I agree with everything you say here. I have all three, and my favorite is the Midnight Manager. That’s the appeal of SAK’s: with so many different configurations available, it’s easier to find the one that suits your needs best. I use my Midnight Manager every single day. It still fits easily into the little coin pocket of my jeans, and saves me the time and effort searching for various tools I might need in the course of my day. To me the flashlight meets my needs more often than the very useful tweezers or toothpick.
My favourite is the manager. I had a Rambler but substituting the toothpick for a pen is an excellent trade. Given the Victorinox tweezers, although seldom used, are the pinnacle of engineering simplicity, I couldn't trade them for a pen light. Although a pen lite would likely be more handy when you are out and about - you are much more likely to find a light source than a pair of tweezers when you really need it. Just my philosophy. If they could find a way to squeeze the tweezers into the midnight manager that would be the ultimate combo.
It’s a great knife for sure, but very expensive to gain the small and not very powerful led light. I prefer to carry a very small but much more usable dedicated led keychain light and a standard Victorinox Manager instead. 🤷♂️🙂
Happy Saturday Mr. A, I have all 3 - Rambler, Manager & Midnite Manager in my SAK collection but the only one I have actually used for EDC is the Midnite Manager albeit after 5 years use as my default keyring SAK I went back to using its bigger brother the Midnite Mini-Champ & mine is a hybrid with SilverTech scales ( as is one of my 2 Midnite Managers) Yes there are a number of tools on the MMC that will probably never be used by me but its the same on a lot of the tools on larger multi-tool SAK's that I never use starting with the Victorinox style can opener & its screwdriver tip. Never found any screw head that it actually fits nor is it possible to apply pressure on it without bending the tool out of shape ( ditto for the useless screwdriver tip on Classic SD's nail file ) and the Victorinox can opener is inferior to the Wenger crabs claw shaped can opener ( based on several test I conducted with both types of openers on different shaped cans ) . I am fortunate also to have in my collection several of the other very useful 58mm multi-layer SAK's that sadly have been discontinued :- the original Mini-Champ Mk.1 which is slimmer than the current MC as it has less tools, the Mate version 1 & the Mate version 2 which later was renamed the Vagabond after just a minor tool change, the Rogue & the Cavalier. All are now discontinued & hard to come by as unused old stock / new in box & fetch premium prices on eBay even in used condition. To sum up the Midnite Manager is a great pocket carry, convenient, practical & very good value for money for EDC use.
I searched about these three on web and youtube many times. After all I ordered Rambler yesterday because of some reasons: 1-When pen and/or light is in, there may be a washing issue, since I cannot put the SAK under fountain freely to wash my blade 2-Pen usage becomes rarer everyday 3-Light depends on my mobile phone, which I have to carry with me anyways 4-Tweezers and pointy nonmetal stick (I dont wanna call it toothpick) cannot be found easily when needed 5-Pen needs refill/replacement and light needs batteries; which I will need spare pens and batteries
I always carry a pen and a small Olight.For me nothing beats the Classic SD.It's lightweight and you can survive the Alaska winter if you learn how to use it 😅
I carry the Rambler everyday and everywhere. I had the Midnight Manager when I was living in a mor rural location as it was often handy for lighting the keyhole. The pen I never needed as anywhere I needed one; shops, post office, bank, Drs, hospitals etc they always have them to borrow!
The Rambler is a brilliant knife, no arguments there. I only insist on carrying a model with a pen as there have genuinely been several occasions in my life when that little pen has saved the day - pens are, as u say, normally freely available everywhere, but if there's not one about and you really need it for very important information its been fantastic to have one available on the Manager
Timely for me. I've been a rambler user for years, great bit of kit. I wanted another but it occurred to me the midnight manager simply swaps the toothpick and tweezers (which I rarely use) for the LED and pen which i probably will. FYI I purchased both!
I've just ordered a rambler after watching your video. My point is looking for a keychain tool size definitely matters . Manager and midnite are great but not really great for your keychain (assuming keeping your car/home keys + a multitool in your pants, jeans) also every single mobile phone has a a lot better flash light so midnite is not really an option for me. You can use your mobile for lighting but not many people carry a tweezer with them so as the pen on the manager easy to find a pen around you. Manager and midnite would be perfect if it is hanging on your neck working at a warehouse sort of environment etc. Or if you intent to keep these bulkier models in your bag or a glowbox etc, Only part I'm annoyed with the rambler is lack of colour selection. Im in NZ and only colour is option is boring red... Yellow would've be great :((( If you don't need a Philip screwdriver (I do) alox classic sd would be a solid choice as is even slimmer than the rambler! But obviously a personal needs are making your choice is here. They are all great, compact and have the best quality, Victorinox is the best ! Thanks for the video!
Thank you for the detailed comment - some great points there! Plenty of models to choose from aren’t there, but it does always seem you’re making a compromise along the way with whichever model you choose. I wish Victorinox would offer a custom service: surely they have the machinery to offer this cheaper than the custom models can offer?! ✌️
Thank you! I do like the Midnite Manager a lot but the Manager is the best - I use the pen and toothpick often, making the Manager my first choice (with another led keychain torch on my keyring or my phone’s light if needed) 👍
I'm not really interested in MM. I've usually got a much better light in multiple locations. Classic SD is small, cheap, and virtually expendable. Even Classic Alox is bought and given away without the least consideration. Manager is just undeniably superior to Rambler. For those who always have a better, reliable pen and want a small, compact knife/multi tool, the Rambler is worth looking at. Never loan out your Manager to someone who wants to "borrow your pen." They'll gleefully run off with it. For those people, give them a cheap pen with red ink. They'll think they caught plague.
Awesome review, manager all the way, just bought another to have when my first one eventually dies. The midnight is cool but I can't justify the loss of another scale tool and added bulk for a tiny flashlight when I already have a nice fenix keychain flashlight that actually lights up a space well. I also don't really want to worry about replacing batteries in it.
Woah u managed to buy one - that’s good work, I haven’t seen any for sale anywhere (in the uk anyway) for many months now! I do tend to agree about the Midnite manager too - it’s cool but there’s sooooo many much more useful lights available aren’t there 🙂✌️👍
I love the Manager and Midnite Manager; my only complaint is that the pen retractor is made of plastic rather than metal. (The Midnite Manager also comes at a steep premium over the Manager, although I do prefer an LED light over tweezers.)
I could see why people prefer the LED over the tweezers. For me though, I quite like the teeny tweezers :) Plus I’ve heard the LED, while cool, isn’t quite so bright and is a pain to clean! Plus the extra $17! It’s a clever little gimmick, but to each their own
@@chicagotypewriter2094 I have the most current version of the Midnite Manager - the LED light on this iteration is quite bright, believe me. It's not a light I can look directly into.
@@carlitobrigante330 oh, maybe I was wrong! Glad to see it's better than I thought! (Still I'm a student so I'm completely broke; that $17 seems like a ton to me :)
Shame manager is discontinued, this flashlight is to weak to be useful imo and it deprived us of tweezers, not mentioning that the price bump was substantial.
I think the Rally belongs on this list. Same as the rambler but without the scissors (you have the knife to cut things with) and it's very inexpensive.
Yes the Mini Champ has 3 tools from the defunct Medical SAK - the tracheotomy blade, pharmaceutical scoop and medicine bottle opener, aka “orange peeler”. A bit silly.
yeah, the tiny light in the Midnight Manager can be handy i suppose but the light on your phone is probably a much better & brighter option, &, as you say, i don't think its worth losing the tweezers for.
Just occured to me that you do usually bring your mobile phone everywhere and it has a much more effective torchlite function. So the use for the LED light is questionable.
That’s a fair point, although I do think it’s good to be able to just really quickly grab the Midnight Manager out of my pocket for a real quick bit of light - much less faffing about than getting my phone’s light on if I only need it briefly. ✌️
The pen is a hot sell, I just can't get myself to buy it because it wouldn't be for that reason. I wish the knife had the same thickness of the wenger esquire tbh
The pen has saved the day for me - not used all the time or anything but there’s been several occasions where I’ve needed to leave an important note for someone or sign something, etc. & it’s been great have this tiny pen for such uses! 👌👌
I like to edc a couple of saks daily. My fav main sak at the moment is the compact and pioneer x alox. For the compact, its partnee wousld be the minichanmp alox and I am in the market to get a suitable partner sfor rhe pioneer x. I’ve narrowed it sown to either a rambler, or midnight manager as I love the combination philips tool with can opener, and sthe backup must have the hndle tools to compliment the pioneer x alox. So this review would teally help me decide.
Sounds like great choices! Yeah the Phillips/combo tool on the Rambler/Manager is really excellent- one of the best tools Victorinox has I reckon, I wish it was on more knives.
@@accoutrements4469 in the end i ordered the midnight manager with blue translucent handle scales. This woulad be the best partner for the pioneer x alox
Well, quite simply I live in a country with strict knife laws: locking blades are just not allowed, so that leaves slip-joints with blades under 3” long.🤷♂️
I prefer it with a pen, so the Manager for me. However, I can pass on the light because I fear that if I run the knife underwater I may short-circuit it. If I'm not wrong, that mechanism isn't waterproof.
I suspect you're quite right about the mechanism not being waterproof. And there's soooooo many better torches on the market nowadays to limit the usefulness of the light on the midnite manager.
ALL of the LED flashlights will be fried, destroyed when an EMP hits them 🔦 You should ALWAYS carry an incandescent type of flashlight as a backup to your LED flashlights !
Yeah the combo tool is great - I’ve used those little Phillips drivers hundreds and hundreds of times. - really good! Good point about the light, although the led is now genuinely useful on these models.
@@Euripides_Panz I’m not exactly sure - I bought my recent one about a year or 2 ago and it’s much better than my last one which is about 15 years old I guess. I’m gonna estimate that the led is improved from somewhere around 2018 or so just to be safe? That’s just a guess though. If you bought a new one now it’d be fine, I’m sure.
Fantastic tool! In all honesty it realistically easily covers 90% of my edc small pocket tool needs if I’m pootling around home or in town. Wonderful bit of gear. 👌
Thank you for the comment but I’m afraid I don’t have a link for the green scales - I would LOVE to buy some more myself but can’t find them anywhere from the uk. The ones in the video are about twenty years old. Sorry 😕
For me the Minichamp has several useless tools - a tiny ruler?? Yeah… dead useful 🙄 NOT! An oranger peeler/package opener?? It’s already got a blade which can do those things fine! The ‘spatula’ (‘cocaine spoon’! 🤣)? Totally pointless!! Etc. Unnecessary tools which make it needlessly bulky and expensive - Manager is the best by far! That’s just my opinion - loads of folks seem to love the minichamp but I think it’s a bit naff!
Hello, just wanted to let you know I featured this vid in my most recent short. I started a new series, "15 Hundred and Under". Keep up the great work and content.
Aaaaah, we’ll have to agree to disagree - minichamp has a few redundant tools adding unnecessary bulk imho (I’m looking at you “cuticle pusher”! Lol). Glad u like ‘em though - different strokes for different folks! ✌️✌️
@@accoutrements4469 yeah, I think one or two were just there to balance it out somewhat. I couldn't live without the cotton picker/package opener/orange peeler though. And I love having the original style nail file. Really not a fan of the SD nail file. I dismantled my first minichamp, removed both the blades, rearranged the tool placement then pinned it back together with some brass slabs. Makes a quality little airport multitool 👍🏻
That’s very cool about you making a flight friendly tool! I HATE not having a SAK in my pocket on flights! Have you tried getting it through airport security yet? 🙂
Well… Swisschamp is certainly the most fully featured… but it’s massive and somewhat heavy/bulky, & certainly overkill for me personally for the majority of my usage needs. Different strokes for different folks though! ✌️🙂
@@frenchfuc43r50 ah-ha, I did wonder if you meant that! 👍 I do still like the mini champ but for me it has some redundant tools - tiny ruler, ‘spatula’ (cocaine spoon!? 🤣), the little package blade thingy... I do appreciate many people do love that model though ✌️
@@accoutrements4469 ruler not that useful. the spatula can have many uses but the main reason i’d keep minichamp is because of the orange peeler. Its a great packaging opener. Also i like the nail cleaner that you dont have with other 58mm
