For my third 30 Day Challenge, I'm making a bit of a departure. Instead of torture testing a cheap, sad-faced pocket knife or multitool for a month, I'm taking aim at one of the big boys: the Victorinox Huntsman!


Sleek and supple, the mighty Huntsman stalks its prey...Odd Jobs!

This challenge will work just like my Army Knife and Campers Tool challenges, with one major difference: a higher likelihood of survival. My new Huntsman will undergo the rigorous use (read: horrible beating) it can only get on a construction site in the hands of a man who apparently has nothing to lose (at least, when it comes to pocket tools). If it survives, it will earn its spot as a shelf queen next to my two other 30-day survivors!

Day 0
Though it's probably unnecessary for most of the people here, we'll go through a quick rundown of the tool. Here's the Victorinox Huntsman, with its tools showing:


Clockwise from far left: bottle opener/screwdriver/wire stripper, small blade, scissors, saw, main blade, can opener/screwdriver, corkscrew, multi-purpose hook, and awl. Not shown: tweezers, toothpick, and straight pin).

If there's one thing we've learned from previous challenges, it's that the Huntsman toolset is comprised entirely of items I use regularly, so before we're through, everything will have been smacked around. If there's another thing we've learned, its that even when I can find uses for them, I hate fish scalers, and the Huntsman is fortunate enough not to have one. Phew! The tools are currently in excellent shape, though as this was a display model with all of its tools extended for several months, the awl has a tiny bit of play. No other tools or springs seem affected, and the awl should still function perfectly well.

Finally, before we get started, here are the ground rules (some of which are basically warnings):

• I will test my Huntsman's limits for 30 days. The challenge isn't over for one month, or until the tool becomes unusable. Unusable means either all of the component tools are broken, or all of the springs are rendered useless. Neither is likely to happen. If I bork an implement—even one of my favourites that I use every day—I have to live with it until the challenge is over. You have no idea how hard it was to live without a saw during my cheapie army knife challenge.
• 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).
• I will try to take pictures as often as possible. Sometimes it won't be. Sorry in advance for any photo-free posts, but rest assured that those situations should be relatively rare.

Now that all the preamble is over (man, do I love preamble!), let's begin the 30 Day Victorinox Huntsman Challenge!

Oh, and another thing: I like to nickname my challenge tools. My Coghlan's Army Style Knife was called Coghlan, and my Coghlan's Campers [sic] Tool was Campy. I'm having trouble with this one. Suggestions? I'm sure someone can come up with something we can get behind.

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

+1  for Vicky

Hunter.

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how about Diana, Roman Goddess of the hunt.

Oww.....good one

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I'm not good at naming things but I think that Dolores -Spanish for "pains"- would be nice.
Please rock on, Jothra! Your reviews are great escapades IMO and they get better as time passes. Many thanks.

PS: This sounds like a very promising crash-test 

All your suggestions got thrown into a PHP list randomizer, and the winner is...Vicky! For the record, Diana was second.

I must say I'm really curious about this test. I have great confidence in SAKs, on the other, hand, they're not exactly the strongest knives I own.  to you for doing this experiment!

Always fun following your challenges.  This one should be interesting. 

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Love these !!

Yes! Another 30 day challenge! 

I'm very curious of how Vicky will handle 30days of abuse compared to the cheapos.   

I had better just admit now that this is the first challenge in which a single failed implement will break my black, shrivelled heart.

I'm so excited about this, I think I peed myself a little! 

Ummm... maybe that was too much sharing.

My only fear is that this test, with a good tool, won't render the hilarious results (and write up) of past tool tests.

I predict better test results for the saw.

I have to say, I REALLY am curious how well Vicky will hold up to hard use.

This is a cool thing you're doing here   I am very interested to see how a SAK holds up to real usage.  Can't wait to see/read all about it

I'm so excited about this, I think I peed myself a little! 

Ummm... maybe that was too much sharing.

My only fear is that this test, with a good tool, won't render the hilarious results (and write up) of past tool tests.

I predict better test results for the saw.

I have to say, I REALLY am curious how well Vicky will hold up to hard use.

TMI!!!!!!!!!   

It should hold up good. I running my CT41 threw the mill for years and it keep going for more. This should be a walk in the park for a Huntsman. Still cant wait to see what he throws at it.

As much as I love the Huntsman, I am looking forward to seeing one used and abused. Where's the popcorn?

Day 1 was a whole lot of work for Vicky. It cut an apple, and opened a package of mints.

Oh, right, and took over when the cordless skill saw just wasn't fine enough.


Sometimes, when you only have to take a small amount of wood out, the knife's the thing.

Then I did something really dumb. There was an edge that needed some very slight shaving to fit, which is odd, because plywood forming usually isn't this precise. There really is a proper tool for planing—a planer comes to mind—or, if you're in a hurry, a skill saw, as long as your motto is "Safety Third". I had the time, so I went with something less dangerous but more...odd.


Me: "Hey, I don't have a planer."
Vicky: "Ha!"

Interestingly, after all that, the blade is still push-cut sharp. No fooling. In fact, I used it to open this bag of rigid insulation, which we needed to patch in around the building where the previous insulation was damaged.


Open sassafras? No, no...open Sacramento? No. Argh, what is that word again?

In fact, when it came time to patch in the insulation, there were some sections in the old insulation that needed trimming. The sawzall handled most of them, but there were two spots that called for something smaller.


My Coghlan's Army Knife's saw would have cried at this point.

Do me a favour, and imagine a clever segue here: what about the bottle opener/screwdriver? As some forumites may know, I am very hard on any given pocket tool's prybar/screwdriver/can opener/hoo haw. I should probably carry a dedicated mini-bar with me, but I've found that even a $6 knock-off's bottle opener/screwdriver works just fine. Therefore:

Digging tool!

Bad news! I didn't find any buried treasure in there. Not even lousy, third-rate treasure.

Also: prying tool! The nail-its were pretty stubborn on this form. I just needed to get it started so I could get some hammer claws in there, because there's prying and then there's prying.

I just wedged it in there, and wiggled and turned until there was enough room for the hammer claws. Err, wiggled and turned the Huntsman, that is.

I admit, Day 1 was a bit harsh, but so far the tools are all still basically pristine. I'm surprised I don't have to sharpen the knife yet, but it's still factory sharp. Weird.

Oh man... 

This is awesome.

I predict... and maybe I'm going out on a limb here, but I think you'll like Vicky better than the SAK knock-off.

Wow, that's a busy, hard working first day.  I could only dream of having to use any of my MTs/SAKs this much in even a week.  I think I'm going to enjoy this.  It's very interesting   29 more days to go, and it looks like Vicky is off to a good start

I love the concept of this thread and can't wait to see what it becomes. The Huntsman was a great knife to pick to do a 30 day trial on. 

I love the concept of this thread and can't wait to see what it becomes. The Huntsman was a great knife to pick to do a 30 day trial on. 

There are two reasons I chose the Huntsman. The first is that it's a very popular knife that includes all of my most-used tools. The second is that when I picked up my new Huntsman, I also picked up the display model at a steep discount.

I predict... and maybe I'm going out on a limb here, but I think you'll like Vicky better than the SAK knock-off.

But Coghlan tried so hard! Seriously, though, I can already tell you I'm going to spend less of my time worrying about tool failure in some emergency situation. Good tools don't solve problems, but they sure help me solve them quicker. I like quicker.

Go Vicky !
Go Vicky !
Go !  Go !  Go !

What he said. ↑

 

Another great thread Jothra  The only thing that's confusing me at the minute is where the word challenge applies  I'm pretty certain Vicky will be fantastic!

At first, Day 2 looked pretty bad—it was Mud City on-site, and I was worried I might end up getting disgusting for an hour, then running out of work and getting sent home. In fact, it was so muddy that I wanted to tie my boots extra tight so I wouldn't lose one on the way across site to the tool trailer. So thumbs up for the hook! Recently I've been carrying a Wenger, and while I enjoyed that knife I didn't realize how much I missed the hook.


Also good for skates, climbing shoes, and anything else you want very tight!

To help deal with excess water in the building, we brought a garden pump...but it didn't work. The good news is they're easy to take apart. The bad news is the pump wasn't just plugged, but actually broken broken. Of course, we had to take it apart to find out!


Phillips screws? Ha! I laugh in your general direction!

Somewhere in there I picked up a sliver. It was one of those tiny ones that hurts an awful lot, but not enough to keep co-workers from making Waaaaambulance jokes. The tweezers tweezed.

The bigger stuff came in the afternoon, when I had to pick up a pallet of poly sheeting for under a concrete floor. This is 10mm sheeting, which is ridiculous, expensive, and moronically heavy. Vicky couldn't do the lifting, but it could do the cutting so I could lift the rolls myself.


The blade handled all the scary, beefcakey banding holding the rolls to the pallet.


It also handled the tangled mass of cellophane wrap.


Meanwhile (or, rather, after), the scissors cut through the last of the (plentiful) white banding that held the rolls to each other.

Finally, with the monumental task of detaching these things done, and with the rolls lifted to their various temporary homes, I had to break down the pallet so it could fit in the garbage bin. This doesn't involve sawing the entire thing up; instead, I just saw about halfway through the main supporting 2x4s, and kick the whole thing in half. This is easier than it sounds, and usually only takes a minute or so.


I find this easier than cutting plywood. For real!

Now Vicky is helping slice some Swiss cheese. Hopefully you don't need pictures to know what Swiss cheese looks like.

There we have Day 2!

Dang right out of the gate, Vicky is doing well.

Go Vicky!

Ha!  Any LM would have fallen apart by now