Grandpas Swiss Army Knife

S

shopdoc

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I think a lot of us reminisce about our fathers and grandfathers carrying small pen knives. Peanuts. Small two bladed Old Timers. And the like. Growing up that’s all I saw the older generation carry. And they got by just fine.

In a previous thread, maybe a year ago, I mentioned how coming to the realization that SAKs are old and classic too made me feel even better about carrying one. Someone (from overseas I believe) mentioned how in their world all the older generations carried SAKs which makes perfect sense.

So this has me wondering and posing a question to my friends across the pond…what size SAKs did the older generations carry primarily? Im wondering if its similar to what I saw over here. Did they typically carry smaller knives like the 58mms??

Dean
 
I’m a little puzzled that you didn’t feel as good about carrying a SAK instead of a small traditional folder. Even an 84mm like the Recruit with its extra tools far outguns the capabilities of any trad and is likely to be cheaper.

TBH I’m not sure if I’ve seen anyone of my parents generation carrying an SAK. I grew up on a farm and farmers of that time all used trads of some kind. My father was partial to IXL lambsfoots. As a kid I wanted one myself but was given a cheap two layer SAK-alike instead that proved to be much more useful. I only lost it a few years ago. I replaced it with a Vic Sportsman and didn’t look back.
 
I don't know that I've seen too many folks of my parents' generation carrying a Swiss Army knife. The only one I can think of was an older gentleman that was working at a local nursery, who was using his SAK to cut the rope holding the trees to their supports.
 
Sawl Goodman said:
I’m a little puzzled that you didn’t feel as good about carrying a SAK instead of a small traditional folder. Even an 84mm like the Recruit with its extra tools far outguns the capabilities of any trad and is likely to be cheaper.

TBH I’m not sure if I’ve seen anyone of my parents generation carrying an SAK. I grew up on a farm and farmers of that time all used trads of some kind. My father was partial to IXL lambsfoots. As a kid I wanted one myself but was given a cheap two layer SAK-alike instead that proved to be much more useful. I only lost it a few years ago. I replaced it with a Vic Sportsman and didn’t look back.
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It’s not that I don’t feel good about carrying my SAK, just the opposite. It’s that I don’t get that nostalgic feel like I do with a traditional as I never saw anyone carry a SAK when I was a kid. I was probably a teenager before I ever saw a SAK…maybe older. But I’m wondering if people who live in Europe, especially those closer to Switzerland, grew up seeing their grandparents carrying SAKs and, if so, if they typically carried smaller SAKs just like our grandparents might have carried smaller slipjoints. At least in my neck of the woods it was smaller slipjoints that I typically saw.
 
shopdoc said:
It’s not that I don’t feel good about carrying my SAK, just the opposite. It’s that I don’t get that nostalgic feel like I do with a traditional as I never saw anyone carry a SAK when I was a kid. I was probably a teenager before I ever saw a SAK…maybe older. But I’m wondering if people who live in Europe, especially those closer to Switzerland, grew up seeing their grandparents carrying SAKs and, if so, if they typically carried smaller SAKs just like our grandparents might have carried smaller slipjoints. At least in my neck of the woods it was smaller slipjoints that I typically saw.
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Kinda where I'm coming from. I never even saw a SAK until I was serving in the army and got stationed in Germany. Walking down the street in a small town was a cutlery shop with a giant moving SAK in the window. As a 12 year old, I had a "official" scout knife by Camillus, and I saw others from Case, Schrade, PAL, Imperial. All were typical American looking traditional scout knives with jigged bone or delrin scales and the basic layout. In the army we had the all steel issued M-L-K-818 or something like that. Most people called it a demo knife. Basically an all steel scout knife.

But I never saw the 'old guys' I knew carry anything but the typical two blade traditional jack by Schrade, Camillus, Imperial, Hammer Brand, Boker, Kinfolks and others. Two blades, size about 2 3/4 to 3 1/2 closed, scales of delrin, bone, wood, pearl, stag. These old guys never saw a knife as a multi use tool. It was just a cutting tool, thats all. If they needed a screw drier or can opener, they carried a keychain screw driver like the Sear's 4-way keychain one. And their old P-38 was in their wallet.

I remember when SAK's first started to pop up in the U.S., the 'old guys' all thought it was some stainless steel plastic handle piece of junk. In the 1950's and even into the early 1960's, stainless steel didn't have that good a reputation. Lots of junk stainless was imported from Asian countries. Gave the whole breed a bad rep. The mind set then was, if you wanted a good pocket knife, you bought a U.S. made one with carbon steel blades.
 
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jackknife said:
Kinda where I'm coming from. I never even saw a SAK until I was serving in the army and got stationed in Germany. Walking down the street in a small town was a cutlery shop with a giant moving SAK in the window. As a 12 year old, I had a "official" scout knife by Camillus, and I saw others from Case, Schrade, PAL, Imperial. All were typical American looking traditional scout knives with jigged bone or delrin scales and the basic layout. In the army we had the all steel issued M-L-K-818 or something like that. Most people called it a demo knife. Basically an all steel scout knife.

But I never saw the 'old guys' I knew carry anything but the typical two blade traditional jack by Schrade, Camillus, Imperial, Hammer Brand, Boker, Kinfolks and others. Two blades, size about 2 3/4 to 3 1/2 closed, scales of delrin, bone, wood, pearl, stag. These old guys never saw a knife as a multi use tool. It was just a cutting tool, thats all. If they needed a screw drier or can opener, they carried a keychain screw driver like the Sear's 4-way keychain one. And their old P-38 was in their wallet.

I remember when SAK's first started to pop up in the U.S., 6he 'old guys' all thought it was some stainless steel plastic handle piece of junk. In the 1950's and even into the early 1960's, stainless steel didn't have that good a reputation. Lots of ju stainless was imported from Asian countries. Gave the whole breed a bad rep. The mind set then was, if you wanted a good pocket knife, you bought a U.S. made one with carbon steel blades.
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Even I, when first exposed to SAKs, thought they looked more like toys. Boy was I wrong. I really wonder how our European friends felt about SAKs in the previous few generations. We all love them now but did the European ‘old guys’ carry them? Which size was the norm?

A small 58mm SAK I’m realizing is the perfect knife for ME most days. Did European grandpas realize that 2 generations ago?
 
shopdoc said:
It’s not that I don’t feel good about carrying my SAK, just the opposite. It’s that I don’t get that nostalgic feel like I do with a traditional as I never saw anyone carry a SAK when I was a kid. I was probably a teenager before I ever saw a SAK…maybe older. But I’m wondering if people who live in Europe, especially those closer to Switzerland, grew up seeing their grandparents carrying SAKs and, if so, if they typically carried smaller SAKs just like our grandparents might have carried smaller slipjoints. At least in my neck of the woods it was smaller slipjoints that I typically saw.
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Ahh, with this post and a more careful re-reading of #1 I understand better now. It's an interesting enquiry!
 
I don't know if everybody carried a knife. But you are right. They were very popular. They where a kind of basics a boy would have in his pockets. And I am quite sure that even kids at school used penknives, especially those small blades as an eraser (I am not sure if it was for ink or pencil). If I would have taken a penknife to school they would have called SWAT, most likely. A couple of years ago I watched a documentary about French knife makers. And those elderly guys said that in their youth they carried a pocket knife even when going to the stadium watching football (=soccer for those, who don't know what football is ;-) ) to cut some sausage at halftime break.
My grandfather always had his Swiss Army Knife with him. And he did a lot with it. From cutting his apple, crack walnuts, minor repairs or handcraft work, gardening etc.
 
Switzerland has mandatory military service for able bodied men at 19 years old. Women can volunteer to serve. They are issued knives. Out of all those people there is bound to be many that learned how handy it is to carry a knife and still carry their issued knives .
 
Well, I am from Switzerland. Both of my grandfathers passed away some time ago. I remember one had some sort of three layer SAK with scissors but I don‘t remember the actual model.

My father only ever used one knife and that was and still is an Victorinox Executive. I have memories throughout my childhood of seeing him use it for everything. It assisted in various construction projects (light duty stuff), to prepare food like sausages, open packages you name it.

My wives father, also in his seventies is also a one knife guy. He is a retired machinist and always carries the new version of the Victorinox Soldier. I think in his environment with lots of work in the forrest and garage it probably makes sense. The new Soldier with the serrations is also an interesting topic. I don‘t like the serrations but given the amount of really dull SAKs that I have seen in my mandatory service they make sense. With the serrations you can just hand out a knife and it will probably cut decent until the end of the service.
 
shopdoc said:
... to my friends across the pond…what size SAKs did the older generations carry primarily? Im wondering if its similar to what I saw over here. Did they typically carry smaller knives like the 58mms??

Dean
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I'm American, but lived in central Europe from 1993-98 and from 2003 til today. I've never seen an older guy carrying any multi-bladed knife that wasn't a SAK, or SAK-like knock-off. You might sometimes see a Euro Grandpa using a single-blade folder, but it's almost always a pocketknife with some additional tools on it. (BTW, I've never seen anyone here whip out a stockman, trapper, or barlow, etc.)

-- Mark
 
mnblade said:
I'm American, but lived in central Europe from 1993-98 and from 2003 til today. I've never seen an older guy carrying any multi-bladed knife that wasn't a SAK, or SAK-like knock-off. You might sometimes see a Euro Grandpa using a single-blade folder, but it's almost always a pocketknife with some additional tools on it. (BTW, I've never seen anyone here whip out a stockman, trapper, or barlow, etc.)

-- Mark
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I noticed this when I was overseas. In Germany, I never saw a stockman or Barlow in civilian hands. Lots of SAK's and SAK like pocket knives, but even non SAK pocket knives like the old Bruckmann's you saw in the hands of 'older' guys, had a corkscrew or bottle opener as a second blade/tool.

But what I did see a LOT of, the sodbuster looking folders made by F. Herder. For all intents a wood handle sodbuster kind of knife, mostly slip joint with a few here and there with a lock blade. A few Henckles of similar pattern. Those F. Herders were very popular as a work knife.

When we went TDY to the old Wheelus Air Force base in Libya, the local labor all had a beat up Douk-Douk on them.
 
Full disclosure: I am, in fact a grandfather.

In the early 1980s I worked in the middle east going out to oil rigs in the field (off-shore and deep desert) as a drilling fluids specialist; a "mud-man". Monthly international travel and mostly half-star accommodations. No multi=tools back then. I always took along some model Swiss Army Knife from one or the other makers. Didn't swear by any one maker or model. Just wanted a few of the tools along with the blade, while avoiding weight and bulk. Never had a problem with carry-on bags at that time. The biggest issue seemed to be getting western magazines through customs in Saudi Arabia.

When the first Leatherman models came out, I jumped on that band wagon. Stouter stuff in a nice non-threatening pocket package. They were never quite what I wanted. The latest Wave model though is a really good fit for me. Good size but not too heavy. Blades deploy and close without fuss etc. If the McGiver TV show had come out in the 2020s, I am sure that he would be using somebody's multi-tool instead.

But I will always have a special place in my memory for those vintage little red pocketknives.
 
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Just discovered this thread today and have been enjoying catching up. Thanks S shopdoc for starting it!
My Grandfather who retired from American farming a bit before I was born carried a pen knife, 2 blades - 3" or less.
I'm still hoping to hear what size SAK was commonly carried by previous generations in Europe. :)
 
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Most people here in Switzerland are very pragmatic about knifes - old and young. I think most office workers don't carry a knife at all or a small one like a classic. You seldom see someone using a knife in Switzerland and when its a small one. I think this is due to history reasons regarding the law.

The law regarding single hand opening knifes was very rigid until some years ago. Right now you are allowed to carry them, but there exists different areas where they are not allowed, for example bigger cities, football stadions, concert locations, clubs, etc. You would certainly get attention for flicking open single opening blade in a coffee shop or restaurant. People are just are not used to it. Me and a couple of friends once went to an outdoor trip with an over nighter in the mountains and some of us brought belt attached single blades. On the way back we visited a McDonalds because we all fantasied about burgers the whole time we were underway. Shop staff was certainly a bit afraid about the knifes. The shop manager came asking why we are carrying the knifes. Telling him we just went camping relaxed the situation.
 
Wild Willie said:
While I wish this were true, we all know a modern MacGyver would just use his smart phone to call the authorities.🙄
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Like he would actually call the police to a " peaceful protest " against the police.
He would probably use his Vic to make some kind of IED to throw at the local courthouse.
 
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