The 30 Day Victorinox Huntsman Challenge!

[captain spaulding]

Good work! 

[Monrogue]

Nice, another good day of work for Vicky

[Jothra]

Okay, sports fans, here's Day 3! I didn't get all the pictures I would have liked today, but that's what happens when things get too busy.

First thing this morning, we needed to lay out the poly sheeting I picked up yesterday. This basically meant unrolling it from foundation wall to foundation wall, cutting it to length, and taping it together. Naturally, Vicky can't tape things (no thumbs), but cut the 10-mil plastic just fine. This included cutting out around pipes and columns so everything is nice and flat.

Next I needed to clean out the holes in the foundation that the rebar for the floor is epoxied into. Normally this just means using a pump-style blower to, you know, blow dust from the hammer-drilling process out of the holes. Unfortunately, seven of them (yes, I counted) were caked with mud, and needed some...um...probing. Usually I use discarded welding rods or long junk nails for this kind of thing, but challenge challenge challenge challenge!


Challenge challenge challenge challenge! Also, note the classy odometer reading written on my hand. I have a notepad in my wallet 100% of the time, so why was I writing on my hand?

I tried to use the back of the blade for the scraping, since I needed very little pressure, and because a blade stuffed in a concrete hole barely bigger than itself is unlikely to close up. Phenomenally unlikely.

Anyway, I was pretty sure this was finally going to render the blade a bit dull, so I tested it on a receipt. It still sliced, but it wasn't a very clean cut. So, for curiosity's sake, I tried simply stropping it on my jeans, making 10 passes per side. The result? Please believe that I'm not making this up—the blade was push-cut sharp again. It can still shave arm hair, and I've done no sharpening at all beyond stropping it on my jeans. I'm actually getting a little afraid of the blade at this point. I'm scared that if I stare at it too hard, it will cut into my very soul.

When the hook of a co-worker's 50' tape measure got stuck open, I pried it into moving again using the awl. It was the only tool that would fit, I swear! Besides, everything's fine. Both tape and awl are unharmed.

At one point, I needed to pull a nail-it just far enough out of a wood form for my hammer to grab. So what happened? I accidentally pulled it all the way out with a single tug with the bottle opener. This picture is fuzzy because the nail-it started moving as my phone was focusing, and came all the way out just after the picture snapped.


I'm lucky I didn't fly straight backwards in a humorous cartoon roll to end up on my head at the bottom of a trench.

Once we had the forms dealt with, we needed to snap some lines to mark our eventual floor-pour height. Step one was setting the benchmark height for the receiver of our laser level, so we could make sure the marks for our new lines were at the height of the rest of our lines. To make this as accurate as possible, I decided I needed something flat, with a point, to stick perpendicular to an old line to help me square up the bottom of the receiver's stick.


Super accuracy? You bet!

I just put the knife blade in place, set the shot stick on the blade, and used this setup to make sure everything was square. This was really easy and effective. I like easy and effective.

While actually snapping the lines, we found out our chalk line was fraying about 20 feet into the string, which meant it was getting snagged on its way out of the reel and on its way back in. Normally it frays closer to the leading end, so you just need to cut the string off at the frayed part, and tie the metal end back on. Twenty feet is a lot of string, though, so we trimmed the frayed parts down with Vicky's scissors. Success! I admit, this wasn't much of a challenge, but this is one of the few things I did today that didn't involve totally misusing my plucky Huntsman.

Hey, remember this?


Gah! Why?

That will probably go down in history as the worst thing I have ever done to a multitool ever. But I needed to pry that pin out enough to get a hammer claw under! What else could I do?

Oh yeah...this.


Maybe it doesn't show in the picture, but I'm putting a metric borkload of pressure on that bottle opener/screwdriver.

I was positive this was going to end in tears. I thought, "moron! You're going to destroy your bottle opener on Day 3! You're going to be without one of the most important functions on your pocket tool for the rest of the month, you idiot!" Well, no. I was wrong. I was the wrongest boy in Wrong Town. I could pry the form pin out just enough to get a real prying tool under it, and Vicky's bottle opener left unscathed except for a couple of extremely hard-to-spot scratches. I could barely get the bottle opener under there in the first place, and I was sure I was going to either snap the tool right off or bend it beyond any hope of closing it again. What actually happened is that it still has exactly as much snap as it did before. I'm sure much more pressure would have wrecked everything. I'm absolutely shocked at this result. I don't even have the words, and I'm all about words. I wouldn't recommend doing this, but now we know you can.

Day 3 everybody!

[Goatlord666]

Oh man, I am looking forward to this one.   As for a name; how about "Vicky"?

I am yet to meet a huntress named vicky...so +2

[JAfromMn]

I'm following this thread

I just bought a huntsman myself

thanks for the excellent topics Jothra

I enjoy reading your 30 day challenges

this one is one of the best so far   

[Monrogue]

Again, another enjoyable read.  Sounded like a bit of a rough day, but that seems to be the norm for you and Vicky so far.  I loved the term, "metric borkload"   I seriously chuckled out load when I read that. 

[blooper]

This challenge is awesome. Really securing my condlfidence in Vic products.

Sent from my Kindle Fire using Tapatalk 2

[Nhoj]

You put a lot of good use into your multitools. I wonder how one of the Gerbers with a pry bar on them would work for you?

[rmagralha]

This is really cool Jothra, reading every day anxious to know how Vicky handled it.....

[Lynn LeFey]

I have tried... and tried... and TRIED to tell people to carry a vic, if for NO OTHER reason than to have a good 'light duty' pry tool. You know, that thing that will save you from snapping off your blade tip by doing something stupid that most any scale flat driver can handle.

I may need to really reevaluate my assessment of 'light duty' for the vic's prying capability.

And now I'm wondering what an ALOX 93mm, Spirit X, or that big monster flathead on the 111mm could handle.

Keep this stuff coming. I'm a fan. I'm subbed. I've 'liked'. In the words of the Tick: "I grok your mouth music, mandingo!"

[comis]

Great work for another day, totally unexpected, and still 27 more to go!  Keep it up Vicky! 

If only a LM could also try whatever Vicky is going thru, that would be the ultimate death race of the century... 

[Jothra]

I may need to really reevaluate my assessment of 'light duty' for the vic's prying capability.

And now I'm wondering what an ALOX 93mm, Spirit X, or that big monster flathead on the 111mm could handle.

I haven't used a 93 or Spirit, but I can tell you from similar (but not identical) experience that I would have had almost no reservations about doing what Vicky did with the Beef Monster prybar on my OH Forester. That thing is a beast from beyond purgatory.

Also: "Churchill's space ponies are making gravy without the lumps!"

[colt 1911]

Victorinox should be paying you !

[firiki]

• I will not take it easy on this tool. I have higher expectations for this one than my other two challenge tools, and I will punish it accordingly. I may do things to this tool that will make you cry (and, let's be serious, will make me cry).

  *shrieks* I knew you were serious about that and in all honesty, sticking the knife blade into a concrete wall  ... Vic openers are absolutely great IMO and you just demonstrated why! I think you're kind of making History right now, writting a review that future generations will use as a reference regarding SAK limits

I'm looking forward to seeing what comes next (poor Vicky, you deserve better). Take care 

[Steinar]

This is like a horror movie, but our plucky heroine is still taking it in strides!

[Grathr]

Go vicky! 

[Jothra]

Day 5 was a pretty knife-light day at work, since I was drilling 400 holes and then hoarding in a building with insulated tarps. My new Leatherman Rebar did a fine job with the tie wire for the tarps, but that's not why we're here.

Vicky did come in handy when I got a nice group of unfortunate and painful slivers from a plywood strip. Go tweezers! The big slivers hurt more, but they're much easier to remove.

Unfortunately, there's only one picture for today:


This picture may explain why there are no sliver pictures.

That is what the inside of an LG Optimus One (P500h) looks like after it's dunked in Lapsang Souchong. It does, in fact, look just like it did before it was dunked in Lapsang Souchong, though now it has a pleasing pine-smoked scent. Vicky popped open the phone, pushed out the SIM card, and popped up the SD card tab, which was jammed shut (possibly because of delicious tea?) I also needed to open the screw on the back of my new phone to put an SD card in. You can guess which tool I used for that, I'd wager.

Easy Day 5!

P.S.—Fortunately, I was up for a new phone, and the Samsung Galaxy Rugby LTE is a much better match for my lifestyle anyway. Which is to say it's bulletproof, because as far as my phones go I'm a deadbeat dad.

[Monrogue]

Easier day for Vicky, but not so much for the cell phone huh?  Well, at least you got a new one

[neillcurrie]

If you ever drop the Huntsman or the phone down the John, please spare us those pics

[powernoodle]

I'm nominating this as an MTO Top 10 of 2013 thread.

[enki_ck]

I'm nominating this as an MTO Top 10 of 2013 thread.

Good idea for a thread. And I second the nomination.

[Jothra]

Day 6 was harder on me than on Vicky, but it's hard to keep a good Swiss Army Knife down. The first thing we did today was cut some toenails, which Victorinox scissors handle with gusto. No pictures, because it's toenails. You probably know what these look like.

Later I used the hook as a wonky marlinspike to untie a particularly nasty knot in a ratchet strap. No pictures, I'm afraid, because the guys in the lumberyard would have thought I was insane.

To make up for the lack of pictures so far, here's a gem. We attached a plywood form to a column pocket, and wired it to the column so pushing concrete wouldn't blow it out. I couldn't get an actual for real picture, so I whipped up a Fancy Dramatization instead.


This makes me think of The Byrds for some reason.

As you spin the screwdriver, nail, rebar cutoff, or (in this case) awl, it twists the wire, tightening it and pulling the wired objects together. Farncy!

In the afternoon, it was time to put 2x4 sidewalk forms across the door openings in the foundation wall, to create a base for the future doors (future doors, like on the Jetsons?). The rigid insulation under the concrete line needed to be cut down at least 4 inches to both accommodate our forms and give me a chance to use the phrase "rigid insulation" for what must be the 500th time in less than a week of forum posts. Here's my saw cutting down one side:


SAK saws are exceptional...ly nerdy. But oh, how I adore them!

And here's the knife blade trimming it down a little farther to leth the form fit just a little snugly, instead of Doom Snuggly:


Yup.

There was a lot of insulation to cut—about 20 feet, all told—and it was all disgustingly dirty. I was pretty sure the blade would need some touching up, and I was right. Therefore, I did some cut tests on paper, both before sharpening, and after quickly swiping each side five times with a mini ceramic rod. I managed to get a picture of a before and after right next to each other. I'm not really a fan of the paper cut test thing (I've cut substantially more plywood than paper with Vicky's main blade, after all), but I thought maybe it would indicate the very small amount of edge cleanup I had to do.


More left: before sharpenatering. Less left: after five strokes per side with a tiny ceramic rod.

Stropping helped even more. I just used pants again, because it's really easy.

I'm at an outdoor theatre function tonight, and usually lend a hand backstage (for better or worse? Who's to say?), so maybe we'll have some more adventures. Who knows? Not you yet!

Day 6!

[RamoN]

Nothing better to honour a tool that beating the crap out of it  Very nice thread

[captain spaulding]

Nothing better to honour a tool that beating the crap out of it  Very nice thread

Well said. 

[AlephZero]

I am yet to meet a huntress named vicky...so +2

Count your lucky stars, brah, for you have not met my ex... called Vicky   

[AlephZero]

Aaandd, on a more serious note.. Great work, Jothra, as an owner of a brand new Huntsman,
I am thrilled to see all these ways it can be used and abused =)

[nervium]

swiss steel would not fail !

[kahyja]

Hey! I like all your challenges Jothra, they are very interesting to read.
I gave a Huntsman to the sister of my wife and she is far to do the things you do to it! Cheers

[sawman]

These are the kinds of things I especially like to read here on MTO.  So far, you've exposed the Huntsman to reasonable tasks which it should be able to handle and it's held up just fine.  I wish more people would do challenges like this.  Thanks for your time on it 

[Jothra]

I'm not sure I've ever seen a friendlier forum.

On topic: no work this weekend! I'll do a Saturday/Sunday update tonight, though.