Just got back from a 2 1/2 week autumn vacation in the Adirondack mountains, doing lots of cold weather wild camping. I put down my SwissChamp for a bit, and pocketed the Farmer X instead.
I got a good taste of the Farmer X during this year's
Favorite Four Layer Challenge back in June, and knew that I wanted to really put this knife to the test. What better way than to take a solo trip to the mountains!?!?!? The FX got used sooooooo much. I learned to properly harvest paper birch bark, so the main blade was used extensively for precision depth cuts on trees. I also whittled my first wooden spoon, and the FX did nicely for working all but the inside of the bowl. The awl even got to dig out a hole in the handle. Of course, being a cold weather event, the saw was used extensively for cutting sticks for the fire. I even harvested a good amount balsam fir needles, using the wood saw and main blade The scissors were one of the most used tools, opening freeze dried meals, and cutting cord for my tarp and drying lines.
To say that I'm impressed is a huge understatement. The FX is an extraordinary knife for outdoor use. So much less bulky than my SwissChamp, yet still retaining all of the tools I truly need. I carried it in an old leather knife pouch that I made years ago, which was suspended into my front pocket by a length of paracord. I really, really bonded with this model throughout the vacation. If it weren't for the
MiniChamp November to Remember Challenge, it would still be in my pocket for the foreseeable future.
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