Hey, look at that: Victorinox makes some gardening tools. Since my wife is a studying botanist and I'm into horticulture and landscaping, I thought I'd give the Gardening Knife a try. It only costed me $11 new. this Swiss Army Knife has only one feature: a blade. Nothing else. No tweezers or toothpick; no keyring. No can opener and no reamer. It's just a nice tool to use. The model number is 53567.
The Handle: The Gardening Knife is 4" closed and 7/16" thick. It's a pretty slim knife at only 14/16" wide. The liners are aluminum, and the handles are red nylon (not the standard Victorinox celluloid). The Victorinox shield is stamped in and painted gold, so it's not as fancy as the shield on the celluloid models. There are three exposed pins, and they're brass. When open, the knife is nice to hold and use. It's perfectly straight; no curves or grooves are necessary.
The Blade: The blade on this knife is a sheepsfoot shape, and it's 2-5/8" long with a 2-1/8" cutting edge. It's just a hair over 1/16" thick, yet stiff enough for most gardening work. It's chisel ground, meaning it's only ground on one side. In this case, it's the left side. The right side of the blade is completely flat. This gives you a nice, sharp edge. I know that a lot of people prefer a flat grind or a hollow grind, but the chisel grind here is very easy to keep sharp. The blade is a good choice for grafting or for general utility work. I'm talking utility work in general; not specifically gardening work. It came out of the box extremely sharp.
Slipjoint: There's no lock on the Gardening Knife. Instead, the blade is held open with a stiff backspring. Since this knife is going to be used for utility cutting and not stabbing, I think this "locking" mechanism is more than adequate. This blade isn't going to close unless you want it to thanks to the stiffness of the backspring. Hold one in your hand and you'll see. Opening is accomplished via nail nick, or by grabbing the exposed portion of the blade.
There's not much else to say about this basic, inexpensive Swiss Army Knife. It's made for gardening work, but it will make a great utility knife as well. The shorter, sheepsfoot non-locking blade isn't at all threatening; I've openly used it in many environments where a more "tactical" knife or even the traditional Buck 110 would have gathered some serious looks. This is a great toolbox knife.
My only gripe is the lack of a keyring or lanyard attachment, but it's easy to get over once you see how nice the knife really is. I've seen gardening knives three times this much that weren't as well-made and easy to use. Pick one up and you'll see what I mean.
The Handle: The Gardening Knife is 4" closed and 7/16" thick. It's a pretty slim knife at only 14/16" wide. The liners are aluminum, and the handles are red nylon (not the standard Victorinox celluloid). The Victorinox shield is stamped in and painted gold, so it's not as fancy as the shield on the celluloid models. There are three exposed pins, and they're brass. When open, the knife is nice to hold and use. It's perfectly straight; no curves or grooves are necessary.
The Blade: The blade on this knife is a sheepsfoot shape, and it's 2-5/8" long with a 2-1/8" cutting edge. It's just a hair over 1/16" thick, yet stiff enough for most gardening work. It's chisel ground, meaning it's only ground on one side. In this case, it's the left side. The right side of the blade is completely flat. This gives you a nice, sharp edge. I know that a lot of people prefer a flat grind or a hollow grind, but the chisel grind here is very easy to keep sharp. The blade is a good choice for grafting or for general utility work. I'm talking utility work in general; not specifically gardening work. It came out of the box extremely sharp.
Slipjoint: There's no lock on the Gardening Knife. Instead, the blade is held open with a stiff backspring. Since this knife is going to be used for utility cutting and not stabbing, I think this "locking" mechanism is more than adequate. This blade isn't going to close unless you want it to thanks to the stiffness of the backspring. Hold one in your hand and you'll see. Opening is accomplished via nail nick, or by grabbing the exposed portion of the blade.
There's not much else to say about this basic, inexpensive Swiss Army Knife. It's made for gardening work, but it will make a great utility knife as well. The shorter, sheepsfoot non-locking blade isn't at all threatening; I've openly used it in many environments where a more "tactical" knife or even the traditional Buck 110 would have gathered some serious looks. This is a great toolbox knife.
My only gripe is the lack of a keyring or lanyard attachment, but it's easy to get over once you see how nice the knife really is. I've seen gardening knives three times this much that weren't as well-made and easy to use. Pick one up and you'll see what I mean.
