocket without being too heavy. I also stash it in my bicycle's saddle bag when I am riding my bike. As my bike tool is very compact and is missing some of the stuff I need in my Sportsman, it has become indispensable even on a bike ride on the beach or the park. Like a credit card commercial says, "Don't leave home without it", I always have mine with me.

I’ve carried a Victorinox Swiss Army knife every day for over 50 years, and I have over 50 of them, including some vintage models costing hundreds of dollars.The Sportsman is currently my choice for an EDC knife.The two-layer 84 mm SAKs really hit a sweet spot, perfectly balancing pocketability and functionality.Pocketability is important… key, even. To really “get” Swiss Army Knives, to understand the genius of their design, you need to carry your knife all the time. All. The. Time. It’s only then that you realize, not how many uses they have, exactly, but rather how many times during the day having one makes things better.For me, most of the time, I can carry larger models perfectly comfortable. Most of the time. Not all the time. I wear lightweight yoga/meditation-stye pants around the house year round, and out and about in warm weather. A larger knife isn’t comfortable in those. Or in lightweight shorts. Or in dress pants.In about 2008, I started collecting and using lots of different models, but before that I carried the Climber model every day for about 40 years. I’ve done the math, based on the length of time and how many times I use SAK during a day. I figure I’ve used my Climber right around 100,000 times. It really is a great EDC knife, and I always especially like the scissors.But, the scissors aren’t available on any 84 mm SAKs currently in production. I have some vintage Golfers with the scissors, and they’re really nice.But lately I realized something. If you go on a knife or bushcrafting forum, and mention how you really want the scissors, inevitably someone will say, “I’ve found I can do all my cutting tasks with the knife blades.” Well, that’s true, except for one thing: you can’t trim your fingernails with them. That sounds like a trivial thing, but having a ragged nail drives me crazy, and if I can’t deal with it, I feel like my Swiss Army Knife let me down, which makes me very sad. I love my knife. I don’t want to feel bad about it.But (this is the thing I realized), with the nail file/cleaner blade on the Sportsman, I don’t have to worry about that. With the Sportsman, those guys who said you can do all your cutting tasks with the knife blades are now correct. I’ll use the file for my nails, and the knife for everything else.Importantly, the file blade is much more versatile than the scissors. The scissors do one thing, very well. But just one thing. The file blade is quite versatile.It cleans and files your nails, of courseIt files other stuffIt’s a very good driver for small Phillips screwsIt’s a good little pry tool, especially for the plastic cases and covers on small devices and appliancesIt’s good for opening packages and mail without dulling your bladeIt (along with the corkscrew) is a good marlinspike-type tool for getting stubborn knots untiedThe corkscrew is very versatile too… more so than the back-mounted Phillips. And that Phillips isn’t very good: you can’t use it in tight places, and it only gets purchase on large screws. The tip of the can opener blade, on the other hand, works great on Phillips screws across a wide range of sizes, and it works in tight quarters, so there’s no need for the back-mounted Phillips. The corkscrew is, like the file, good for untying stubborn knots. And it holds the mini-screwdriver (which, incidentally, is an excellent tool for working with small split rings). And it screws corks!The Sportsman has as much or even more functionality as my beloved Climber, but at about 60% the pocket presence.I think about Swiss Army knives *a lot*. And I currently think the Sportsman is the best EDC pocket knife, including vintage, out-of-production models.