Swiss Army Kommando!

O

Oregon Duck

Joined
Sep 21, 1999
Messages
137
C'mon give it up. What is your favorite SAK and why? Why do you think it is that after all of these years this line of knives, particularly by Victorinox, is so popular? What is the best modification of a SAK you have ever seen, (handles or whatnot)?

Mine are all red handled but for a couple. I have about 17 at last count in all manner of configurations. Yeah the pliers are crap for more than pulling a finishing nail, and the steel isn't super, but these knives are amongst my most heavily used.

My favorites, I can't decide on just one, are the Champ and the Hunter. I like the Champ for all of its tools and relatively light weight. I love the Hunter because it locks and is a very competent lightweight pocket knife. I also love all of my SAKs because they do not even scare the sheeple after all of those McGyver episodes.

Some people laugh at the SAK, but I find these knives to be more damn useful day-to-day than a lot of the blades I have bought whose missions have crept into becoming paperweights.

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Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of the tyrant; it is the creed of slaves.

William Pitt, 1783

 
I agree wholeheartedly. I was awestruck by a Swiss Champ when I was a kid, and I've never gotten over it. I've carried a small SAK with just the scissors, pen knife, file, toothpick, and tweezers, for quite a while. I like both the Victorinox and Wenger types. Those little scissors have been used more than anything else. Mainly for trimming nose and ear hair -- the older I get, the more I seem to get hair growing out of places I never thought hair could grow out of. And I just turned 30! Must be my Scotch roots.
 
Yeah, they say a lot of Scotch will make a man of ya. Then again, maybe you were talking about your Scottish roots.

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Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of the tyrant; it is the creed of slaves.

William Pitt, 1783

 
Pioneer, for strength. Adventurer, for the big locking blade.

I have more SAK's than any other type knife, by far. I just can't resist them. and they are the ones I most often stick in my pocket.

I also wear SAK watches. I have 2, one came from Campmor, off a web special. Like them too!

I would really like to see Benchmade make a SAK type knife- premium steel working blade, with a few tools. I'd go get my big check book out for a higher quality utility knife.

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"The rules; be yourself, be pleasant, play hard and have no regrets."
--Jimmy Buffett, 1995

 
Iwould have to go with the champ i use to carry it when i went fishing and walking along the beach I would alway use the saw to cut a new walkiing stick that I would eventually end up carving on it was a lot of fun and it made opening can of beans easy to heat and eat out off the can my favorite in the field.I also carry other SAK but not to formilure with the names. I buy them because I like all knives and especialy when I get a good buy on them.
 
Swiss Champ and Rucksack for lightweight versatility in the field, and the new Cyber model for misc. home tinkering.
 
A topic near and dear to my heart! Love those little red-handled knifes. Never go anywhere without one. Victorinox is my favorite even though I've replaced my share of scissor springs.

This may sound weird but the one tool I require on any SAK I carry is a finger nail file. Some 20 years ago when I used to make my living as a mechanic, I smashed a fingernail (actually I've smashed a few over the years working as a mechanic) and when it grew back, it split in the middle. Now it has a tendency to snag on 'bout anything and rip off. But the SAK nail file keeps it filed down.

I liked to carry the SAK executive for awhile but the finger nail file on that thing feels like scratching your nails on a chalk board. I wrote them a letter compalaining about this but then I'm just a peon...

Anyway, I like the crushed diamond type of finger nail file. Does a great job. Finally SAK has come out with some small SAKs with a few extra tools on them and I always carry one of those (lost a miniChamp and I'm carrying something similar now but can't tell you the model name).

Next major requirment is a toothpick. My dentist always marvels when I tell him I don't floss 'cause I haven't had a new cavity since the 60s. I don't floss but I SAK. I whittle that toothpick down so that it works just as well as floss.

And of course, I have to have those scissors so I can cut the nose hair on my pet chimpanzee.
smile.gif


For backpacking and in the field, big is better. I carry a swiss tool and a good sized SAK.

I have one SAK with a wooden handle and another with a linoleum blade for the small blade and a fully serrated blade for the big blade (this was well before the recent arrival of serrated SAKs).

Got my Swiss Card on order and can't wait!



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Hoodoo

Cogita tute
 
The Victorinox SAKs will always have a place in my pockets. I carried a Spartan for ten years as my only knife ('87 to '97) until I got back into knives again. Several of those years were in the humid, rainy environment of Taiwan. In that time, I rarely wiped the blades and never cleaned it. It remained in excellent working condition, and after I returned stateside, I cleaned it and it walked and talked like new, with only a few dirty specks.

I like the steel they use. It's not 'top-of-the-line' steel, but does what it's meant to do and is easy to care for/resharpen, and resists corrosion very well.

Nowadays I mostly carry the Executive or the Classic, along with some one-hander.
They are very P.C. knives, and they don't scare anyone...except one instance where a lady said my little Classic was a "deadly weapon." Oh, well, no help for some people.
Jim
 
I've also carried a SAK for the last 20 years. Everyone I know says the same thing about them. They're the handiest tools to have around all the time.

I guess everyone already knew that.

Today I found out something else about the SAK. They (Victorinox)have a couple of new (to me) models. Yeah, I bought one. It's called the "Trailmaster" and the handles are black. It's basically a Rucksak model with a couple of nice changes. First is the addition of a phillips head screw driver. Both the large blade and the straight slot screwdriver use liner locks to lock in place. Other than that, it's a Rucksak. Paid 27.95 a the Army surplus store, which I thought was good.
 
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