Newbie SAK owner w/Questions

Tolly

Tolly

Joined
Jan 1, 2006
Messages
555
Okay guys, After looking at SAKS as little toys for Boy Scouts for most of my life I finally got to handle one while in a local shop buying a new BM Mini-Skirmish tonight. Well, to make a long story short, I bought three of them. SAKs that is.

I purchased a Victorinox Camper, a Wenger Journeyman, and a Wenger Handyman. This local shop only carries those three models plus the Victorinox Classic(which he was out of) and the Wenger Tool Chest Plus.

After getting home and reading about the knives on the internet I noticed that ALL of the Wenger Journeyman I find on the internet are the serrated models. The one I bought is not the serrated model, but is instead a plain edged main blade version. Why are all the ones I am finding on the net serrated models? Are SAK fans proponents of serrated blades? I wouldn't have bought it had it been serrated...I'm just curious on this one.

The next question I have is concerning the Wenger Tool Chest Plus. The dealer I bought these knives from has two of the Tool Chest Pluses and he has had them for a while. He told me that he would like to clear them out and would sell them to me for $44 + tax each, is this a good enough deal to consider buying them even if I don't really need them, just to stick in the safe?

The last question I have is concerning quality between Wenger and Victorinox. Are the two knives seen as equals, or are there some notable differences I should know about? Is it just a personal preference thing as to which is better?

I must say that I am already really enjoying just playing with these little knives, and I can see myself starting to possibly collect them in the future once I learn more about them just for fun. Let's face it, I can buy quite a few SAKs for what one of my Busse Battle Mistress costs. I think I am going to toss some of them in my B.O.B. bags as well, and maybe give a few of those Campers and Journeymans as gifts. Thanks in advance for the help guys.
 
I'm a proponent of serrated SAK blades. I didn't think I'd be, until I used them. My favorites are a Wenger Alpine Backpacker with a fully serrated locking blade. It's like a razor. Very efficient grind, coupled with the aggression of serrations makes for a fantastic cutter. I also like the weird blade on the Swisstool Spirit.

I wouldn't buy a Wenger Tool Chest Plus on the idea of sticking it in a safe. Unless you're a collector who does that will all knives, I guess. Unless you needed the Wenger Tool Chest Plus, I'd save my money. My guess is that they aren't particularly rare or desirable for collectors. Pretty decent array of tools for a user, though.

I haven't noticed many significant differences in quality between Wenger and Victorinox. Wengers seem to have slightly softer backsprings. Some of the tools are different. I like Wenger's bottle opener/screwdriver better for it's neat little "auto-lock" feature. I like Victorinox reamers and can openers better. The differences are mostly in features, not quality.
 
the serrated blade is extremely sharp and very comfortable. it isn't my first victorinox and i expected high quality, reliable and comfortable knife but this black beauty exceeds my expectations.

very, very good blade...:-) and perfect EDC.

About Wegner i cannot say anything, but i think that Victorinox owns Wegner, so the quality should be almost equal.
 
I own a few of each:D And can say that both Vic and Wenger are top quality,that being said I do prefer vic,for the most part because of the numerous models and well thought out tools.Though wenger has some great designs as well,especially their packlock an locking flat head.The fit and finish on both brands is above any other slip joints I have seen.

If you havn't already,check out sosak and felinevetshop,lots of information and great prices on swiss knives.
 
I'm more of a Vic man myself, but Wenger is also a solid, reliable knife

Vics seem to have a tiny bit more "snap" when opening and closing, and seem to have a little more spring tension (important in a slipjoint) than Wenger

that said, Wenger's scissor design with the "pushrod spring" is better than Vic's springsteel spring, and Wenger's slipjoint style pliers are more versatile than Victorinox's "Tweezers-On-Steroids" style pliers

Wenger has lockblade models on their pocket sized models (85mm I believe?), Victorinox only has locks on their large (111mm) models

for my purposes, the tighter "walk and talk" of the Vic's stronger springs trumps the cooler tools of the Wenger

they're both good, can't go wrong either way

just for comparison purposes, I was trying out some of the new Case slippies, thinking of buying one just to have, as Case has a long, illustrious history, but something didn't feel right with the new Case knives, their backsprings just didn't have the "snap" of even my most basic Vic Bantam, or Soldier, the springs felt weak, I tried three to four different models, and they all felt like they had weak backsprings, my Vics have spoiled me :)
 
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