Someone asked about a Compact, i have one, and if it were the only SAK i owned i would be happy with its minimal feature set and EDC friendly size. The only thing Victorinox makes currently that is smaller with scissors is any of the 58mm SAKs like a Classic, which isn’t interesting to me since i don’t carry keys anymore.
But the compact is not the only SAK i own, so it gets rotated. If I’m away from home for a few days or more, it is my favorite carry by far. Long road trips (which we do regularly to visit kids) or backpacking it lives in my pocket. My 900 miles of backpacking last year made use of every tool without lacking, and i did use the pen for trail logs and journaling and signing credit card receipts (a US thing), the pin for treating (draining) blisters, the parcel hook for stubborn tent stakes, the corkscrew for detangling lines, the opener for my bear resistant food bin and beers, the scissors and file for finger and toe nails and mustache trimming, tweezers for ticks. I might have missed a few of those tools with something like a Climber, while gaining separate food and utility blades, but i wouldn’t have been as happy to EDC a 3 layer Climber once i wasn’t hiking. So the Compact is a fantastic feature set for me, and i carry it a couple of days a week even around home.
Prior to acquiring the Compact and a Sportsman, i was happy with just my Waiter for a decade (think Bantam plus a corkscrew to untangle the tight knots in my dog leash). The Waiter, and so presumably either Bantam or ALOX Cadet, simply disappear in my pocket when i am not using them, fitting in well beside my phone.
Lately I’ve added a Sportsman to do triage on my nails occasionally (think Cadet plus a corkscrew), and it’s now my favorite suburban compromise. I’ve learned that i like the can opener’s screw driver tip for a lot of things. And it is just that little bit smaller in my pocket than the Compact for when i can get to the Compact’s scissors if i really need them. An ALOX Cadet might have been great for me, except i really do use the corkscrew on the dog’s leash regularly. But the Sportsman gets 5-6 days a week carry, when I’m not carrying one of the others.
