I was undecided.

D

depmenpradech

Joined
Jan 23, 2021
Messages
14
Hi.I'm 19 years old.My english is not good,sorry.I love swiss army knife.So ı recently bought a victorinox hiker.It took me 2 years to get this.In the country where I live, they are very expensive.But now i met farmer.It is very beautiful and very axpensive (example hiker 228 dollar ,farmer 411 dollar.).Does it make sense to buy farmer for bigger blade and alox?
(I need to sell hiker to buy farmer)
(prices are examples)
 
Owning both, I would say it depends on your actual needs. The Farmer has a nice thick blade but Alox gets banged up and loses both the toothpick and tweezers as tools which I find essential for a daily carried knife. I would keep what you have already. Where do you live?
 
CSG said:
Owning both, I would say it depends on your actual needs. The Farmer has a nice thick blade but Alox gets banged up and loses both the toothpick and tweezers as tools which I find essential for a daily carried knife. I would keep what you have already. Where do you live?
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I can't have both.Both meet my needs.But alox looks so beautiful.I'm from Turkey.
 
I have a Hiker but prefer the Camper. I like it so much that I haven’t seriously considered a Farmer, and I am a big fan of the alox Soldier.

For me the small blade and scale tools make the Hiker a more generally useful knife and better value for money.
 
I find that the alox SAKs are really beautiful, especially in blue, red, or OD green ones. For that reason, I think that they are nice collector knives. However, if you plan on using it (and, if that's the only one you have, you should), I don't think that they are worth it in my personal opinion. Unless you're abusing it, the thicker blade and alox scales really won't make a difference in terms of structural strength (and probably still won't make _that much_ of a difference if abusing it). Personally, I find that traditional SAKs, with the scale tools, offer much more functionality and do so for less money => better value.

I can totally relate to your circumstances because, growing up, buying a SAK would have been quite the extravagance. I don't know how things are in Turkey, but have you looked to see if you can buy used SAKs? Some models can sometimes be had for less than half of the original price and in very good condition. In fact, the fast majority of my SAKs were bought used, even though some look brand new.
 
Just an aside, back in 1996, my girlfriend (now wife) and I spent 20 days backpacking in Turkey. I carried my Victorinox Adventurer. What a beautiful country, and the people we met were amazingly open and friendly! I used the bottle opener on my knife to open countless bottles of cold Efes Pilsen beer. :)

PS: I would just keep your Hiker. Alox is nice, but not worth twice the price. You're just 19, and life is long. You'll get that alox knife someday. For now, just enjoy the Hiker ..... which is a very fine knife!
 
Sawl Goodman said:
I have a Hiker but prefer the Camper. I like it so much that I haven’t seriously considered a Farmer, and I am a big fan of the alox Soldier.

For me the small blade and scale tools make the Hiker a more generally useful knife and better value for money.
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Thank you for your answer.Alox looks really nice.
 
Enkrig said:
I find that the alox SAKs are really beautiful, especially in blue, red, or OD green ones. For that reason, I think that they are nice collector knives. However, if you plan on using it (and, if that's the only one you have, you should), I don't think that they are worth it in my personal opinion. Unless you're abusing it, the thicker blade and alox scales really won't make a difference in terms of structural strength (and probably still won't make _that much_ of a difference if abusing it). Personally, I find that traditional SAKs, with the scale tools, offer much more functionality and do so for less money => better value.

I can totally relate to your circumstances because, growing up, buying a SAK would have been quite the extravagance. I don't know how things are in Turkey, but have you looked to see if you can buy used SAKs? Some models can sometimes be had for less than half of the original price and in very good condition. In fact, the fast majority of my SAKs were bought used, even though some look brand new.
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Thanks for your answer.I am very careful about using it properly. I can say I have used it almost four times. I am afraid it will break.It is very difficult to find it used. I think there is not much SAK culture here.
 
mnblade said:
Just an aside, back in 1996, my girlfriend (now wife) and I spent 20 days backpacking in Turkey. I carried my Victorinox Adventurer. What a beautiful country, and the people we met were amazingly open and friendly! I used the bottle opener on my knife to open countless bottles of cold Efes Pilsen beer. :)

PS: I would just keep your Hiker. Alox is nice, but not worth twice the price. You're just 19, and life is long. You'll get that alox knife someday. For now, just enjoy the Hiker ..... which is a very fine knife!
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Thanks for your answer.I'm so glad you like the Turkey.I guess hiker makes more sense to me. :)
 
depmenpradech said:
Thanks for your answer.I am very careful about using it properly. I can say I have used it almost four times. I am afraid it will break.It is very difficult to find it used. I think there is not much SAK culture here.
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I will say that it is not easy to break a Victorinox SAK... When I mentioned abusing, I was mainly thinking of something like batoning or prying, which should never be done with any folding knife (and it is still questionable with fixed blade knives), because even it it doesn't break it will likely loosen the pivot pins. Most normal uses of a knife and the SAK tools, the chance of breaking is really minimal, and Victorinox has lifetime warranty otherwise.
 
I think the choice between choosing 91mm SAK or 93mm Alox SAK is just a matter of personal preference, here are some of the difference that comes to mind:

1) As you know, the 93mm has slightly longer and thicker blade and more stout backspring. If the pull on regular 91mm is a 5(10 being weld shut), then I would say the Alox SAK has a pull of 6.

2) Instead of small blade usually found on most 91mm, 93mm has an inline awl. Some prefer having this than a small blade, personally, I am a big fan of small blade for EDC use.

3) Silver Alox scales is more durable than regular 91mm cellidor, it doesn't chip/break if you drop it on pavement or get scratched up as easily. But the good thing about cellidor scale is it is easily replaceable and it doesn't feel as 'cold' to use in winter time.

4) 91mm cellidor scale does host useful small tools, such as tweezer, toothpick or even a pen. And 91mm chassis does have very useful backside tools(such as corkscrew, awl, phillips, etc) but 93mm doesn't have any.

5) Some of the tools on 93mm are 'beefier' than the 91mm relative, but function wise, they perform quite equally well.
 
Enkrig said:
I will say that it is not easy to break a Victorinox SAK... When I mentioned abusing, I was mainly thinking of something like batoning or prying, which should never be done with any folding knife (and it is still questionable with fixed blade knives), because even it it doesn't break it will likely loosen the pivot pins. Most normal uses of a knife and the SAK tools, the chance of breaking is really minimal, and Victorinox has lifetime warranty otherwise.
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I'm a little too cautious.
 
Pomsbz said:
I would suggest having a better look. I live not far from your country and manage fine. I've ordered SAK's from Russian sellers on ebay many times without any problems :)
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I don't know much to use ebay.But usually there is a shipping fee of $ 20-21
 
comis said:
I think the choice between choosing 91mm SAK or 93mm Alox SAK is just a matter of personal preference, here are some of the difference that comes to mind:

1) As you know, the 93mm has slightly longer and thicker blade and more stout backspring. If the pull on regular 91mm is a 5(10 being weld shut), then I would say the Alox SAK has a pull of 6.

2) Instead of small blade usually found on most 91mm, 93mm has an inline awl. Some prefer having this than a small blade, personally, I am a big fan of small blade for EDC use.

3) Silver Alox scales is more durable than regular 91mm cellidor, it doesn't chip/break if you drop it on pavement or get scratched up as easily. But the good thing about cellidor scale is it is easily replaceable and it doesn't feel as 'cold' to use in winter time.

4) 91mm cellidor scale does host useful small tools, such as tweezer, toothpick or even a pen. And 91mm chassis does have very useful backside tools(such as corkscrew, awl, phillips, etc) but 93mm doesn't have any.

5) Some of the tools on 93mm are 'beefier' than the 91mm relative, but function wise, they perform quite equally well.
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Frankly, I know that hiker is more advantageous.But the big knife and shiny alox attract me.These are the situations that leave me indecisive.Both of them meet my needs more than enough.If the farmer didn't have the big knife and alox I would never have thought to buy it.I want to have the best with my money I guess that's the problem.To be realistic, I have to wait at least 6 to 7 months to buy farmer.I guess I just dreamed :) I hope I explained it correctly.
I have one more question.Should i do the treatments every time i use it.(I'm talking about oiling and sharpening).
 
depmenpradech said:
Frankly, I know that hiker is more advantageous.But the big knife and shiny alox attract me.These are the situations that leave me indecisive.Both of them meet my needs more than enough.If the farmer didn't have the big knife and alox I would never have thought to buy it.I want to have the best with my money I guess that's the problem.To be realistic, I have to wait at least 6 to 7 months to buy farmer.I guess I just dreamed :) I hope I explained it correctly.
I have one more question.Should i do the treatments every time i use it.(I'm talking about oiling and sharpening).
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It's your money to spend on your knife, so do what makes you happiest in the long run. Farmer is a solid choice, and the newer Farmer X is even better.

In terms of oiling and sharpening, I have used my SAK for many years and its steel is really stainless and probably one of the most rustproof knife I have ever used(save dive knife such as Spyderco H1 Salt). So as long you are not using it by the sea or salty environment, I think a simple wipe clean after use is sufficient to keep it in good working order. If you are using it by sea/salty environment, then cleaning and reoiling probably is a good idea. Otherwise, I will only clean the chassis/oiling the joint once in a long time(every couple of months or even up to a year).

Sharpening is a different story, Vic steel does not have really high edge retention, so you may have to strop or sharpen it often if you use it enough of times. Unless you are breaking countless cardboard box nonstop as a job, you probably don't have to sharpen it until you need to. I usually just strop the blade whenever it could no longer shave, and I could usually strop it right back to shaving sharpness within a minute.
 
Pomsbz said:
You said that a Farmer costs over $400 where you are and you're worrying about a $20 shipping fee to get one from ebay for a tiny fraction of the price? I don't get it.
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This is in local liras, if you transfer it to the US dollars price is around regular worldwide (55-56$) maybe a bit higher but not dramatically.
P.C. I hope I don’t breaking the forum rules about price discussion :)
 
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