Most people’s experience of the Swiss Army knife is the red plastic-handled version given as a gift, used twice, and forgotten in a drawer. The Farmer X Alox is a different proposition: the same 93mm format, but with brushed aluminium scales rather than cellulose acetate, and a tool selection built around actual use rather than novelty. It is the knife that people who carry a knife actually carry.
The Alox scales are a distinct product category within Victorinox, made since 1891 and originally supplied to the Swiss Army as the pioneer’s knife. The brushed finish absorbs small scratches into its texture rather than showing them. There is no toothpick, no tweezers, no scissors - the Farmer X trades those for a wood saw, a metal file, and a reamer with a sewing eye. Ten tools in a 70-gram package. The two blades are the right sizes, the can opener and cap lifter are properly shaped, and the wire stripper on the large screwdriver blade is one of those functions you use more often than expected once you know it’s there.
What separates the Alox versions from the standard line is mostly tactile. The aluminium sits differently in the hand than plastic, slightly cooler, and the fit is tighter - fewer gaps between components at rest. The scales are anodised in a range of colours; the classic brushed version reads as raw metal. After a year of carrying it the finish develops a particular worn-in quality that plastic never acquires.
Victorinox makes this in Ibach, Schwyz, where they have been making pocket knives since Karl Elsener opened a workshop there in 1884. The price has not tracked with the luxury market that has absorbed most Swiss manufacturing. At £63 it remains, improbably, one of the better-value objects in this category.
£63 - victorinox.com