I've used the Swisstool Spirit at home, work, and on an overnight backpacking
trip on the Jordan River Pathway in Michigan. So far, it has adequately performed all the
tasks I've put it through.
Note on ergonomics: In my Initial Report,
I stated that the Spirit was the first multitool that I had seen with
an ergonomic design. Since that time, I have found that another major multitool manufacturer has
revamped some of their tools for 2005 to incorporate a more ergonomic design as well.
At Home
The day after I received the Spirit, I had resigned myself to doing a little housecleaning before I
allowed myself to delve further into the possibilities of my new
multitool. I was cleaning up our spare room when I
unearthed my old gym bag. Somewhere along the way, I had decided it
would be a "Good Idea" to place my combination lock on the bag
handle, instead of just placing it inside with all my other
paraphernalia. Despite forgetting one combination and having to
buy another lock, I still insisted on keeping my new lock on the bag
handle. So now I have a gym bag with two combination locks whose
combinations are long forgotten, staring back at me.
I decided to have a little competition, Victorinox's Spirit vs. two
brightly colored MasterLocks. These locks are the type designed to
appeal to the younger crowd, with loud, brilliant colored bodies and
number dials. I started out with the direct approach, seeing if the
metal file was a match for the lock arm. After a few seconds of
sawing, the "U" of metal that kept the lock affixed to my bag had
merely a few scratches. The MasterLock appeared to be winning.
Then I decided to try a sneak attack- I used the metal file on the
colored body itself, and discovered that it was made out of what was
probably steel, and its gauge was only a hair thicker than roof
flashing. The metal file made short work of creating a hole in the
body, and after a big enough area was created, I decided to stick in
the reamer. The colored body casing peeled away as if I had been
dissecting an orange. The back of the lock popped off, and I was
able to easily remove the locking mechanism inside with the reamer.
The second lock was just as simple as the first.
Final results: Spirit 2, MasterLock 0, in under five minutes. It
wasn't until a little later that I realized the awl's antics had
caused it to accumulate a few dents in the edge. If the
situation ever presents itself again, I will have to figure out
another tool to use if I have to pry open something metal.
A little later that day, I remembered that we have an arborvitae
shrub that we had wanted to get rid of since it was growing too
close to the foundation of the house. I headed outside with the
Spirit in hand, with the wood saw extended and ready for action.
I started by sawing off a few thin limbs, to clear enough space to
get at the base of the shrub. This saw means business, and it has a
mean bite. The thin branches (1/8", .32 cm to 1/4", .64 cm or so) were gone in no time. I
waited until my digital watch turned to a new minute, and started
sawing. It took only 45 seconds to saw through a living 1-3/4" (4.45 cm)
evergreen. But the shrub left its mark, in the form of gooey sap
all over the saw. I remembered that there was a good-sized
limb that had been blown from our maple tree stashed behind the shed.
Maybe sawing through some wood a bit less `green' would get rid of
the gunk.
I readied my watch and saw again, and attacked the defenseless
branch. It took me 1 minute 45 seconds to saw far enough through
the maple to easily break the branch in two. I didn't bother to cut
all the way through the limb, since when backpacking and collecting
wood for a campfire, I wouldn't saw through what I could easily
snap. The diameter of the maple limb also measured in at 1-3/4" (4.45 cm).
Some sap from the arborvitae was still clinging to the Spirit, so I
had to wash it off with a damp paper towel and pry the gunk from
between the teeth of the saw with a toothpick. It does the job
well, but I think I'll only be using the garden tools for the future
removal of any evergreens around the house.
In my initial report I had problems with
opening the wood saw since my thumb nail was very short at the time, and that the back of the combi-edge
blade was crushing my cuticle, causing some pain and somewhat spoiling the leverage point for
opening the saw. I am happy to report that with a little longer thumbnail that I
no longer have this problem.
That day, I had also found that:
1. The bottle opener does an exemplarily job of removing the cap from my favorite malt
beverage.
2. That the chisel/scraper removes paint blobs on glazed
bathroom tile quite well, but tends to gouge wood and other softer
surfaces.
3. That the combi-edge blade makes quick work of chopping up
a small onion.
4. The scissors work well on both paper and nails (toe
as well as finger). However, due to their small size, I probably
won't use them except to trim my nails when I am on the trail.
5. With a little practice, the metal file makes an acceptable
emery board. One thing I had come to dislike about tools that
touted a metal `nail file' is that they were often too wimpy for me
to get any amount of fingernail filed down in a reasonable amount of
time. The Spirit's metal file (on both of the flat edges of the
metal saw arm) does a great job, leaving a fairly smooth edge on my nails.
It's a little awkward to use at first, but I soon got the hang of it
and managed (for me) nicely manicured nails.
Since then, I've used the four screwdrivers a few times, and all work as expected. The
Phillips head screwdriver is showing some signs of stripping from when I tried to over-
tighten a screw. I've also managed to work the Phillips head screwdriver enough that the tool is to
the point where it will open fairly easily.
In an attempt to mimic the only field repair I could think of to assign to the wire stripper,
I tried to use it to repair a set of headphones that had a cut wire. The wire stripper
did a fair job of removing the plastic coating from the wire, but when I was tinkering around
I found out that the hard and soft wire cutters do as good as if not better job than the wire stripper for that
particular type and size of wire. Once I stripped the wire and tried rejoining the wire in a manner
similar to regular electrical wire, I found out the unfortunate fact that headphone wire (at least this type)
does not take to splicing very well. I could not get any sound to come from the 'repaired' headphones.
The isolation
length cutter worked well at cutting through the casing of some heavy-duty electrical wire I had picked up. The
isolation length cutter is my new box-opener, and will even cut through the threaded mailing tape with ease. As mentioned above,
the wire stripper
performed satisfactorily. The wire scraper/round cutter easily removed the casing of a section of coaxial cable. The chisel/scraper
does a good job of removing paint from ceramic tile.
All these tools may handy at home and at work, but
I don't really see any backcountry uses for any of the tools on this arm of the Spirit.
At first I was a bit skeptic of why I would need a wire bender when I could just use the
pliers to bend any wire I needed, but then I tried out the wire bender on an old wire hanger. I found that (with a little
practice) if I wanted a curved piece of wire, the wire bender did indeed outperform the pliers and
produced a more consistent curve. However, I still can't think of a practical application of this feature.
At Work
Though my job usually has me in the office, the Spirit came in handy when my company
constructed an indoor 'garden' for a home and garden show. I used the hard wire
cutters to remove several galvanized steel 'trellises' in 14" (35.6 cm) pots that geraniums were being trained up on.
I needed to remove the cylindrical trellises so that another plant could be placed in the center of the pot,
and the pot placed in a planter for display. I usually had to use two hands to get enough force
to cut through the wire, and at times it was difficult (because of the plant material)
to make sure I was cutting the wire with the hard wire cutter. After cutting through
about fourteen wires per pot on four pots, my right hand was a little sore, but I have to admit I was cutting at some very odd angles to keep from
damaging the geraniums.
The soft wire cutter came in handy when I needed to cut lengths of craft/floral wire so that I could
fasten faux flower garlands to some arbors. The hard wire cutter worked nicely on
trimming the plastic-coated wire of the garlands themselves, and the combi-edge blade
cut through some webbing that I had bought to strap down the slightly wobbly arbors.
I would've had to bring a small toolbox with me to ensure I had everything I knew I needed
for the construction of the display. The Spirit covered all my planned needs,
and a couple things (such as cutting webbing) that I hadn't planned on. I have to admit I got a bit smug
at the fact that as a gal I came a little more prepared than the guys. Even though the
guys had brought a bin of tools with them, they ended up asking to borrow my Spirit
because it had a tool they were lacking.
The other trials I've put the Spirit to at work are a bit more mundane. The pliers and reamer worked nicely
for removing paper that was jammed in the teeth of my cross-cut paper shredder (which I made SURE to unplug before playing around with).
When it still wasn't working despite the majority of paper being removed, I attempted to use the Phillips head
screwdriver to disassemble the shredder. It was at this point I discovered the first real shortcoming of the
Spirit. The Phillips head screwdriver was too wide (near the base of the tool) to fit into the deeply recessed hole.
I don't think that there would be a deeply recessed screw that I would have to reach in the backcountry, but I was a bit miffed that
I might have to borrow a screwdriver from one of the mechanics at our garage (they're a bit overprotective of their tools). I managed
to pry out some additional paper with the reamer, and finally got the shredder to work again, without opening it up.
On the Trail
To date, I’ve only been on one overnighter trip, on the Jordan River Pathway in Michigan.
The only tool I used on this trip is the knife, to cut open various packages of food and to chop an onion.
The blade performed these tasks quite nicely.
Carrying the Spirit
In my Initial Report
I wrote about how I do NOT wear belts, and my escapades
in trying to find an alternative method of carrying the tool. Since the Initial Report,
I have only worn it on a belt when I am at work and know that I will be using it throughout the day.
Otherwise it stays in my purse, or my daypack if I’m hiking around. I tried, but still don’t like
wearing a belt unless I absolutely HAVE to.
For the trail, I have managed to concoct a device that works quite well and is fairly versatile.
On a trip to the hardware store, I picked up a 2” (5.1 cm) diameter key ring and two small quick links.
Quick links are similar in nature to carabiners, but the method of ‘closing’ them is an elongated
nut attached to one end of the ‘ring’ that screws into the other end. I probably could have used
small carabiners instead of the quick links, but I felt the quick links were a little bit more foolproof.
Together, the three pieces of hardware weigh 1 oz (28.4 g). The leather of the pouch did get some minor scratching
from the key ring, but nothing that would endanger the performance of the belt loop.
I threaded the belt loop of the Spirit’s pouch so that the loop was between the two coils of the
key ring. The key ring was positioned so that the ends of the wire were on the bottom of
the pouch’s loop. One quick link is attached to each exposed portion of the key ring. By attaching the
quick links to a section of webbing on the hipbelt of my backpack, I was able to carry it in a location
that is easily accessed without removing my pack. The setup was snug enough that I didn’t get any ‘bounce’
from the contraption when I was walking. When in camp, I kept the Spirit’s pouch attached to my pack, and
just removed the tool itself for use.
Though I haven’t tried it yet, it looks like I could use a similar setup of the hardware to
attach the pouch to my hiking pants, since the pants have an exposed portion of the built-in belt.
1. The leather pouch. It's durable and has endured the bowels of my purse, getting tossed around
with who-knows what else I keep in there, from keys to coins to pens. It looks like it'll hold up
better than a cloth pouch would in the long run. This seems to be one of the few multitools where a leather pouch
is a standard option.
2. The wood saw. I'm lucky enough to live in a location where a lot of the relatively close multi-day hikes
allow me to use downed wood. The saw will allow me to cut the thicker branches into a more manageable size.
3. The combi-edge blade. So far, it has performed well cutting whatever I use it on. I don't feel like
I'm missing any functionality by not having separate straight and serrated blades.
1. The Phillips head screwdriver is already showing a few signs of stripping. I don't think I really
abused it too much, and wonder if there is a way Victorinox could improve the strength of this screwdriver.
2. I don't know if it was due to misuse on my part, but the reamer was easily damaged by prying thin metal.
3. The whole chisel/scraper/wire cutter arm: I think it's of little or no use in the backcountry, and the only use
this whole arm sees otherwise is as a box opener. Sometimes I wonder if there would be another tool that would be of
more use to me that would fill this space, or if it would be an opportunity to remove it altogether and pare down the
weight for the more specialized field of backcountry use.
