Victorinox Alpineer

gajinoz

gajinoz

Joined
Sep 2, 2003
Messages
11,650
I bought this knife because a friend of mine who is into bushwalking in mountainous areas asked me to find him a VERY lightweight, but useful, knife he could take with him on his trips. To him, weight is everything.

I decided to have a look at the Alpineer and see what I thought of it.

First of all, this is a very light knife, you can put it in your pocket and forget that it's there. I was surprised at just how light it was, considering it's size.

One of the reasons for this lack of weight is that, unlike most SAKs, it doesn't have enough tools to build a spaces shuttle. It has a good sized knife blade which locks, a corkscrew, the obligatory toothpick and tweezers, a keyring and that's it. I'm not quite sure why it has a corkscrew. If you're looking for a lightweight knife you're probably not going to be carrying around bottles of wine on your mountain climbing treks!

The handle is a good shape that allows a firm grip. It had a slightly matt finish which means that, even with gloves, it should resist slipping. The locking mechanism is easy to use, just slide it back with finger or
thumb. This has a serrated finish which means it should work well even wet or with gloves on.

The knife blade is thin and is definitely not meant for heavy duty work. The knife works very well for light duties like peeling fruit, slicing vegetables and other light slicing duries. I stripped some insulation from some electrical wire and ended up with a few dings and dents in the edge. Nothing major but it demonstrated that it's not going to accept much abuse. However, for what it's designed for, it's an extremely good knife. The blade also has a highly polished finish, (as you'll see in the pics), so it might act as an emergency flashing device if necessary. Overall, I like the knife. It locks solidly, there is slight up and down play but no side to side play and generally seems well made. It only costs around $30 maybe less in some
places so I would suggest it's very good value for money.


The grey square on the handle is the blade lock.
alpine1.jpg



You can see how shiny the blade is here.
alpine2.jpg



Closed up, makes a tidy package.
alpine3.jpg



Size comparison with a small Sebenza and BM Mini Grip.
alpine4.jpg
 
I like the "slide lock" better than the usual liner-lock.

One advantage of the Victorinox is the relatively soft steel used. You can sharpen them on about anything (though they need it more often).
 
You'd be amazed at how well a corkscrew will untie tough knots with a little practice. Doubt if this is what Vic had in mind but it works for me.:thumbup:
 
Victorinox used to make one just like that one except it had a phillips screwdriver instead of a corkscrew,I think they called it the Cowboy.I would like to see them come out with one with just an awl (or reamer).I use a SAK of one kind or another to strip wire all the time and have never seen one ding or get hurt doing it before.Maybe yours got hurt doing something else or maybe its defective?
 
gajinoz said:
I'm not quite sure why it has a corkscrew. If you're looking for a lightweight knife you're probably not going to be carrying around bottles of wine on your mountain climbing treks!

The handle is a good shape that allows a firm grip. It had a slightly matt finish which means that, even with gloves, it should resist slipping. The locking mechanism is easy to use, just slide it back with finger or
thumb. This has a serrated finish which means it should work well even wet or with gloves on.

The knife blade is thin and is definitely not meant for heavy duty work. The knife works very well for light duties like peeling fruit, slicing vegetables and other light slicing duries. I stripped some insulation from some electrical wire and ended up with a few dings and dents in the edge. Nothing major but it demonstrated that it's not going to accept much abuse.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the review, gajinoz. I wouldn't underestimate the ability of a large Vic SAK like this to stand up to any rugged use. I've stripped loads of wire with mine, cut cable and heavy tubing, etc., and never had a single problem. And like orthogonal1 wrote, they're very easy to re-sharpen.

BTW, Victorinox is making a pretty interesting new single blade, one hand opener, the One Hand Sentinel. It's offered in either a serrated or plain-edge model. It's a liner lock, though.
 
Last edited:
Thanks for reviewing an often overlooked knife family. I found their 'Trekker' variant to be useful. It has a large liner lock blade - considerably more stout than their usual fare - with the extended opening hole. It is a one hander for that single bevel blade - with serrations. It has the usual big/little srewdrivers with can/bottle openers, tweezers and toothpick, and awl and Phillips head on the back. Not light - unless you consider it's size. About as heavy as the all metal, but smaller, Farmer - which isn't a bad choice, either. Check out 'Amazon' - they actually have some decent prices on them. They are addictive - and I never knew they had so many models that weren't the same sized red plastic with all the tools.

Stainz

mnblade - totally OT, but.... do you remember a Fox comedy show about real estate agents in the late 80's with Bill Maher, Allison LaPlaca, and - as a nymph secretary who hit on everyone that walked through the door - a 'cute' Ellen Degeneres??
 
Stainz said:
mnblade - totally OT, but.... do you remember a Fox comedy show about real estate agents in the late 80's with Bill Maher, Allison LaPlaca, and - as a nymph secretary who hit on everyone that walked through the door - a 'cute' Ellen Degeneres??
Click to expand...

Now how in the hell did I miss that one!? :D
 
Hi,

I know this is an old thread but I just got a new Victorinox Cowboy which is essentially the same knife as the alpineer but with a phillips instead of the corkscrew. Anyway, I am wondering if anyone has a Cowboy that can tell me if my slide lock is working correctly. My Cowboy's slide lock does not slide all the way up when the blade is up like your alpineer does as it is shown in your pictures. I attached a couple pictures of it below to show you what I mean.

Anyone with the cowboy can you tell me if your slide lock works like mine?

Edit: I cannot figure out how to add my picture of my brand new Cowboy with the blade opened to show the slide lock, but I found someone else with the Cowboy that has a picture of the slidelock here: http://calibanblog.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/cow3.jpg

Mine looks just like his (gray slide lock does not go all the way up like on yours). Why would the cowboy slide lock be any different than other slide locks?
 
There might be debris stuck in the slot where lock goes into the blade tang. Check the blade tang when unlocked (i.e. at 90*). Did it lock open properly?
Another possibility is that debris stuck in the lock button compartment. Try flushing with compressed air, spray some WD40 into it, etc.

I had one Alpineer, lost it, and replaced it with Cowboy. Both lock are similar to OP's.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top