Ruike Trekker and Criterion, what a SAK should be

Victorinox must know what's best for its business.
However I do agree that it gets somewhat stale
seeing something like a zillion SAK blade tool combinations year after year
Being Built upon its standard sak frame....
But who am I to complaint when the market
For victorinox products are not about to diminish
Any day soon.
An iconic brand like victorinox cannot afford to mess about too much
With its winning time tested combinations;-)
Guess they could set up a custom shop to cater for
Folks who want more than their standard Factory lineup?
 
GIRLYmann said:
Victorinox must know what's best for its business.
However I do agree that it gets somewhat stale
seeing something like a zillion SAK blade tool combinations year after year
Being Built upon its standard sak frame....
But who am I to complaint when the market
For victorinox products are not about to diminish
Any day soon.
An iconic brand like victorinox cannot afford to mess about too much
With its winning time tested combinations;-)
Guess they could set up a custom shop to cater for
Folks who want more than their standard Factory lineup?
Click to expand...
Interesting idea, but it could be a real slippery slope for the sheer number of combinations that could be constantly requested!:eek:
 
So true!
And with 4IR predicted,
https://www.weforum.org/about/the-fourth-industrial-revolution-by-klaus-schwab
It's not a case of How, but how soon :-)
There will be a demand for personalised goods.
Made possible With technological advance,
And with that, The face of Manufacturing will change soon enough.
It will not be a trend but the norm of everyday production.
Granted putting togather an SAK might require
The Old Skool human touch;
It's possible that Folks would still value the old world charm of hand fitted produce.
So in short, victorinox could workout some off shoot business deal
And kinda appoint a pool of highly experienced "official Vic modders",
Some may be familiar with Swissbianco...?
https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/welcome-swissbianco-basic-infos.737178/
If that happens, it's more jobs farmed out world wide
Though not quite a 100% swiss made ;-)
But a 100% genuine swiss made original parts??!
Just my two cents...
 
It would not be difficult for Vic to offer a few slim designs with only a couple or three locking tools/OHO blades and a pocket clip, there would be a demand for them. The trekker design is a good base so it's not like they would have to do major re-tooling.
 
Vics are super robust. How does the Ruike compare? Have you tried the glass breaker? How's the edge holding up? How about the tools themselves? Few non-Vic "SAKs" have tools that actually work well, in my experience.

Zieg
 
The Zieg said:
Vics are super robust. How does the Ruike compare? Have you tried the glass breaker? How's the edge holding up? How about the tools themselves? Few non-Vic "SAKs" have tools that actually work well, in my experience.

Zieg
Click to expand...

As I stated, I don't own one yet, I plan on buying one soon, so I can't answer your questions.

IMO, this would be almost perfect if it had a semi-deep pocket clip and locking blade.
IqPLhVT.jpg
 
panoz77 said:
As I stated, I don't own one yet, I plan on buying one soon, so I can't answer your questions.

IMO, this would be almost perfect if it had a semi-deep pocket clip and locking blade.
IqPLhVT.jpg
Click to expand...
That's a good SAK model, indeed. It might have a locking blade as it looks based on the Wenger Ranger, which does lock. Unlike others here busting your hump here, I agree that Vic and company are leaving some money on the table by hewing so close to the same traditional line. The pocket clip is something many of us have added to our SAKs in some form or another. But Wenger was the more innovative of the two companies and now they're part of Vic, so I just don't think the demand was there. They have chosen to go with the tried and true and by branding mid lux products like watches and bags.

Get your hands on the Ruike and let us know how it performs. A side by side YouTube vid would get a boatload of views!

Zieg
 
There are already a bunch of YouTube reviews on the Ruike knives. Here is just one of an LD-51, too fat for me but gives a good idea of fit, finish and function.

 
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A note to the OP on locking SAK’s. For full disclosure, I have only one, the Forester, and it is a two handed opening liner lock.

I think it is common at least to all the Victorinox liner locks, perhaps somebody else can chime in here, but the Forester’s lock does not allow zero vertical play. If you apply pressure to the spine in open position then the blade travels a millimetre or so before contacting the lock bar. It is not a problem in any practical sense, but certainly would matter to some.

I think it is partly because the design is not quite like conventional liner locks, but I ain’t taking it apart to find out exactly how... ;)

Anyway, if the Ruike lock up is conventionally solid, then for many that will be a clear point in its favour. Look forward to the review.
 
Pilsner said:
A note to the OP on locking SAK’s. For full disclosure, I have only one, the Forester, and it is a two handed opening liner lock.

I think it is common at least to all the Victorinox liner locks, perhaps somebody else can chime in here, but the Forester’s lock does not allow zero vertical play. If you apply pressure to the spine in open position then the blade travels a millimetre or so before contacting the lock bar. It is not a problem in any practical sense, but certainly would matter to some.

I think it is partly because the design is not quite like conventional liner locks, but I ain’t taking it apart to find out exactly how... ;)

Anyway, if the Ruike lock up is conventionally solid, then for many that will be a clear point in its favour. Look forward to the review.
Click to expand...
You are right, its part of the design. Because they are based off the slipjoint design, all the big locking Vics (slide and liner) use the lock as a safety, rather than as a lock in the conventional sense. I think this is so that they can use their standard manufacturing processes which don't use the same sort of tolerances that other makers use. As in, I think they focus on a different set of dimensions than you would find on a normal liner-lock. And as you say, it works in a functional sense, but it feels different if you are not used to having that little bit of slipjoint wiggle.
 
gadgetgeek said:
You are right, its part of the design. Because they are based off the slipjoint design, all the big locking Vics (slide and liner) use the lock as a safety, rather than as a lock in the conventional sense. I think this is so that they can use their standard manufacturing processes which don't use the same sort of tolerances that other makers use. As in, I think they focus on a different set of dimensions than you would find on a normal liner-lock. And as you say, it works in a functional sense, but it feels different if you are not used to having that little bit of slipjoint wiggle.
Click to expand...
Many thanks, G gadgetgeek , that was the ‘chime’ I was hoping for. I’d think it probable that the Ruike will be a conventional solid lock up, which is no bad thing. On the other hand, when I’ve used the Forester, I tend to forget it has a lock and I treat it like a slip joint anyway! Old habits die hard, and all that. ;)

7ClAQlu.jpg
 
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Well, I recently picked up a Ruike LD31-B. First off, I would hope Ruike gives credit to Victorinox as that is their basic design (although I doubt it as they named some of their models "Trekker"). Ruike is a pretty solid company despite it's origins. The tool itself is built well with good fit and finish; however, it's a heavy brute! The blade is a much thicker slab of 12C27, but it does have a very nice flat/very-high, grind for a very thin edge. It's a very thin liner lock, but it works. One-Hand opening is pretty simple and the finish on the blade is a nice, high polish. The scissors are well done and I like the size; very much on par with the larger SAK scissors. The seat-belt cutter is simply useless and is the most worthless tool on the knife IMHO and why would you put a screw-driver tip on a non-locking, serrated edge that is already at a 45-degree angle and half-closed? I would rather have a standard, smaller pen blade or even a can-opener instead. The tweezers are very well done and much larger than standard SAK tweezers. As mentioned it does have nice G10 scales and a deep pocket clip. The glass breaker hasn't been tested, but it's good enough compared to others I've used. Oh, the awl tool is pretty good as well. Very sharp, as they should be and it's a nice location being on the end vice the backside like most SAKs. Spring tension is stiff and you have to be careful closing some of the tools. I would like to check out their saw (my model doesn't have it), but on all accounts, it looks like a copy of the very effective SAK saw blade.

SAKs don't have anything to be worried about. However, there are some nice upgrades they should consider such as the G10 scales and deep-carry pocket clips for some models (not all, as I know many don't care for pocket clips as at all). Overall, the Ruike "multitools" are pretty decent, while close copies of the SAK, they have some nice, unique features. Decent steel and robust construction, but they are quite heavy (maybe that's the reason for the pocket clip!).

ROCK6
 
Before heaping praise on a feature and spec list, I suggest OP and others own one first.

First, the Boker, the Ruike (and two other brands I can't remember) are all the same knife, made by Sanrenmu (China).

I too was very excited upon discovering these knives, I badly want an SAK with screw together construction, G10, and pocket clip. A thumb stud blade would be great too.

Anyway, I purchased the Boker Tech Tool (actually 5 of them, will get to that) and a Ruike. Here is where all the great promise of these knives fall apart, and rather badly:

• Really poor quality control. The first knife had screws half screwed in, blade and handle mucked up with dirty finger prints. Ok, maybe a previous return, and bad luck. I then order a replacement- more half screwed in screws, and a lose tool. Try another vendor, Optics Planet. More of the same. Try a seller on Ebay, same story. Always some flaw. Now, you may be saying "just tighten the screws and clean it up". Yes, fair enough, you can do that and overcome those issues (still should not be leaving factory like that). If that was the only issue then maybe ok, but...

• Unusable scissors. First and foremost, they simply don't cut most of the time. They are not precise, paper just slips between more often than not. And to make matters worse, the scissors move (pivot) slightly at the base when you operate them. So you have a moving, unstable scissors which have a very hard time actually cutting things. Not a great combo. Fatal flaw #1, and all I really needed to know to get rid of these knives.

• Poorly designed and useless small blade/screwdriver. This strange implement is curved, making use of the small flathead tip basically impossible, as when you rotate the knife the tip will not stay centered, it moves in a circle. Further, the blade itself is of bad design and of no real use. All around waste of space.

There are other issues (like it being heavier and thicker than it needs to be), but that's off the top of my head.

The cardinal sin of a multi-knife is having a tool that simply doesn't work or a tool that is poorly designed, thus being not only useless but taking up space that could be something else. These knives have both of these sins.

Like a lot of half baked efforts out of China, they get some aspects very right, but then the copy-paste engeneering runs out and a poor clueless guy making peanuts has to start thinking originally and the whole thing is let down by a couple crucial aspects.

I liked the blade, the scales, the clip, and most of the tools were fine. But that couldn't overcome the basic killer flaws.

So I say to OP and anyone else- buy one, use the tools and compare their quality to SAK, come to your own conclusions. If you don't use the tools much you'll probably like it. For me, I can't accept useless tools of poor design.
 
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