Victorinox Swiss Army Trekker Large Pocket Knife Olive Drab 111 mm

Executive Summary: The new Soldier knife is terrific, but it is not a replacement for my trusty Officier. The Soldier is for the outdoors, the Officier is for the indoors.________________I am a long time Swiss Army Knife (SAK) user. In fact, I own three different traditional SAKs (so that I always have a spare - I never lose them for good - just rotate 'em) and a few of the tiny penknife/scissor/file pocketknives that are cheap and just handy to have around. I also prefer Victorinox over Wenger, but since Wenger was bought by Victorinox recently, this is now a moot point.I carry a SAK for a lot of reasons. First, I hate being without tools. Watching someone trying to use a paperclip or a fingernail file to do what should be done with an actual blade or screwdriver or whatever is just annoying. SAKs are endlessly useful when you have a problem that requires a real tool (except when you need a wrench or pliers, but that's wandering into multi-tool territory). Second, SAKs are regarded as relatively innocuous by the public - no one is going to clutch their heart and gasp when you pull out a SAK. True, the airport security folk frown on them and that is a whole other discussion that doesn't belong here, but everyone else regard them as tools, which is exactly what they are.The biggest beef I've had is the non-locking main blade. You should never carry a dull knife, and SAKs are made of pretty good stainless steel which sharpens and holds a fine edge, but working with a non-locking folding blade requires an extra degree of care. I've never had one fold back on me, but it is still something of a concern having your fingers in the path of where a razor sharp blade would fold back. You'd have to be doing something pretty dumb to get yourself into that position, but as they say, fools are ingenious.Not being a knife fanatic I was not aware that Victorinox was producing locking knives until very recently. When I looked at the new knives, I was impressed and ordered the new Soldier (#53945) to see if it would replace my trusty "Officier".The Officier (folded) is about an inch shorter than the new Soldier, about 1/4" thicker and about 1/2" less wide (the thumb hole on the new Soldier blade is what sticks out.) I don't have a scale, but the Soldier is somewhat heavier although not by a great deal. The Soldier is a relatively large folding knife -- I have medium size hands and it fits fairly comfortably; someone with large hands would probably find it acceptable. The Soldier will fit in a pocket, but you'll know it's there.The Officer has the following:Large bladeSmall blade (penknife)Small scissorsPhillips screwdriverMagnifying glassCan opener/small screwdriverLarge screwdriver/bottle opener(reverse side)CorkscrewHookAwl (with hole in awl blade, presumably for sewing tarps and leather)TweezersToothpickThe new Soldier has:Large locking blade, partially serrated (towards the front of the blade)This blade is pointed, but not sharp at the tip. It can easily be opened with one hand and locked into place. It can easily be unlocked and folded in the _left_ hand. It is somewhat more difficult to unlock and fold with the right hand, due to the direction you have to push the frame lock. This is a minor issue; simply transfer to left hand, and fold if you can't get the hang of closing it with the right. (Usually lefties get the worst of it, but not this time. Wonder what that's all about?).Wood saw - very fast cut in live woodCan opener/small screwdriverLocking large screwdriver/bottle opener/wire stripper. Nice to finally be able to use the screwdriver without having it fold, ouch!(reverse side)Phillips screwdriverAwl (no hole)(incidentally, I have no trouble opening and locking the large blade single handed with either hand - perhaps I have stronger thumbs than some)As you can see, the Officier has 12 functions, the new Soldier has 7. The Soldier lacks a scissors, corkscrew, hook, magnifier, tweezers and toothpick. For some reason, the awl has no hole in it for sewing.I actually make frequent use of the scissors, some use of the corkscrew and tweezers, no use of the hook and toothpick.However, the two knives have different jobs to do. The Officier is more of an "indoor, every day" knife, the Soldier an outdoor knife, for more rugged purposes. The large locking serrated blade of the Soldier is about an inch longer, which makes it much more useful for a variety of outdoor tasks, including defensive and offensive tasks. I wouldn't want to have to defend myself with the Officier non-locking blade. The Soldier has a much better handle, giving much better control of the blade, and with its one-handed blade deploy, is far more useful when you are holding something with the other hand and can't drop it to open the knife blade. That doesn't happen so often indoors, but is a fairly common event outdoors.I wouldn't want to have to make tinder, split kindling, saw branches, etc. with the Officier, but there's a lot of scissoring, fine knife work, cork pulling and tweezering the Soldier can't do indoors. Plus, no toothpick!Conclusion: Officier for Monday-Friday, Soldier for weekends and holidays. Both are indispensable and you should own both.

I bought one of these as I needed a heavier duty SAK for farm work. I was very confused, since Victorinox produces several different knives that are all essentially the Trekker--but only differ in containing scale tools in the handles, blade serration, or handles. I picked this one because I liked it the best for some reason. I thought at first, "Oh, great, why did I buy a liner-locking knife, those stink for left-handed people?", since until then I'd never been able to use linerlocks with my left hand easily (cheap tactical knives and the screwdriver on electrician's pocketknives including and pattered after the Camillus TL-29) Well, I was quite surprised when the Victorinox liner-lock mechanism worked opposite what other liner-locking non-Victorinox knives I'd had over the years, meaning I could easily unlock the knife with my left hand--meaning full true one-handed operation (since I'm left handed). All tools are on backsprings, meaning if the linerlock fails, the blade will still stay open, but not lock.I'm only going to go over the unique features of this knife.The blade opens with only my left thumb. I don't need assisted opening mechansims. A thumb stud works just fine.The large, locking bottle opener and screwdriver means that the tool can now be used for light prying without messing up the knife. At first, I hated the serrations. However, they make quick work of heavy cutting tasks, like brush, tarp, and ropes.Saw is much longer than on 91mm Swiss Army Knives, meaning one can saw through larger branches or through the same diameters one saws with their 91mm knife much quicker. According to an episode of the National Geographic Channel show "Ultimate Factories" this was added, as the Swiss soldiers requested a saw as they spend a bunch of time in the woods. I do as well, and highly appreciate this tool.Awl is similar to older 91mm Swiss Army Knives--no sewing hole. I never used that sewing eye anyway, so it's not much of a loss to me.Phillips Driver is thicker. Unlike the 91mm models without the can key slot, it cannot handle No. 1 Phillips. Also, it's been rumored overtorquing this tool can break the brass pin. I've never used this tool heavily enough for this to happen.To tell the truth, for pocket carry, I prefer the old Model 1961 Soldier. The old Soldier was a whole heck of a lot tougher and lighter since instead of a thin aluminum liner and a somewhat thicker plastic handle, it had solid and thick aluminium "Alox" handles.. From one short drop onto gravel, I've already bent the outer liner 45 degrees on the Model 2008. I have a 1993 dated Model 1961 that was purchased secondhand with beat-up handles that was likely dropped the same way I did the Model 2008 (that resulted in the damage) much, much more than once. I've never understood why the Swiss Army never considered a Farmer with Soldier handles. I also prefer the 93mm awl to the 111mm and 91mm backside awls. But, with that you don't get a dedicated Phillips driver, locking bottle opener, or one hand opening partially serrated blade, or place to attach a lanyard if it were based on the late production Soldiers (which omitted the hole for a lanyard, which on Wengers had a wire lanyard bail). So, I can perfectly understand why the Soldier was completely redesigned. It's a huge improvement over the (at the time the Soldier 2008 was introduced) 47 year old Model 1961, which had a tool selection that had not been modified much since the original, the Model 1891. .