I've owned sak's, and carried sak's, but I have always had mixed feeling about them. They sure don't have the appeal of nice jigged bone or stag, or even nice grained wood. THey don't hold a cutting edge as long as some, but do hold a decent edge good enough for day to day use. They sure do well in wet environments that would rust my little CV and damascus peanuts. They have good and bad points about them. They do have nice flat ground blades, that even when less than shaving sharp, seem to still cut. The screw drivers are a little too polished, and over on a ask forum, it's common knowledge to take a large mill file, and square up the screw driver edges. I did it to mine, and it changed the whole dynamics of the drivers.
I admit I don't have any use for the big ones. The ones that have wood chisels and fish scalers, and such. I've always like two layers at best, like the tinker size. But my absolute favorite ask is the little 58mm ones. They are small enough to fit on a keyring, the tools really work, and I've actually fixed things with the little screw driver tip on the nail file blade. The little scissors are sharp and really work. That SD tip fits all the phillips screws that are holding the world together. The tweezers have pulled a tick now and then off our welsh corgi, and splinters out of me and the kids. I've taken apart and put back together a clothes dryer door with my SD classic when fixing a broken door latch. I've fixed a door knob assembly with the same as it fit the little phillips screws holding everything together. A fishing reel, electric trolling motor out in the middle of a lake, and a stalled Vespa motor scooter out on a dirt road in the middle of nowhere, all fixed in a minute with a sak.
But...
I still have mixed feelings, as my old stand by wallet tools, consisting of a Sears 4-way keychain screw driver and my old army P-38, will do the same thing, and have done similar things, when I didn't have a ask on hand.
Add to the fact that the standard tools on a ask are becoming obsolete with changes in our society, and production methods, and a sak looses points with me, except the 58mm. I do love the little classic.
I see more and more canned goods having pull tops. All the Campbell soups are pull tops, and Tuna fish is in nice little foil packs that can be cut open with a sharp knife. So that does away with the can opener in time. More and more companies are going to twist off tops, so that rules out the bottle opener. I even saw an article in a magazine, where the wine companies are seriously looking at twist off caps, because the supply of good cork is shrinking, and the plastic liner on twist off's actually seal better in tests. Not that I drink wine, can't stand the stuff. Plus, when my college going son showed me how to open a imported beer without a real opener, I felt liberated. No more need of a dedicated bottle opener. Drop a flat little P-38 in your wallet or on your keyring, and that eliminates one whole layer of a sak tinker plus the phillips driver on the back. The flat end of a P-38 makes a decent flat screw driver, and the sharper of the two bottom corners make a decent phillips driver. For the two knife blades I've got my Case peanut with the Devin Thomas damascus blades that will out cut any sak ever made. I like sak's, but I reached a point in my life where I'd rather carry a few flat little tools in my wallet for the once in a while need, and carry a real knife with better cutting and looks. I'm closer to the end than the beginning, and what's left of the rest of my life is too short for carrying an ugly knife. Or even a plain one.
But I do see the use for the keychain size like the classics, rambler, mini champ. They serve more like an emergency backup for life's little unforeseen suburban problems.
Carl.
I guess that sums up my feelings... about the obsolete items too. Real tools and a real knife (or two) is all I need.
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