Quality of SAK

O

Oregon Knife Guy

Joined
Mar 27, 2009
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336
Out of curiosity what do you guys think of the quality of SAK's? The toughness/durability and steel? How about the edge retention of the steel? The only one I have is pretty old and hasn't been used for years, though it is in decent shape with no edge what so ever.....
 
All of mine are great. The steel is good and holds an edge well, and they are pleny strong. Keep in mind that they aren't gonna be as strong as a Sebbie/Strider/Hinderer/Spyderco, cause that's not the niche they were designed to fill. Also, certain models, such as the Farmer, are sturdier than others.
 
How about the hiker? Is seems about the same as the majority of the other models? That model seems to have everthing that I would like to have: Saw, two blades, can opener and bottle opener, along with the screw drivers. And its small enough to fit in the pocket comfrotably.
 
i think the quality of victorinox sak's are good, a sak has many uses which in my book, makes something more valuable.

as far as the steel goes,it is good for what you pay for it. it holds a decent edge and it is pretty durable. when you start cutting harder material(hardwoods)the edge goes pretty quick, but can be put back on in about 1 minute of sharpening.

i peronally dont buy a sak for the blades as much as for the other tools, i always carry a higher quality single blade and just use and abuse the hell out of the sak blades.
 
I have no complaints with Victorinox. I wouldn't buy a Wenger knife if my life depended on it. I think they suck. They market nice watches that are probably made by the same people that make the Vic watches. Some will inevitably say that Wengers and Vics are the same...unless something has happened within the last two years, I think not. I just hope if they ever become the same that Vic lifts Wenger up and makes them better instead of Vic falling to the level of Wenger.
 
I think they are plenty tough and durable for the size, and very slow to corrode. They're not especially hard so you're not likely to chip it. My Outrider is sharpened quite fine and I quickly wiped the edge off that cutting through rubber I didn't know had wire in. Even though I put a reasonable amount of force down I only deformed the edge and fixing it was only a couple of minutes. Broken ones always seem to belong to painters that levered a tin lid. The trade of for the low maintenance softness is that wear resistance isn't great. Quality Assurance seems spot on. I put up with the downside of the blade material because of what the package as a whole can do. That Outrider is one of my favorite knives of all time.
 
Victorinox blades are great for what they are. You have to remember they weren't meant to be a defensive knife, or a locking blade to take all sorts of hard use. For what it is, I believe it should last a lifetime. The blade may go dull fast, however they sharpen up rather easily as well.
 
They are good for what they are and serve their purpose, I'd still like them to bring out a special old timey one though with a D2 blade and stag scales !!!!
 
TheGame said:
Victorinox blades are great for what they are. You have to remember they weren't meant to be a defensive knife, or a locking blade to take all sorts of hard use.
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Actually, there is pretty good reason to believe that Nicole Simpson and Ron Goldman were murdered by someone using a Victorinox Hunter. A prime suspect used to own part of the importation partnership for Victorinox in the U.S. and the only empty knife box in his house was from a Hunter and the knife was never found. Go figure. Thin, tough, razor sharp blade...I do believe it cut through a rib or maybe two, I'd have to go back and read the reports...and there was no broken blade or chips in those corpses.
 
Great knives. The Alox models are particularly robust. Again, the trade off for lower edge life is simplicity of bringing them back to razor sharpness. As time goes on, I tend to look at high wear resistance as a bad thing not a good thing. Give me carbon steels and Vic's stainless any day of the week. I keep 'em sharp and tuned the way I like and enjoy the maintenance time.

High wear steels, like low wear ones, loose the crazy sharp quick, but keep a reasonable edge longer. You don't really want to go to the stones with them because they are a PITA. So in the end, you have a high wear blade of super steel and that usually means its spends the majority of its life with a mediocre but acceptable edge.
 
No problems with the Victorinox. The Wengers are the only ones that have fallen apart on me.
 
Can't go wrong with a Vict. SAK ! I have a coupke different models & Love'em all :thumbup: I would take a SAk over a CaseXX any day ;)
 
SAK Hiker Rules
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Oregon Knife Guy said:
How about the hiker? Is seems about the same as the majority of the other models? That model seems to have everthing that I would like to have: Saw, two blades, can opener and bottle opener, along with the screw drivers. And its small enough to fit in the pocket comfrotably.
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I have a Hiker and agree that it has a great selection of tools. The Farmer is another "just right" combo. The Fieldmaster adds scissors, but is another layer thicker, making it a little heavy in the pocket.

The Classic adds scissors, toothpick and tweezers, giving a little dash of SAK to any tool combo. I EDC one anyway, and include one in all my gear lists for PSK's and hiking.

From 12 o'clock: Trekker, Fieldmaster, Classic, Hiker

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Nothing bad to say... A sak has save my bacon more than once.. In reality if you aren;t spearing caribou or building A log cabin a sak is pretty much the only knife you need.. THey are tough Pocketable,, THe saws are wicked, they are easy to sharpen.and relatively easy to maintain...If I'm doing allot of woodwork.. I strop in between and it stay hair popping. Great knives..
 
I've had some problems in the past with Wegners, but I haven't used one in going on 15 years now.

Victorinox blades all work great for me. some of the 91mm ALOX models have slightly thicker blades and stronger springs- but I don't usually carry them (okay, I happen to have a cadet in my pocket today for a test).

Edge retention is okay, I've had better and worse- I think it's good for the type of utility knife it is. I follow Old Nathan's rule and sharpen the large blade at about 22-25 degrees and keep a fine razor- scalpel- edge on the smaller blade. It's NOT a do anything knife as a knife. It's a "gents" knife. I carry them more for the tools, with the knife blade being a handy backup in case I'm without ready access to one of my EDC fixed blades and need to do some regular duty cutting.

The overall package is excellent, I have had very few rust problems over the decades, even with salt water environments. Many of the tools are specifically light duty- you wouldn't want to rely on the vic SAK fid and spike for doing all the rigging new on a 42 foot cascade- but an SAK is more than enough tool to do all the rerigging on a Cal 20. Just for example.
 
Okay, now I've got it in my head to build and rig a little 10 foot daysailer with nothing bu an SAK. That'd be a project :D
 
I have a few SAK's and all are good dependable tools. As stated the steel is a little soft and the the tools are small but the knife as a whole is awesome. As long as you use them properly and keep them sharp a SAK is a great knife.
 
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