Is there any way to say this other than entering with the statement that “Swiss Army Knife Tools” have become a universal term for a “thing that does it all?” We don’t think so. That statement says it all. If you can find a more useful single tool than a Victorinox Swiss Army Knife, please let us know what it is and we’ll write about it!

Check out these 26 cool and innovative uses for many Swiss Army Knife Tools, and let us know what you think.

●Remove a splinter

If your knife is sharp enough, you can slide the edge under the part of the splinter that protrudes above the top of the skin and use it as a wedge or a lever to slide the splinter out. That takes some skill; it takes less skill to use the tweezers that come with most Swiss Army Knife Tools and just pull the splinter out! Either way, you’re in the clear.

●Clean your teeth

Being in the woods means that sometimes personal hygiene slips a little, which can be very dangerous. Fending off infections and diseases starts first with good hygiene, and caring for your teeth takes top importance. Many Swiss Army Knives come with toothpicks that can be used to clean your teeth. You can also use the tool to make a small maul, with which you can pound out the fibers of a small twigs: the perfect makeshift toothbrush.

●Practice other personal hygiene routines

Many Swiss Army Knives don’t just come with tweezers, a toothpick and other tools. Most of them also come with nail files, scissors and other tools that are useful for keeping your nails short and trimming your hair and cuticle. Get in the good habit of practicing these routines if for no other reason than that you’ll be more comfortable in camp.

●Prepare food

Preparing food takes on many facets. You can slice up bread or bagels, dice up fruit for a snack or lettuce for a salad. You can use a knife blade to spread mayonnaise or jam on a morsel or a crust of bread. You can also use the knife to slice up meat or prepare it for cooking. Whatever you use it for, the knife including in a Swiss Army Tool is tops for food prep.

●Make cordage

There’s more than one way to make cordage in the wilderness, but a Swiss Army Knife can help you with all of them. Whether you collect dry grass, split the inner bark from a cedar or willow tree, or just shred up old plastic bags to turn them into cordage, a Swiss Army Pocket Knife makes it possible. That cordage can then be used to bind belongings, treat injuries, capture game or even start a fire using a bow and drill, which reminds us.

●Start a fire (more than one way!!)

Fire is a lifesaver, and you can start a fire in many ways using a Swiss Army Knife. Perhaps the most obvious way is to use one of the steel implements to start a fire using sparks produced from a ferrocerium rod. You can also use the tools to create the bows, drills, hearthboard and spindles required to make fire using friction. In addition, if your Swiss Army Knife Tool comes with a magnifying glass, on clear, bright days you might be able to start a fire using the lens.

●Get a closer look

Speaking of the fact that many Swiss Army Tools come with a magnifying glass, you can also use that tool effectively for its intended purpose: to get a closer look. When it’s dark or you need to get a sure look at something up close it’s frustrating in the field when you’re away from modern conveniences. Luckily, via the aid of a Swiss Army Knife’s magnifying glass, this doesn’t need to be the case!

●Tighten loose screws - machine screws and phillips head screws

Most Swiss Army Knives and multi tools are more than adequately prepared with tools that include (but are not limited to) a blade, scissors, flat and phillips screwdrivers and wire strippers, among other things.

If you have a screw loose in the woods or on the trail, don’t let it stop you. Just pull out your multi tool, tighten everything up and be on your way. Since many of these tools have both small screwdrivers and drivers with more than one configuration, they;re ready for whatever you can throw at them.

●Make simple camp tools

The beauty of the knife is that it is the tool that makes more tools. With your Swiss Army Knife you can carve mauls, hammers, pegs, supports, braces, spikes, spears, gluts, spoons and other utensils, all out of what you’re able to gather from your surroundings.

In other words, if you can pull it off with the Swiss Army Knife itself, you can use that tool to create other camp implements that will help you get the job done. A good knife is the gift that keeps on giving, and a Swiss Army Knife is one of the best of these.

●Cut wood to precise lengths

Since many Swiss Army Knife Tools come with saw blades (some with more than one) you can make precise, squared cuts in wood and other materials. This comes seriously in handy when you’re trying to create tools that are measured properly and have square faces - and cutting directly across the grain with a straight edge knife can be very difficult. You can almost pull it off, but it requires skill, patience and determination.

Now, with a saw, you can get it done in a flash.

●Clean small game and fish

Another great thing about a Swiss Army Knife is that you can clean small game and fish with one. Really, if you’re industrious and determined, you can skin, quarter and break down large games with one too. You’ll just need to be patient.

Skinning, gutting and preparing a small game with a folding knife is a cinch, as it gutting or even fileting most small fish. Some Swiss Army Knife Tools even come with a dedicated fish scaler for those of you who like to pan dress and cook your fish with the skin on.

●Open a wine bottle

Out in the camp with a wine bottle or some other corked bottle? It’s going to be difficult to get that bottle open if you don’t have the right tools - that is, if you don’t have a corkscrew. For whatever reason, this is not some utility that Victornox has overlooked. Many come with a corkscrew.

●Open a beer or soda bottle

Skilled handlers can open a beer bottle with the spine of a knife, but this requires experience and finesse. For the rest of us, most Swiss Army Knives have a built in bottle opener, so you’ll never have to look farther than your pocket to get that bottle open, whether it’s capped or corked!

●Open a can

Out on the trail and set up with cans of food that don’t have tab pull tops? No worries; you can get that can open in a jiffy via the aid of most Swiss Army Knives, which have can openers built right into them. It’s a slopper job than could be performed with some modern can openers, but when you’re in the woods, you’ll take any port in a storm.

●Cut or strip wires

If you ever find yourself in a stubborn situation or in a true survival situation where you’re wrangling with wires or lines, you can use your Swiss Army Knife to get free. The blades will make it easy to cut most cordage, and multi-tools have jaws that often contain wire cutters near the fulcrum. This makes them useful for cutting not only copper electrical wire but also steel snare wire and other impediments. Some of them also have wire strippers.

●Manage a stubborn knot

Dealing with tightly drawn knots is a gigantic pain, especially when they’re really cinched down. Sometimes you can make a marlinspike from wood, but oftentimes very tightly drawn knots will defy your best efforts. Even the worst of these, however, should yield to the influence of the awl contained in some Swiss Army Knives, which can be (carefully!) used as a makeshift marlinspike to tease open knots.

●Use it as a carrying handle

Struggling to carry a load of bags? You can wrap the handles around the closed, lozenge shaped Swiss Army Knife in your pocket as an impromptu, improvised handle. It’ll improve your comfort and increase your working load.

●Put a new hole in your belt

So you’re out in the woods and you’ve shed a few. Maybe your pants are even starting to sag because your belt doesn’t fit properly anymore. Full grain leather is a bear to work with, but using the awl on your Swiss Army Knife (or even the point of one of the blades) you can add a new hole in a pinch.

●Use it as a marking tool

Measure twice, cut once, no matter the medium. You can use a variety of the tools contained within your Swiss Army Knife both to measure and to mark the material you’re working with, be it wood, plastic, bone, leather or some other material.

●Make a small stove

Need a way to cook? Have two old soda cans? Cut the bottoms off of each can evenly from the midsection, leaving an inch and a half or so at the bottom. Be very careful of the cut edges.

Take one of the bottom sections and, very carefully, poke a ring of 6 - 12 holes around the interior of the cupped bottom portion of one of the pieces. Fill it about halfway up with rubbing or denatured alcohol, place the bottom with the holes on it inside of the other section (upside down, with the outside bottom portion facing up), and light it. It takes only a few minutes to make a survival stove in this fashion.

●Mend a torn seam

Have you ever been on the trail and inadvertently ripped a seam in your backpack, your clothing or your tent? It’s a very unfortunate occurrence, but if you bring along some thread and a Swiss Army Knife, you should be able to mend it with only a little skill and effort. Most come with an awl and a sewing eye. Punch and new holes needed, thread a running or a spiral stitch and you’ll be set.

●Open envelopes and packaging

This is self explanatory; you can easily use almost any Swiss Army Knife Tools to slay the daily domestic beast of envelopes and pesky packaging.

●Sharpen that pencil

Many hikers and campers carry a notepad and a pencil to take vital notes. Pencils, however, despite their utility, reliability and weatherproof nature, break and wear down. Whittle a pencil back to a point easily with a Swiss Army Knife.

●Sharpen another knife

This one’s a bit cumbersome, but possible nonetheless. You can actually use the semi-squared back of a Swiss Army Knife blade as a honing steel for another knife. It’s a rough process, but you can use it to straighten the burrs on another blade, somewhat restoring the edge.

●Shaving - yes, shaving - reserved for the experienced!

While we don’t recommend it, it is categorically possible to shave with a Swiss Army Knife. If you have honed your blade to a razor’s edge, you can use it to give yourself a shave, but what we suggest is using the scissors that come with most models to give yourself a trim if you really need it.

●Whittle something unique; express yourself

Finally, a Swiss Army Knife gives you the creative, expressive outlet of art when the toils of the day have passed and you have time to unwind by the fire or in your sleeping bag. Whittle something that tells your tale of perseverance. It’s possible with a Swiss Army Knife.

There you have 26 really insightly and practical uses for almost all Swiss Army Knife Tools, but as in other areas of self-reliance, the true number of uses is bounded only by your determination coupled with your creativity.

If you come up with other unique or innovative uses, we’d love to hear them. Get in touch with us at WhiteMountainKnives.com and let us know what you think.

In the meantime, take a look through our diverse collection of Victorinox Knives and Tools and get yourself something new today. You can never have too many tools!