The Swiss Army knife, is indeed one of the most used knife for outdoors purposes.
This term regroups all the knives made by two brands: Victorinox and Wenger. These maker provide the Swiss army in equal parts since 1908. Originally Swiss army knives were ordered in Germany (since 1886), and in 1891, the future Victorinox company made the first Swiss delivery. Read the whole story here. By being official providers of the Swiss army, these two brands have the right to call their products Swiss army knives. Of course, only the most basic models are effectively contracted to the Swiss army (the soldier and officer models) I therefore prefer the name of Swiss knives.
I got my first one around 1975, at a time They were only found in Switzerland, and I have used, lost, given, owned, a numerous amount of them, in different models since that time.
My goal here is not to do a detailed discussion of some model, there are hundreds of them, and everybody can find one he really likes, but to present some big lines of the different collections.
Victorinox is generally reputed for its better quality, and better adjusted work, but in my opinion, all things are relative and really depend of the specific model considered. Victorinox excels on some, Wenger on others.
Among the tools I really find useful in Swiss knives are:
The main blade, which I prefer if it can be locked, but this is available only on bigger models.
The curved blunt point blade. Originally designed for hunters as a gutter, it is very useful for emergency situations, when a layer of material needs to be cut, and not anything else. The edge is finer too, and the recurve allows to cut well by pulling.
Big flat screw-driver and bottle opener combo.
Small flat screw-driver and can opener. Also used as an emergency philips / posidrive.
The awl or punch. Some are just points (Wenger Ranger), some have a hole, some have a sharpened edge and can be used as a wood drill (Victorinox lock blades), some can in addition be used as a scraper, because mounted as a blade (Soldier, Pioneer). I prefer the latest.
The wood saw. This is something I use a lot, The bigger the knife, the most efficient the saw.
Then there are tools, I do not find essential:
Pliers
Scissors
Metal file
Phillips screw-driver
Lens
Teeth pick
Tweezers
Nail file
etc etc, there must be at least 100 different tools available from the two makers.
With all the information on http://www.knifepointer.com, you'll find out more about useful
pocket knives.
