Customer Reviews

The ultimate urban pocket-knife Review by Tyler

Rating

I'm very satisfied with this knife.

With the Compact, you can open most everything: cans, (beer) bottles, wine bottles, boxes, bags, packages, letters, some small electronic devices... this is what I use it for the most often.

It's comparable to the Climber: combine can and bottle openers (lose medium-flathead screwdriver), lose reamer, lose small blade, add nail file on hook, add pen, small flathead, and straight-pin.

The compact has everything I would want on an everyday basis in an urban environment -- for everything else, I reach for a more specialized tool. For example, in town, I've never had a situation where I absolutely needed a pair of pliers and couldn't get an actual pair. For me, a Swiss Army Knife is for situations when you aren't expecting to have a tool around, not to completely replace a whole toolbox. For camping, hiking, emergency kits, etc., more tools are useful, but in an urban environment, tools like saws, pliers, and screwdrivers only add weight to something that you'd like to carry in your pocket every day.

The compact is only two layers, or 13 mm, thick. When I'm holding the knife, the thickness signals to me almost subconsciously that this is a knife, not a strange brick with a blade sticking out. It's as if it's a regular knife, just with some very useful extras built in. I haven't weighed it yet, but it's quite light. It's light and thin enough that I forget that it's in my pocket.

The combination tool works surprisingly well, even though it doesn't have a sharp edge. When opening cans, make sure that you keep a small angle, work clockwise (right-handed, spinning the can counter-clockwise), and get a good rhythm going. The time required to open a can with the combination tool is only seconds less than with a dedicated can opener. Another disadvantage of the combination is that it's a thinner tool (it goes where a small blade usually does) than the dedicated ones, so probably can't pry as heavy of loads.

To me, having a pen at all times is more useful than having a reamer or secondary blade, as in the Climber.

Some tips I've found: To write with the pen more comfortably, slide the pen under the hook's slot and close it. That way, you can hold the entire knife, not just a tiny refill.
I find that using my thumb instead of my index finger with the scissors is more comfortable.

The only real disappointment is that I was planning of attaching this to my keyring due to its small size, but after only 30 minutes, I noticed that the scales already had sizable marks from the keys. This would happen on any celidor-scaled knife, though, so there's not much fault here. If only the plastic scales were harder, or there were alox scales that could hold a toothpick, tweezers, and pen... that's the only improvement I can think of.

If you're looking for a great knife to carry around every day in an urban or suburban environment, and feel comfortable not having every possible tool at all times, then look no further than the Compact.

(Posted on 11/8/10)