Camper Challenge, Final Thoughts.I went into this challenge knowing pretty much what I was getting into with the Camper. It's a model I'm very familiar with and like quite a bit.
It was no surprise that the Camper served me well during this challenge, despite an unusually large number of "no use" days for me this time around. Additionally, the Camper's limitations were no surprise either. The wood saw is a great tool, but it's awfully hard to trim an errant nose hair with it!
Which brings me to my hesitation about the Camper, the thing that keeps it out of my pocket more often than not despite how much I like it in theory. As great as the wood saw is, I just don't get use out of it very frequently in my suburban/urban life. Sure, I am a homeowner with a yard to take care of... but I also have a shed with a real saw in it too. I enjoy hiking and camping as often as a life that involves a full time job and two young children will allow - and I take a SAK with a wood saw when I do those things, usually a Huntsman. But I don't get to hike or camp nearly as much as I would like.
In other words, as a third layer in a true EDC sense, the wood saw is hard to justify for me. Scissors are a third layer I get far more use out of (though still unnecessary since I like to pair a 84/91mm SAK with a Rambler). Unfortunately, Victorinox doesn't really offer any of their other tools as a third layer - you have to go up to to at least four layers to get the mag glass/Phillips, pliers, fish scaler, or metal file/saw.
The wood saw is frequently cited as the thinnest tool for a third layer in a SAK. And that's true... but not by much. According to the SAKWiki, the Climber has a width of 17mm. The Camper's width is 16.2mm. So we're only looking at a difference of 0.8mm between the two most common three layer SAKs and the
only two tool options for the third layer in current production. The wood saw really isn't saving an appreciable amount of space in the pocket compared to a Climber. The Climber does weigh in at 9 grams heavier though.
I don't mean any of this as criticism of the Camper as a model. In fact, I think it's a great model! It's just not one that matches my day to day life all that well. The scissors are are a third layer that makes more sense for me... except that I always carry a 58mm SAK with me that also has scissors. I haven't had too many occasions where the 91mm scissors offered much advantage over the 58mm version. But there have been times where the 58mm scissors were just the ticket and the 91mm version would have actually been
too big.
So, what ends up happening is that I often end up carrying a two layer SAK instead. The Spartan, Tourist, Tinker, Sportsman, Evo 10, and the Recruit are all two layer favorites of mine. Sometimes I will EDC a Climber for a few days but, with the Rambler along for the ride, I end up not really using the Climber scissors much and eventually fall back to a two layer SAK. I keep coming back to the Climber because it feels like it should be a good "default" SAK, a standard to compare other SAKs against. But it just doesn't work out that way for me.
Oddly enough, and despite my own strong pull to EDC minimalism, I am more likely to carry a four layer SAK than I am a three layer knife. The Deluxe Tinker, Explorer, and Huntsman are my current favorite four layer models. The Explorer and Huntsman are surprisingly light weight for their thickness and tool set.
The Huntsman is a particularly weird one for me. Despite some ambivalence toward EDC-ing the wood saw and the 91mm scissors, given the choice I would rather EDC the Huntsman, and take both the wood saw AND the scissors, than either the Climber or Camper. I'm happy to carry around a Huntsman, which has both tools I don't really need, but when it comes to carrying only one of them I would rather not for some reason. I'm not sure I have a great explanation for that, other than people are complicated I guess?
That's a heck of a lot of words to say that I continue to be a bit dissatisfied with the current three layer offerings from Victorinox and that I tend to EDC either a two layer SAK or skip the three layer models and go straight to 4 layers. I wish there were more variety at the three layer level. I would buy a Spartan + fish scaler SAK (what would they name THAT?) in a heart beat, for example. Or a SAK where the third layer is the popular metal file/saw!
Anyway, thanks to Farmer X for getting this challenge off the ground! I look forward to the next one!
Also, if there's a badge for this one, may I please have it? Pretty please with sugar on top?
Donations
Community Links
