Victorinox 111mm Slide-lock Realization

[Carloxicus]

For the longest time, I thought that once the lock mechanism on the scale of a slide-lock Vic SAK gets ruined, the knife itself would be compromised. I thought this because it is usually one of the reasons why people say they prefer the liner lock. They say, well, "once you're in the woods and that slide-lock scale gets ruined, you have a ruined knife.... while a liner lock still works."

Apparently, it's not as bad. Without the slide-lock mechanism on the scale of these 111mm Vic SAK's, apparently, it would not be ruined at all. It would just turn into a Vic without any lock... like the typical 91mm's. The spring mechanism of the SAK would still work to keep it open and it will still close as easily as you would any of the typical cellidor SAK's.

People probably know this before already, but for me, it's a recent realization.

So why does this matter to me or maybe to some other people? Well, I just realized you can carry a 111mm frame SAK without any lock and that's going to be good in places where you can't legally carry a locking blade and you would still have the more robust 111mm capacity. Just gotta buy a slide-lock model and replace the scale with the one from a liner-lock (or just remove the slider... but then you have a hole in your scale ).

Just sharing.

 

[Harayasu]

Thanks for sharing, I didn't know that.

 

[iSaur]

Carloxicus, you're quite right. The 111mm slide-lock models are slipjoints, just with some extra bits to block the blade from closing. I would note, though, that the springs on these models are soft for such large knives - I normally open my Adventurer by pinching the blade rather than using the nail nick. I consider this a feature, not a bug. However, if the lock was not functioning, the blade would close more easily than most other SAKS.