A Geekgirl's Best Friend
Written: Mar 30 '07 (Updated Mar 31 '07)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: quality tools, lifetime guarantee, replacement parts available
Cons: hand strength needed to extract tools, not the easiest to clean
The Bottom Line: A couple improvements could be made, but it's an excellent tool for those who have to work with computers.
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| spidra's Full Review: Swiss Army Cybertool Pocket Knife |
I joke that I must have been a slavedriver to porters in a past life because in this one I routinely carry 25-50 lbs. of crud with me wherever I go. In college I went through a real "Be Prepared" period where I carried a knife, some kind of firemaker, water, and various other things that seemed good in dire situations. That got kind of unwieldy. One way of being prepared that is wieldy is having a good Swiss Army Knife. In fact, "Swiss Army Knife" has become slang for any product that performs a bunch of different tasks.
In the '20s, the Swiss Army decided to go with two contractors to provide its regulation knives: Victorinox and Wenger. So there were two competitors who had the right to call their products Swiss Army Knives. In 2005 Victorinox acquired Wenger but things are no less confusing. These days you see Swiss Army everything because of the licensing of the brand to backpacks and other non-cutlery products. Both manufacturers were hit hard by post 9/11 restrictions on what passengers could bring aboard a plane. Probably the cheapest way to obtain a Swiss Army Knife today is to hit an online auction of goods seized from innocent passengers by the TSA. Both companies have diversified their product lines in an attempt to gain new customers. While backpacks are made by other companies that license the Swiss Army name, the knives are still made by the original companies that have manufactured them since the beginning of the twentieth century. Though Wenger has also moved into trying to "hip-ify" their knives with hot translucent colors, it's Victorinox that's gone after the serious geek market with its CyberTool line.
Though I had craved a Swiss Army Knife for years, it was hard to settle on which one would be the perfect model for me. Additionally, I had a hard time justifying the cost. It seemed a luxury to me. Then I had to get an old Apple Airport Base Station open and I didn't have a Torx 10 laying around the house. The last time I needed a Torx wrench was when I had to buy a "Mac Cracker", a long-handled Torx wrench made for getting into the old self-contained Mac Plus/SE/Classic line. I still have it and I've never used it for anything else. First I tried to borrow a Torx wrench but none of my friends could come through for me. The Berkeley Tool Library came up dry, too. So it seemed I needed to make an investment and I wanted to get as much use out of that investment as I could. So I started shopping for CyberTools rather than a Torx wrench kit. Luckily, Amazon had a 50% off sale and I was able to get the CyberTool 34 for a little less than 50 clams.
The CyberTool line comes in three colors: translucent Ruby, translucent Sapphire Blue, and translucent Onyx. The models are the CyberTool Lite (which despite the name "Lite" is not light on tools, but has a flashlight), CyberTool 29, CyberTool 34 and CyberTool 41. I bought the CyberTool 34 in Ruby, but I will detail what the other CyberTool models include since Epinions seems to have condensed the models into only one review category:
CyberTool Lite
1. large blade
2. small blade
3. corkscrew
4. can opener with
5. - small screwdriver 3 mm (also for Phillips screws)
6. cap lifter with
7. - screwdriver 6 mm
8. - wire stripper
9. reamer, punch
10. key ring, inox
11. tweezers
12. toothpick
13. sewing eye
14. wrench with
15. - female Hex drive 5 mm for D-SUB connectors
16. - female Hex drive 4 mm for the bits
17. - Bit Pozidrive 0
18. - Bit Pozidrive 1
19. case with
20. - Bit Slotted 4 mm
21. - Bit Phillips 2
22. - Bit Hex 4 mm
23. - Bit Torx 8
24. - Bit Torx 10
25. - Bit Torx 15
26. pressurized ballpoint pen
27. - also to set DIP-switches
28. pin, stainless steel
29. mini-screwdriver ( pat.)
30. pliers with
31. - wire cutter
32. - wire crimping tool
33. scissors
34. multi-purpose hook
35. LED, light white
36. magnifying glass
CyberTool 29
1. large blade
2. small blade
3. corkscrew
4. can opener with
5. - small screwdriver 3 mm (also for Phillips screws)
6. cap lifter with
7. - screwdriver 6 mm
8. - wire stripper
9. reamer, punch
10. key ring, inox
11. tweezers
12. toothpick
13. sewing eye
14. wrench with
15. - female Hex drive 5 mm for D-SUB connectors
16. - female Hex drive 4 mm for the bits
17. - Bit Pozidrive 0
18. - Bit Pozidrive 1
19. case with
20. - Bit Slotted 4 mm
21. - Bit Phillips 2
22. - Bit Hex 4 mm
23. - Bit Torx 8
24. - Bit Torx 10
25. - Bit Torx 15
26. pressurized ballpoint pen
27. - also to set DIP-switches
28. pin, stainless steel
29. mini-screwdriver ( pat.)
CyberTool 34
1. large blade
2. small blade
3. corkscrew
4. can opener with
5. - small screwdriver 3 mm (also for Phillips screws)
6. cap lifter with
7. - screwdriver 6 mm
8. - wire stripper
9. reamer
10. key ring, inox
11. tweezers
12. toothpick
13. sewing eye
14. wrench with
15. - female Hex drive 5 mm for D-SUB connectors
16. - female Hex drive 4 mm for the bits
17. - Bit Pozidrive 0
18. - Bit Pozidrive 1
19. case with
20. - Bit Slotted 4 mm
21. - Bit Phillips 2
22. - Bit Hex 4 mm
23. - Bit Torx 8
24. - Bit Torx 10
25. - Bit Torx 15
26. pressurized ballpoint pen
27. - also to set DIP-switches
29. mini-screwdriver ( pat.)
30. pliers with
31. - wire cutter
32. - wire crimping tool
33. scissors
34. multi-purpose hook
CyberTool 41
1. large blade
2. small blade
3. corkscrew
4. can opener with
5. - small screwdriver 3 mm (also for Phillips screws)
6. cap lifter with
7. - screwdriver 6 mm
8. - wire stripper
9. reamer, punch
10. key ring, inox
11. tweezers
12. toothpick
13. sewing eye
14. wrench with
15. - female Hex drive 5 mm for D-SUB connectors
16. - female Hex drive 4 mm for the bits
17. - Bit Pozidrive 0
18. - Bit Pozidrive 1
19. case with
20. - Bit Slotted 4 mm
21. - Bit Phillips 2
22. - Bit Hex 4 mm
23. - Bit Torx 8
24. - Bit Torx 10
25. - Bit Torx 15
26. pressurized ballpoint pen
27. - also to set DIP-switches
28. pin, stainless steel
29. mini-screwdriver ( pat.)
30. pliers with
31. - wire cutter
32. - wire crimping tool
33. scissors
34. multi-purpose hook
35. wood saw
36. metal saw with
37. - metal file
38. - nailfile
39. - nail cleaner
40. - screwdriver 2,5 mm
41. - chisel and scraper
My CyberTool 34 Ruby has the solid construction you expect from a Swiss Army Knife. It's got real heft and it does not at all feel cheaply made. I find myself wishing the tools came out easier, though. Not only do I have fingernails that break as soon as you look at them, I also have a disability that affects my hands. Anyone with even a mild hand disability will have a bit of difficulty getting some of these tools out of their housings. It seems to me there ought to be some happy medium where the tools snap in and stay in place safely yet don't require a great degree of effort to extricate from their housings. Just as an aside, they ought to include a special tool to clean those housings because if you carry the CyberTool in your purse or in your pants pocket, it's going to pick up a lot of grit and dust in those housings. Cleaning the housings is harder than cleaning the tools they contain. The slots are narrower than your average paper cotton swab can get into.
The bit tools are all double-headed so that you get the most bang for the limited space. The bits have an embedded ball bearing in their sides that ensure a snug fit in the bit tool. Because nothing sucks as much as having a small tool bit clatter to the ground and roll away somewhere you can't find it. If, however, such a tragedy befalls you, replacement bits are available for these knives. And on the subject of support, all Victorinox Swiss Army Knives have a lifetime guarantee against defects in materials and workmanship (except for electrical components, which have a 2 year guarantee). That's the kind of quality and customer support that's worth paying a bit extra for. Speaking of electrical components, Victorinox has started offering Swiss Army jump drives. I find it curious that they didn't add a jump drive at least to the CyberTool 41. It seems to go hand-in-hand with the IT thing.
Sometimes I wish Victorinox had a way to custom order a Swiss Army Knife. Then you could get exactly the tools you wanted in a knife and pay for no less and no more than you need. My ideal tool would include large and small knives, scissors, slotted and Phillips screwdrivers, Allen and Torx wrenches in the most commonly needed small sizes, corkscrew, can opener, bottle opener, nail file and nail clippers. Actually, I'd probably want a second tool for garden work that has pruning shears, a pruning saw, a dibbler and other gardening tools that could be fit into that compact form. Anyway, like the other reviewers, I'm danged if I can find a use for the hook tool. Other than that, this tool covers my "Be Prepared" needs pretty well. My biggest problem now is making sure I take it out of my purse before going on an airplane. I don't want to be the next poor sucker to make a "donation" to the TSA.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
spidra
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Location: SF Bay Area
Reviews written: 45
Trusted by: 11 members
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