I like the Vic Bantam

D

dogstar

Joined
Jan 23, 2011
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I've been toying around with buying an EDC knife that is compact and light so I'll forget that it's in my pocket till I need it. I've looked at Mercators, Higonokamis, Douk Douks, Opinels, Peanuts, Sodbusters, etc. I've homed in on the Victorinox Bantam. I already have a tinker, but the Bantam is half the weight and thinner. Considering the tools I use most on the Tinker (tweezers, main blade, can opener, phillips), the Bantam gives me most of that functionality. I know the combo tool on the Bantam can be used for phillips screws in a pinch.

The only thing I wish for on the Bantam is a carbon steel blade. Given my current sharpening skills, I can't get my Vic to be as sharp as my carbon steel knives. I don't think such an animal exists, but is there a knife similar to the Bantam in carbon?
 
You won't get any argument from me, I love the bantam. Next to the classic it's my favorite sak. It is very trim, and really does disappear in a pants pocket until needed.
Carl.
 
I love bantam... my favorit one is on nylon... its light, got main blade and a super usefull combo tools.. so you can save your knife blade on some duty... also the undeniable usefull toothpick and tweezers...

the victorinox steel blade can actually be scarry sharp... i use snad paper from 600 grit and finish on 1500 grit... after that i strop/polish my edge to mirror shine with green compound... its hair whitle sharp after that...

bantam is one of the nicest light SAK... just like a waiter.. its also light and small enough for keychain... the nlyon is grippy and super durable... what a great slim sak.
 
I EDC either a Bantam or a Waiter. (The Waiter is just a Bantam with a corkscrew. I like to have one of those tiny screwdrivers in the corkscrew.) I get mine extremely sharp with a Sharpmaker, using very little pressure.
 
I am now interested in the waiter...why not include the corkscrew? I don't drink wine but my wife does and I might start later in life. Also, I'd add the mini screwdriver because I wear glasses.

Is the waiter thicker than the bantam? It is still a single spring knife, right?

I suppose the waiter will outweigh the bantam by a little.
 
dogstar said:
I am now interested in the waiter...why not include the corkscrew? I don't drink wine but my wife does and I might start later in life. Also, I'd add the mini screwdriver because I wear glasses.

Is the waiter thicker than the bantam? It is still a single spring knife, right?

I suppose the waiter will outweigh the bantam by a little.
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Yes, the waiter is still a single backspring knife, but the corkscrew messes it up for whittling or cutting. What i like about the bantam, is the fact that it is a smooth back sak. They are my prefered sak's. I had a waiter, and didn't like the way the corkscrew would sometimes dig in my palm when cutting certain things or holding the knife a certain way.

I never drink wine, do not like the stuff, so I don't need a corkscrew. If someone needs glasses screw tightened, I use one leg of the tweezers to just snug up the screw. Tighten until the metal of the tweezer just flexes a little, and it will be good for a day. A little flax won't bother the tweezers.

I really don't like tools on the back spring. Maybe it's my love of traditional pocket knives, but I've never liked anything to interfere with the smooth back profile of the knife. That's why my favorite sak's are the bantam, recruit, soldier/SI.

Carl.
 
I can't believe I never thought about using the tweezers to tighten eyeglasses. I just tried it and it works great. :thumbup: This is something I'm often needing to do, and never have the right tool on me. I might have to get myself one of the Bantams because they're so very thin, which is something I really like when dropping an SAK into my jeans pocket. I'll miss having the scissors found on some of the other models, but I can live without them.
 
Ken in Tenn said:
I can't believe I never thought about using the tweezers to tighten eyeglasses. I just tried it and it works great. :thumbup: This is something I'm often needing to do, and never have the right tool on me. I might have to get myself one of the Bantams because they're so very thin, which is something I really like when dropping an SAK into my jeans pocket. I'll miss having the scissors found on some of the other models, but I can live without them.
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be very careful when doing this! If the screw is loose, just tighten it until you just feel the tweezers begin to flex a little bit. If you heavy hand it, you can bend the tweezers, but just be easy and it's okay.

I only started doing htis because the classic is my favorite sak. It a minimal thing.

Carl.
 
dogstar said:
The only thing I wish for on the Bantam is a carbon steel blade. Given my current sharpening skills, I can't get my Vic to be as sharp as my carbon steel knives. I don't think such an animal exists, but is there a knife similar to the Bantam in carbon?
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Practice your sharpening skills - it isn't hard to get a Victorinox blade VERY sharp! I originally used a Lansky crossed crock-stick sharpener (~$5) to easily get my SAK 'shaving sharp' and now I just use a home made paddle strop (less than $5) to get the blades even sharper.
My Victorinox SAK blades are excellent slicers, they are very sharp and with the full flat grind Victorinox uses they really do work well.
 
Last weekend I was carrying my Tinker and we decided to paddle kayaks. A small wave broke over the opening and my pants got wet. It dawned on my my knife had been exposed to salt water :eek: Thank God the SAK is stainless. Then some sand got in my pockets and I heard crunching as I opened my knife. When I returned from the outing, I washed the knife, but it was hard to get all the sand out. So I am closer to getting the Bantam, because it would have been much easier to clean out. 1 backspring vs 2, 2 joints vs 6.
 
dogstar said:
Thank God the SAK is stainless.
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I quite like carbon steel for bushcraft - e.g. machete, kukri machete, Becker knives, etc.
But for a daily pocket carry like a SAK I am glad to be using stainless steel instead and as I mentioned in my previous post it is possible to get SAK blades plenty sharp enough.
 
Use a crock stick box or a lansky diamond hone set and you'll have a great edge. Also I own the alox bantam but I don't use it much. I like more tools. :thumbup:
 
I use the Lansky crock sticks too. For EDC purposes, the SAKs hold an edge well enough for me and they sharpen easily with only a few strikes on the crock sticks.
 
An Alox Bantam might be the ticket for you . Very thin , elegant , with some basic capability . Didn't work for me , as I have big mits , and nearly always wear work or casual clothes . In all honesty , I would push you in the direction of a TinkerSmall or a Cadet - much more capability in a tight little package .

Chris
 
You gotta love hardware stores. This morning I noticed my local store had a display case of SAKs. No substitute for seeing the knives in person. I was noticing the classic sized knives were not as small as I'd imagined, and the blade was a decent size for most every day chores. Hmm...
 
dogstar said:
You gotta love hardware stores. This morning I noticed my local store had a display case of SAKs. No substitute for seeing the knives in person. I was noticing the classic sized knives were not as small as I'd imagined, and the blade was a decent size for most every day chores. Hmm...
Click to expand...

Oh boy, now you've done it. You mentioned the classic, my favorite sak.

"Slooowly I turned...":D

I don't know if I told you guys how I got onto the classic? It's my 'ol lady's fault.

Year's ago, when we were both still working and hadn't retired yet, Karen's company got some classics with their logo on them to give to clients. Karen came home with a classic very proud, and put it on her keyring. I always felt the tiny classic was a joke, fit only for snipping threads of a Brooks Brothers suit. The joke was on me.

For months, I watched Karen torment and torture, and use and abuse that little knife. She did things that I never expected it to survive. I gave it a month, if that. The second month ended, and I was now watching with interest. Karen used the ever lovin crap outa that classic. I'd never carried anything smaller than a tinker before, but because of Karen, I started what I called "The Experiment."

I put a classic on my own keyring, and for the next few months I made a point out of going for the classic first when a job came up. No matter what I had in my pocket, for the sake of the experiment I would try to use the classic before going to my so called "real sak" or other pocket knife.

At the end of the experiment, the only single thing the classic did not do well, was food stuff. It was a little short to slice a sub sandwich in half, or cut a piece of pie, or slice off a piece of Italian bread from the loaf. That was it. It opened boxes, cut rope and twine, opened mail, broke down boxes after a shopping trip to Sam's Club, opened all the accursed plastic blister packages things come in these days. It did everything I needed to do in modern suburbia. The scissors snipped, the SD tip on the nailfile was invaluable in dealing with the phillips screws that hold the entire world together these days, and I started to pile up a list of thigs I actually fixed using the classic as my only tool. In short, a person living in an urban or suburban area, can get by with just a classic, if he had to.

Today, the classic is in the keyring sheath so I can't leave the house without it. It gets used everyday on something, either for the knife to open my mail or UPS box, the scissors to snip something from a hang nail to a thread on a fishing fly, the tweezers for splinters in me, ticks on the dog, splinters on people in need I may be around, the SD to to tighten/fix something held together with a phillips screw, or to file a rough spot on a nail, or open a beer.

Classic's are a sak that every sakkist should have on him.

Carl.
 
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