Any Swiss Army Knife fans here?

Platapus · 03-29-21, 05:59 PM

I really like SAKs. I have been carrying a SAK, in one form or another, for over 50 years. It is truly one of my EDCs.

My current carry is the Trekker

It is a good balance between carry size and the size and size of selected tools. I have just ordered a Locksmith

It is just like the Trekker but has an additional metal file/metal saw. I figure between the blade, wood saw and metal saw, this knife can address a lot of problems. I will have to see if the extra width adversely impacts carrying.

I use a suspension clip

That way my SAK hangs from the edge of my pocket, which keeps it from slipping around.

Anyone else here like Swiss Army Knives?

Skybird · 03-29-21, 06:31 PM

I love them, Victorinox. Always had one since the age of 10. Plus this company knows a thing or two about good steel, and how to sharpen it so that it stays sharp for longer time than other brands. its not called Swiss mystery steel or phantom steel for no reason.

Their leatherman-style tools also are excellent, and imo better crafted than the originals.

Without a victorinox pocket knife at my belt i feel not complete.

MaDef · 03-30-21, 12:03 AM

I've carried a pocket knife since I was about 7-8, when my grandfather gave me his Old Timer pocket knife, I've carried a lot of them over the years. Almost every one of them has been lost or broken, I currently carry a Gerber remix tactical at work and a Gerber Bear Grylls survival knife when out in the woods.

Sean C · 03-30-21, 01:11 AM

I used to have a SwissChamp. I loved that ridiculous monstrosity.

Jimbuna · 03-30-21, 05:37 AM

I used to have a Victorinox Tourist until my lad got his eye on it.

Platapus · 03-30-21, 07:01 AM

It is possible that I was the only one who did not know about this.

tortoisegear.com sells two different types of fire starters especially for SAKs

The first is the Fire Fly

These are Fero Rods that take the place of the toothpick that comes with many SAKs. Personally, I have never felt comfortable using the tooth pick as a tooth pick, and honestly the only use I had for them was to clean the gunk out of the grooves of my SAK.

Replace the gnarly toothpick with one of these and you have an emergency fire starter without needing to carry anything extra.

For those whose SAKs have the corkscrew, there is the Fire Ant

The Fire Ant consists of two separate items that both screw into the corkscrew.

The first is a highly compressed tinder material and the second is a small Fero Rod along the design of the optional small screw driver that can be stored inside the corkscrew

Clearly, both of these products are for emergency use only. If I were going somewhere intending to start a fire, I would carry a dedicated full size fire starter, matches, or the good old lighter.

What I like most about this product is that it allows me to carry an emergency fire starter without needing to carry anything other than my SAK.

I have tried to see if it was possible to store one of the Fire Flys inside my Leatherman Wave +.

Unfortunately, the tolerances of the Leatherman Wave + allow no room and if you try to store one, you end up breaking the fire-starter.

Learn from my mistake.

This was disappointing as sometimes I like to carry my Wave + and would liked to have the option of storing one of these small fire-starters inside the Wave.

Just one more reason why SAKs rule.

Platapus · 03-30-21, 09:55 AM

I can highly recommend the YouTube channel of Felix Immler. He has a series of videos showing what can be done with a SAK. He is a funny but highly skilled bushcrafter and I have learned a lot about non-intuitive uses of SAK tools.

mapuc · 03-30-21, 10:48 AM

I remember having one of these in my youth-it was a Christmas gift from one of my elderly sister.

Today I have a no-name pocket knife with 4 different tools-8 functions.
Scissor, knife, plier(with two function) Screwdriver with 3 other function

I have on occasion been thinking on buying a Victorinox, but which one should I buy ?
Should I buy the Victorinox Swiss Army pocketknife - CyberTool 41

Markus

Platapus · 03-30-21, 11:08 AM

Yikes, choosing which Victorinox knife to buy is a tough and very personal choice.

I really really wish that Victorinox would offer customized knives where the customer can choose which tools they want.

But until they do, you have to choose from the many many many different models that they do offer.

The first decision is the general size. This is the over all length of the knife when closed. Your choices are

Small - 50 and 76 mm. Don't automatically think that the smaller size SAKs have limited tools.

Medium - 76 and 101 mm

Large - 100 to 131 mm

It should not come as a surprise that the smaller SAKs are easier to carry and that the larger SAKs have larger tools.

As with any knife, it will be a trade off on carry-ability and desired tool selection and size.

I recommend visiting the Victorinox site or swissarmy.com. Both of these sites have pages filled with pictures of each of the models of knives. This allows you to quickly look for the features you personally prefer.

Unfortunately the CyberTool 41is discontinued but still can be found but it is getting hard. The current CyberTool is the CyberTool L which is a pretty wide knife!

mapuc · 03-30-21, 11:41 AM

^Thank you for your advise

It has never gone beyond the thought of buying one of these.

The reason is-If I did buy one of these it would be nothing more than a bragging thing. Have had a real hard thinking-Am I in a need of such a tool/multipurpose knife ?

No.

Markus

Platapus · 03-30-21, 12:06 PM

No one needs a SAK, but what does that have to do with anything?

Skybird · 03-30-21, 03:59 PM

That fire starter kit is a good idea, but it wpould come at the cost of the fine screw driver which I indeed use frequently to fix the screws in my glasses.

I also have use of the kife itself, the bottle oepner, the screwdrivers and the scissors. I have cut a small tree with the saw once.

A SAK is the smallest and most usable multi-tool in the world. The leathermans and all that there is are bigger and heavier on the belt, and only of use in a dedicated urban working environment. In the woods, I would not take them with me. Too little use for too much weight.

However, its a nice satisyfying feeling to own one of these:
https://www.subsim.com/radioroom/sho...ght=Victorinox

My belt knifes grew in size with every new one I bought, I now am on a Victorinox Champion,

I would like to have the multi-pliers on it, but buying an even bigger new one just for this I have not really the motivation for. I thought I would switch from the Champion to the Spirit as the standard belt equip, but went back to the Champion. Its smaller, lighter. But the Spirit is a damn fine thing, of excellent manufacturing quality. I look at it and know that I love it just for the looks and feel of it.

When I was at school, it was okay for teachers that I had a smaller Victorniox on the belt all the time, year in and year out, and on some few instances I fixed a screw in the chalkboard in front of the teacher and class, or did some othe rminor quick fixing of stuff with it in class. Nobody ever complained, never had anybody queer looks at me. If a (reasonable and calm) kid would do that today.... The yelling! The outcry...!!! The SCANDAL...!!! In 7th or 8th class we had a class visist to witness a life court, and I forgot to leave it at home, I imagined it would be no good idea to went there with a pocket knife on. My class teacher, when i told her, said "Lets wait and see", and the guards did not care to control us (big mistake I now say as an adult), and so I went in with the others, being the only armed civilian in the building, probabaly. Imagine the horror I could have unleashed!

Oh Baby, baby, baby,
what happened to those days,
when the doors were always open,
and the music always played...

Catfish · 04-06-21, 03:18 PM

Platapus · 04-06-21, 05:41 PM

Pretty funny guy

vienna · 04-06-21, 05:52 PM

I was gifted a Swiss Army knife by a co-worker nearly 20 years ago; I had saved him from an embarrassing situation when he had developed a project and it was going to be launched at a weekend (overtime) session where a large group of employees were to use his app to to complete a time-sensitive, high profile assignment; somehow, he managed to make an error in the execution of the password protection on his app and could not get into it to start it, meaning there was an office full of people who had given up their Saturday to work on something that was now, for all intents and purposes, inert; I as not part of the project and had come in that Saturday, on my own, to do a little experimenting with some of my own ideas; another one of the employees, who had been part of the other guy's project, came into my server room and told me, "Did you hear? Ben (not his real name) just screwed up big time", and gave me the details; Ben had taken a real deep dislike to me when I had first started at the office and had not changed his opinion in the few years since, something I really didn't care about since that sort of thing, unless it gets real personal or disruptive, is something I choose to ignore; when I was told about the problem, I asked the employee to please ask Ben to come to the server room, since I tend to find it impossible to not try to help when anyone is in trouble, no matter what they may think of me; Ben showed up, more annoyed that I had asked to see him than anything, but his attitude changed when I told him I might have a solution to his problem, but it would involve a hack and that might pose a problem given we were working in a county government office and the hack may be deemed illegal, but he was a bit desperate and agreed to do it on my provision that I would deny any involvement if there were any repercussions; I fixed the problem with a bit of devious art and also made a change to his app when I noted a problem he might not have considered; he was grateful and his demeanor towards me thereafter was a bit more cordial...

About a year later, he went off on his longtime dream vacation to a skiing trip in Switzerland and he asked the other employees if there was anything they wanted him to bring back from his trip for them; the bulk of the requests were for the usual Swiss chocolate, etc., and when he asked me what I wanted, I said I really didn't want anything (since I'm not really a big fan of chocolate), but he persisted and I jokingly said, "OK, bring me back a Swiss Army Knife"; he wrote that down and went off on his vacation; when he came back, he was bearing the chocolates he had been requested to bring and he also gave each employee one of those little key-chain-sized SAKs in addition to the chocolates; when he got to me, I was expecting to also get one of those mini-SAKs, but he gave me a rather nice box with this inside:

https://www.swissarmy.com/us/en/Prod...l-L/p/1.7775.T

This SAK is a mini-IT toolkit and was, at that time, unavailable in the US; when I told him the gift seemed a bit much, he replied he remembered how I had unexpectedly helped him back when he had his app problem, and had not been able to find, until then, a way to say "thanks"...

I still have that knife and have used it many, many times over the years and it has served as a reminder that sometimes doing something for others can be rewarding even when you don't expect anything in return and that, even if someone doesn't immediately express thanks, it doesn't mean they don't feel gratitude all the same; the knife is one of my most prized possessions...

<O>

03-29-21, 05:59 PM	#1
Platapus Fleet Admiral Join Date: Oct 2006 Posts: 18,983 Downloads: 63 Uploads: 0	Any Swiss Army Knife fans here? I really like SAKs. I have been carrying a SAK, in one form or another, for over 50 years. It is truly one of my EDCs. My current carry is the Trekker It is a good balance between carry size and the size and size of selected tools. I have just ordered a Locksmith It is just like the Trekker but has an additional metal file/metal saw. I figure between the blade, wood saw and metal saw, this knife can address a lot of problems. I will have to see if the extra width adversely impacts carrying. I use a suspension clip That way my SAK hangs from the edge of my pocket, which keeps it from slipping around. Anyone else here like Swiss Army Knives? __________________ abusus non tollit usum - A right should NOT be withheld from people on the basis that some tend to abuse that right.

03-29-21, 06:31 PM	#2
Skybird Soaring Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: the mental asylum named Germany Posts: 40,641 Downloads: 9 Uploads: 0	I love them, Victorinox. Always had one since the age of 10. Plus this company knows a thing or two about good steel, and how to sharpen it so that it stays sharp for longer time than other brands. its not called Swiss mystery steel or phantom steel for no reason. Their leatherman-style tools also are excellent, and imo better crafted than the originals. Without a victorinox pocket knife at my belt i feel not complete. __________________ If you feel nuts, consult an expert.

03-30-21, 01:11 AM	#4
Sean C Grey Wolf Join Date: Jun 2017 Location: Norfolk, VA Posts: 913 Downloads: 12 Uploads: 2	I used to have a SwissChamp. I loved that ridiculous monstrosity. __________________ If you have a question about celestial navigation ... ask me! Celestial Navigation Spreadsheet

03-30-21, 05:37 AM	#5
Jimbuna Chief of the Boat Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: 250 metres below the surface Posts: 181,360 Downloads: 63 Uploads: 13	I used to have a Victorinox Tourist until my lad got his eye on it. __________________ Wise men speak because they have something to say; Fools because they have to say something. Oh my God, not again!! GWX3.0 Download Page - Donation/instant access to GWX (Help SubSim)

03-30-21, 07:01 AM	#6
Platapus Fleet Admiral Join Date: Oct 2006 Posts: 18,983 Downloads: 63 Uploads: 0	Fire Starter for Swiss Army Knives It is possible that I was the only one who did not know about this. tortoisegear.com sells two different types of fire starters especially for SAKs The first is the Fire Fly These are Fero Rods that take the place of the toothpick that comes with many SAKs. Personally, I have never felt comfortable using the tooth pick as a tooth pick, and honestly the only use I had for them was to clean the gunk out of the grooves of my SAK. Replace the gnarly toothpick with one of these and you have an emergency fire starter without needing to carry anything extra. For those whose SAKs have the corkscrew, there is the Fire Ant The Fire Ant consists of two separate items that both screw into the corkscrew. The first is a highly compressed tinder material and the second is a small Fero Rod along the design of the optional small screw driver that can be stored inside the corkscrew Clearly, both of these products are for emergency use only. If I were going somewhere intending to start a fire, I would carry a dedicated full size fire starter, matches, or the good old lighter. What I like most about this product is that it allows me to carry an emergency fire starter without needing to carry anything other than my SAK. I have tried to see if it was possible to store one of the Fire Flys inside my Leatherman Wave +. Unfortunately, the tolerances of the Leatherman Wave + allow no room and if you try to store one, you end up breaking the fire-starter. Learn from my mistake. This was disappointing as sometimes I like to carry my Wave + and would liked to have the option of storing one of these small fire-starters inside the Wave. Just one more reason why SAKs rule. __________________ abusus non tollit usum - A right should NOT be withheld from people on the basis that some tend to abuse that right.

03-30-21, 12:03 AM	#3
MaDef Ace of the Deep Join Date: Oct 2007 Posts: 1,046 Downloads: 5 Uploads: 0	I've carried a pocket knife since I was about 7-8, when my grandfather gave me his Old Timer pocket knife, I've carried a lot of them over the years. Almost every one of them has been lost or broken, I currently carry a Gerber remix tactical at work and a Gerber Bear Grylls survival knife when out in the woods.

03-30-21, 09:55 AM	#7
Platapus Fleet Admiral Join Date: Oct 2006 Posts: 18,983 Downloads: 63 Uploads: 0	I can highly recommend the YouTube channel of Felix Immler. He has a series of videos showing what can be done with a SAK. He is a funny but highly skilled bushcrafter and I have learned a lot about non-intuitive uses of SAK tools. __________________ abusus non tollit usum - A right should NOT be withheld from people on the basis that some tend to abuse that right.

03-30-21, 10:48 AM	#8
mapuc Fleet Admiral Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Denmark Posts: 18,094 Downloads: 37 Uploads: 0	I remember having one of these in my youth-it was a Christmas gift from one of my elderly sister. Today I have a no-name pocket knife with 4 different tools-8 functions. Scissor, knife, plier(with two function) Screwdriver with 3 other function I have on occasion been thinking on buying a Victorinox, but which one should I buy ? Should I buy the Victorinox Swiss Army pocketknife - CyberTool 41 Markus __________________ My little lovely female cat

03-30-21, 11:08 AM	#9
Platapus Fleet Admiral Join Date: Oct 2006 Posts: 18,983 Downloads: 63 Uploads: 0	Yikes, choosing which Victorinox knife to buy is a tough and very personal choice. I really really wish that Victorinox would offer customized knives where the customer can choose which tools they want. But until they do, you have to choose from the many many many different models that they do offer. The first decision is the general size. This is the over all length of the knife when closed. Your choices are Small - 50 and 76 mm. Don't automatically think that the smaller size SAKs have limited tools. Medium - 76 and 101 mm Large - 100 to 131 mm It should not come as a surprise that the smaller SAKs are easier to carry and that the larger SAKs have larger tools. As with any knife, it will be a trade off on carry-ability and desired tool selection and size. I recommend visiting the Victorinox site or swissarmy.com. Both of these sites have pages filled with pictures of each of the models of knives. This allows you to quickly look for the features you personally prefer. Unfortunately the CyberTool 41is discontinued but still can be found but it is getting hard. The current CyberTool is the CyberTool L which is a pretty wide knife! __________________ abusus non tollit usum - A right should NOT be withheld from people on the basis that some tend to abuse that right.

03-30-21, 11:41 AM	#10
mapuc Fleet Admiral Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Denmark Posts: 18,094 Downloads: 37 Uploads: 0	^Thank you for your advise It has never gone beyond the thought of buying one of these. The reason is-If I did buy one of these it would be nothing more than a bragging thing. Have had a real hard thinking-Am I in a need of such a tool/multipurpose knife ? No. Markus __________________ My little lovely female cat

03-30-21, 12:06 PM	#11
Platapus Fleet Admiral Join Date: Oct 2006 Posts: 18,983 Downloads: 63 Uploads: 0	No one needs a SAK, but what does that have to do with anything? __________________ abusus non tollit usum - A right should NOT be withheld from people on the basis that some tend to abuse that right.

03-30-21, 03:59 PM	#12
Skybird Soaring Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: the mental asylum named Germany Posts: 40,641 Downloads: 9 Uploads: 0	That fire starter kit is a good idea, but it wpould come at the cost of the fine screw driver which I indeed use frequently to fix the screws in my glasses. I also have use of the kife itself, the bottle oepner, the screwdrivers and the scissors. I have cut a small tree with the saw once. A SAK is the smallest and most usable multi-tool in the world. The leathermans and all that there is are bigger and heavier on the belt, and only of use in a dedicated urban working environment. In the woods, I would not take them with me. Too little use for too much weight. However, its a nice satisyfying feeling to own one of these: https://www.subsim.com/radioroom/sho...ght=Victorinox My belt knifes grew in size with every new one I bought, I now am on a Victorinox Champion, I would like to have the multi-pliers on it, but buying an even bigger new one just for this I have not really the motivation for. I thought I would switch from the Champion to the Spirit as the standard belt equip, but went back to the Champion. Its smaller, lighter. But the Spirit is a damn fine thing, of excellent manufacturing quality. I look at it and know that I love it just for the looks and feel of it. When I was at school, it was okay for teachers that I had a smaller Victorniox on the belt all the time, year in and year out, and on some few instances I fixed a screw in the chalkboard in front of the teacher and class, or did some othe rminor quick fixing of stuff with it in class. Nobody ever complained, never had anybody queer looks at me. If a (reasonable and calm) kid would do that today.... The yelling! The outcry...!!! The SCANDAL...!!! In 7th or 8th class we had a class visist to witness a life court, and I forgot to leave it at home, I imagined it would be no good idea to went there with a pocket knife on. My class teacher, when i told her, said "Lets wait and see", and the guards did not care to control us (big mistake I now say as an adult), and so I went in with the others, being the only armed civilian in the building, probabaly. Imagine the horror I could have unleashed! Oh Baby, baby, baby, what happened to those days, when the doors were always open, and the music always played... __________________ If you feel nuts, consult an expert.

04-06-21, 03:18 PM	#13
Catfish Dipped Squirrel Operative Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: ..where the ocean meets the sky Posts: 16,904 Downloads: 38 Uploads: 0	__________________ >^..^<*)))>{ All generalizations are wrong.

04-06-21, 05:41 PM	#14
Platapus Fleet Admiral Join Date: Oct 2006 Posts: 18,983 Downloads: 63 Uploads: 0	Pretty funny guy __________________ abusus non tollit usum - A right should NOT be withheld from people on the basis that some tend to abuse that right.

04-06-21, 05:52 PM	#15
vienna Navy Seal Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Anywhere but the here & now... Posts: 7,521 Downloads: 85 Uploads: 0	I was gifted a Swiss Army knife by a co-worker nearly 20 years ago; I had saved him from an embarrassing situation when he had developed a project and it was going to be launched at a weekend (overtime) session where a large group of employees were to use his app to to complete a time-sensitive, high profile assignment; somehow, he managed to make an error in the execution of the password protection on his app and could not get into it to start it, meaning there was an office full of people who had given up their Saturday to work on something that was now, for all intents and purposes, inert; I as not part of the project and had come in that Saturday, on my own, to do a little experimenting with some of my own ideas; another one of the employees, who had been part of the other guy's project, came into my server room and told me, "Did you hear? Ben (not his real name) just screwed up big time", and gave me the details; Ben had taken a real deep dislike to me when I had first started at the office and had not changed his opinion in the few years since, something I really didn't care about since that sort of thing, unless it gets real personal or disruptive, is something I choose to ignore; when I was told about the problem, I asked the employee to please ask Ben to come to the server room, since I tend to find it impossible to not try to help when anyone is in trouble, no matter what they may think of me; Ben showed up, more annoyed that I had asked to see him than anything, but his attitude changed when I told him I might have a solution to his problem, but it would involve a hack and that might pose a problem given we were working in a county government office and the hack may be deemed illegal, but he was a bit desperate and agreed to do it on my provision that I would deny any involvement if there were any repercussions; I fixed the problem with a bit of devious art and also made a change to his app when I noted a problem he might not have considered; he was grateful and his demeanor towards me thereafter was a bit more cordial... About a year later, he went off on his longtime dream vacation to a skiing trip in Switzerland and he asked the other employees if there was anything they wanted him to bring back from his trip for them; the bulk of the requests were for the usual Swiss chocolate, etc., and when he asked me what I wanted, I said I really didn't want anything (since I'm not really a big fan of chocolate), but he persisted and I jokingly said, "OK, bring me back a Swiss Army Knife"; he wrote that down and went off on his vacation; when he came back, he was bearing the chocolates he had been requested to bring and he also gave each employee one of those little key-chain-sized SAKs in addition to the chocolates; when he got to me, I was expecting to also get one of those mini-SAKs, but he gave me a rather nice box with this inside: https://www.swissarmy.com/us/en/Prod...l-L/p/1.7775.T This SAK is a mini-IT toolkit and was, at that time, unavailable in the US; when I told him the gift seemed a bit much, he replied he remembered how I had unexpectedly helped him back when he had his app problem, and had not been able to find, until then, a way to say "thanks"... I still have that knife and have used it many, many times over the years and it has served as a reminder that sometimes doing something for others can be rewarding even when you don't expect anything in return and that, even if someone doesn't immediately express thanks, it doesn't mean they don't feel gratitude all the same; the knife is one of my most prized possessions... <O> __________________ __________________________________________________ __