Victorinox Explorer

Yesterday I received in the mail from Amazon a Victorinox Explorer Swiss Army Knife. It's a four-layer SAK with the following tools:

• Large blade
• Small blade
• Bottle opener with large screwdriver tip
• Can opener with small screwdriver tip
• Phillips head screwdriver
• Magnifier
• Scissors
• Corkscrew
• Awl with hole for sewing
• Multi-purpose hook
• Tweezers
• Toothpick
• Keyring

It packs all this into a knife about twice as thick as a Pioneer. It isn't much heavier than a Pioneer, due to the Cellidor (plastic) scales vs. the alox scales on the Pioneer, and the fact that the Pioneer's knife blade is a bit thicker than the Explorer's. The knife feels light for its size and I find it easily pocketable. As with every other Victorinox knife I own (which is six, if you include my SwissTool RS), the knife blades came very sharp. Workmanship is up to Vic's normal high standards. Of the implements packed into the Explorer, there are two which for me are mostly superfluous. Specifically, the mult-purpose hook and the corkscrew. The hook is mostly meant to assist you in carrying a package tied with string, something I never do, and when I want to open a wine bottle I want a better corkscrew. What I will do, however, is use the corkscrew to hold the small eyeglass screwdrive which came with my CyberTool 41. (It threads onto the corkscrew.) Since I leave the CyberTool in my bag unless I'm using it, putting it on the Explorer means it'll be more likely I have it on me when I need it. I like the Explorer. It has a very useful selection of tools without being too large to easily carry around in my pocket. I'm going to let it take its turn as my EDC knife.