My Rangergrip 78 Review is a long read. I go into some history of Victorinox Swiss Army Knives as well as provide details about my own Rangergrip 78. I’ve had mine now for four years, and feel good about writing a detailed review.
With scores of various knife models available from Victorinox, what is the Rangergrip 78 and its other version the best Swiss Army Knife for camping? Hopefully my review will help you decide of it’s a knife you what to own.
Rangergrip 78 Review
- Name: RangerGrip 78
- Price: Varies, $50 to $80
- Cheapest Place To Buy: Amazon
- Guarantees: Lifetime warranty against defects
- My Rating: 5/5 (read more to see why)
Victorinox – A Brief History
Located in the town of Ibach in Switzerland, Victorinox has been making knives since 1891. Their name came about in the early 1900’s when the founder’s mother passed away, he named the company after her, ‘Victoria’.
A few years later ‘inox’ was added, which is an abbreviation for acier inoxydable, which is the French word for stainless steel.
The stainless steel Victorinox uses in their knives comes primarily from France and Germany.
While the company is best know for their Swiss Army Knives, they also make kitchen cutlery for the home and professional chefs, as well as a few other unique but lesser known items.
Their primary competition had been a company called Wenger, also a Swiss company. After the 9-11 terrorist attacks, both companies took a very hard sales hit, as small pocket knives became a security issue for air travel. Profits for both companies plummeted, but in the end Victorinox bought out Wenger in 2005.
The latest numbers I could find on manufacturing dates back to 2006, when that year they produced 34,000 Swiss Army Knives, 38,000 multi-tools, and 30,000 kitchen cutlery pieces PER DAY. Yeah, I had to double check that fact as well… It really is what they make per day.
They export their products to over 100 different countries, and the United States is their biggest importer.
My Swiss Army Knives
While Victorinox makes watches, clothing, backpacks, and other products, the Swiss Army Knife is their most well known.
I got my first Swiss Army Knife when I was kid in Bear Cub Scouts. Sadly I don’t recall to much about it, but at the time it fit my pocket and had a half dozen cool tools on it. I was a star among my friends at that age because I had one.
Not sure what ever happened to that little red handled knife. It was either stolen or I foolishly lost it.
I got another one in my early teens as a gift from my father, much like the first. I hung onto that knife and still have it today tucked away in a box somewhere. It’s beat up pretty good as I used it often and carried it every day.
In my early 20s my grandfather gave me one… it is one of my most preciously owned knives. He used the hell out of it, as he was always tinkering and doing stuff. I never used that knife, I cherished it immediately and keep it hidden away in my sock drawer so I can look at it now and then and remember my grandfather.
All of the Swiss Army Knives I had owned from a child until I purchased a Rangergrip 78 were gifts.
Rangergrip 78: Why I Wanted One
If you’re like me you carry a pocket knife around with you 24/7. When I go hunting or on extended camping trips I also carry a belt knife. Typically something with a blade between four and six inches in length.
My primary belt knife, a Gerber Gator Premium, doesn’t get used much on camping or hiking trips. I use it to field dress deer, sometimes batoning wood for a campfire (but that’s rare). It’s a fantastic knife and I like to have it around for longer outdoor trips, but it just doesn’t get used much as it tend to be a little overkill for what I use a knife for most.
My smaller pocket knife is great, and it gets used more frequently during my outdoor trips, but I often wonder if I could have something better that can serve more functions, with just a little longer blade.
My answer to that was thoroughly researching Swiss Army Knives. My curiosity and interest spiked in these types of knives when I was watching a Joe Robinet video on You Tube. In that video he put a Farmer model through it’s paces, even batoning wood with it.
In another video he used a Bushcrafter model. I went looking for that knife and was totally bummed out to see they were no longer available. They were a special production run only. But that led me to reading some good reviews on other Victorinox knives such as the Farmer mentioned above and the Trekker.
My research led me to the Victorinox website where I poured over the many different Swiss Army Knives they make. I was amazed to see all the unique tools that could be incorporated into a pocket knife. Most I would never have any use for, but some I could see as being handy to have.
Anyway, after hours of research and watching You Tube videos I settled on deciding to order a Victorinox Rangergrip 78 Swiss Army Knife.
Rangergrip 78 Review: The Details
I know what you’re thinking… Why the Rangergrip 78?
Everybody has their own tastes and desires in knives. But I wanted something that would be able to fill a few different functions while I was doing minimalist camping or day hiking. For me the Rangergrip 78 fit my needs.
Here are some of the things I like about this knife, and why I consider it the best overall knifes for my general outdoor needs.
- It’s bigger than a pocket knife but smaller than a fixed blade belt knife. The blade is 3.9″, not too long nor too short, and the handle grip is 5.1″ inches long. It fits the hand nicely.
- The blade spine design of the RangerGrip 78 allows for single hand opening with the flip of your thumb.
- It comes with a 4.2″ saw that works incredibly well. When I am prepping wood for my twig stove this comes in handy. Most backpacking campfires are made using smaller pieces of wood and not big logs. No need to carry a bulky hand saw – that little 4.2 inch saw works amazingly well!
- The awl tool is perfect for using with your fire-steel ferro rod to start fires. It can also be used for camp projects, like working with leather to make sheaths or protective covers, carving wood, etc…
- Never know when you’ll need a can opener – it has one. While I don’t even bring cans along on my usual camp outings, I did have a use for it on my last overlanding trip.
The RangerGrip 78 fits comfortably in my hand. - Tweezers! I live in wood-tick country. Having a tweezers handy to pull ticks as well as thorns and splinters is always a good thing, not to mention slivers I get sometimes.
- The scales are ergonomic and fit the hand wonderfully. It also has rubber inlays (that black you see in the grip) that help assure a good firm hold when handling the Rangergrip 78.
- It comes with basic tools such as a flat head and Philips head screwdrivers. I can’t recall ever needing these while camping, but you never know…
- The Rangergrip 78, like all the Rangergrips, has a locking mechanism for the blade. It locks into place when open. It’s a frame lock design that can be activated by pressing the Victorinox logo on the side of the handle. I like this feature for safety reasons.
- The blade is supple and a good all around size for chores requiring a knife around a camp. Cooking, line cutting, whittling, making wood tent stakes, field dressing wild game of all sizes, cleaning fish, and more.
- The stainless steel Victorinox uses to make their blades has a hardness rank factor of around 56-57. It’s not an overly hard steel, so it will dull up with use like any knife, but it will be easy to sharpen and maintain a good edge on it.
- Victorinox has a lifetime warranty on their product from defects. They provide excellent customer service and really stand firm behind their knives.
Rangergrip 78: My Personal Review Thoughts
The Rangergrip 78 is bigger than a normal pocket Swiss Army Knife. It has the handy features I want in one design, and then some, and places them within one ‘tool’ that is easy to carry around.
This knife can be carried in the pocket, though I feel it is a bit too large for that. It fits nicely in the Victorinox designed belt case and is always convenient to have on hand when outdoors when you need it. They have two versions of belt cases for their Rangergrip line, one is leather and the other is nylon. I have both, but prefer the nylon case.
My Rangergrip 78 can serve me in a variety of ways in one neat package that is not to small and inconvenient, nor too large and cumbersome.
Is The Rangergrip 78 Good For Hardcore Campers?
The best thing about Victorinox Swiss Army Knives is that there are hundreds of various models to choose from.
As an example; you can get a knife similar to the RangerGrip 78, but called the RangerGrip 79 – it has a corkscrew tool instead of a Philips screwdriver. The RangerGrip 178 has a green grip and a serrated knife blade.
If you don’t like the big and beefy RangerGrip series of knives, you can easily find something smaller and sleeker.
It’s little things like that where you can look through vast catalog of products and choose the knife that best fits you. You can look and decide what you need in a camping knife, and probably find it! Check out the picture below.
RangerGrip 78 Review Conclusion
I hope you have found my RangerGrip 78 review helpful. It may or may not be what you are looking for in a camp knife. But you can read more about this knife and other models that are available for purchase through the Amazon image & link below.
The RangerGrip 78 does not come with a belt carry pouch, which I thought it should have, since it does seem just a tad large for my tastes to carry around in a pocket. You can find leather and nylon belt pouches online as well for a fairly reasonable price.
I’ve already put the knife to good use a few times while out in the woods over the past years. It seems to fit the mark perfectly for me in what I want in a general purpose camp knife.
Thanks for reading my Rangergrip 78 review. I like mine it a lot.
TD
