Victorinox to shut down Wenger

I was just going on steel quality not politics
However Iirc Switzerland in the late 1800 or early 1900's put legislation in place allowing domestic manufacturers to copy patented designs from other countries
This included copying knife designs from Germany

I am fully aware of why some choose not to buy Made in China products

leghog said:
Perhaps because China is a communist country with "questionable" labor practices, across many industries, detrimental to the very ones doing the manufacturing (and often their customers). That plus their penchant for intellectual and trademark thievery.

Regardless, Victorinox alone makes nearly 30 million knives every year with incredible quality control and of designs of their own. They're hugely successful. No Chinese manufacturer will ever catch up.
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dogstar said:
My opinion is that your opinion is not representative of most people's opinions.
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I never said it was
I never said anyone else was wrong for liking their product
I simply stated that in my opinion the steel is too soft for my liking

If you like their products and their choice of steel great
Continue to support a company you like
 
I've been carrying a Wenger Highlander the last few days and I have to say I'm really enjoying it and it's a keeper for sure. I picked it up for under $10 brand new too so makes it even better!
 
Looks like the World Scout Association has already switched their official knives to Victorinox models from the Wenger EVOs that they had (purple handles!:cool:). I guess my wife's WOSM Wenger EVO will be a collector's item :thumbup:

I like the build of the Wenger EVO, it is a nice knife. I chose a Wenger standard issue for my "modern Camper" too, though I have more Vic's than Wengers. More Wenger watches than Vic's though :D

Makes me think I should pick up a Wenger Minathor (watchmaker's multi tool knife) before they go away. Expensive, but made in conjunction with French tool manufacturer Bergeon, who are the best in what they do for watchmakers.
 
I had one of the early red-handled Wenger WSA knives, given to me by the UK distributor in the early 90's. I carried it quite a bit when I used to do a lot of travelling. Unfortunately the scissors fell apart in my luggage, not sure why as they'd barely been used. I returned the knife to the UK distributor (which had changed by this point) for a repair, but unfortunately they instead sent me another knife, without the Official World Scout Knife etch on the locking-blade (it also arrived with an edge like a butter-knife) :( To make matters worse, as I was away on a long trip when the replacement knife arrived, and had it delivered to the house of a friend, his flat-mate decided to sharpen the knife for me and scratched the heck out of the blade.

My only other contact with Wenger was when their UK agent approached me to do a side-by-side comparison of their big toolbox knife, then called the Major, and the Vic SwissChamp. I contacted Victorinox's UK distributor, a rather odd company anyway, and they were very anxious to avoid any such comparison, even telling me they had an informal agreement along those lines with Wenger (which Wenger thought hilarious). In the end, Wenger went and bought a Vic SwissChamp for the article! I'm not a fan of those big toolbox knives, and I think the SwissChamp had the edge, but Wenger certainly had some faith in their product.

I liked some of the features on the Wenger knives, but on the whole I've always preferred Victorinox. It's a shame to see an old company like Wenger disappear, but I guess in a shrinking market, Victorinox can supply all the SAKs the world needs.

I do regret not buying a Wenger Soldier, which I nearly did at the start of the year. At the time though, I’d been promised two Alox Vics, and figured I had all the SAKS I needed. The Vics never arrived :(

Cheers Wenger :thumbup:



My Wenger WSA knife last Christmas :)
 
zippofan said:
Makes me think I should pick up a Wenger Minathor (watchmaker's multi tool knife) before they go away. Expensive, but made in conjunction with French tool manufacturer Bergeon, who are the best in what they do for watchmakers.
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Alternatively you can find Wenger's Watchmaker 85 for $10-$15
 
Jack Black said:
I liked some of the features on the Wenger knives, but on the whole I've always preferred Victorinox. It's a shame to see an old company like Wenger disappear, but I guess in a shrinking market, Victorinox can supply all the SAKs the world needs.
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This sums up my experiences and outlook as well.

I do regret not buying a Wenger Soldier, which I nearly did at the start of the year. At the time though, I’d been promised two Alox Vics, and figured I had all the SAKS I needed. The Vics never arrived :(
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Argh-- I'm really sorry to hear that.

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Nice picture. :thumbup:

~ P.
 
Wenger has a distinct design that in most cases differs from Victorinox. Exception: I have a Wenger Standard Issue, and it's indistinguishable from the older (1962+) Vic Soldier. Maybe that's telling. Marketing has a lot to do with this by providing a snowball effect, but perhaps the bottom-line truth is more people just like Vic's knives than Wenger's.

Whatever. I Hate to see any knife company go under — or get transformed into a fashion accessories brand, as it appears Wenger will be. OK, watches are useful, but I wear a Timex and that works just fine for me.
 
Those contoured grippy looking scales look really nice.I may try to snag a Ranger and a couple others.
 
AreBeeBee said:
Wenger has a distinct design that in most cases differs from Victorinox. Exception: I have a Wenger Standard Issue, and it's indistinguishable from the older (1962+) Vic Soldier. Maybe that's telling.
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Could be that those two models are made to specs set by the government of Switzerland for their military issue.
 
Bob W said:
Could be that those two models are made to specs set by the government of Switzerland for their military issue.
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Yes, I'm sure of it. The relevance of this for Wenger as a product line, is that if Victorinox has defined what a Swiss Army Knife is (as I think the company has), then the more Wenger's line diverges from Vic's designs, the less popular Wenger will be as a Swiss Army Knife.

I'm not exactly where I'm going here. But my sense is that Vic is perceived as the SAK, and Wenger as the sort-of SAK, but not sufficiently different from Vic to be a successful design in its own right. Wenger has always been seen as the also-ran SAK. They never established a design line that was independent of Vic and thus got crowded out.

I mean, what if Vic had turned Wenger into a separate knife line that was a modern-style knife (with thumb studs, liner/frame locks, etc.)? And perhaps also made Wenger the name for a stylish minitool line? That would have given Wenger a life outside of the mainline SAK family. And maybe produced some interesting knives & minitools.

Of course, it's all water under an alpine bridge at this point —
 
I agree, Wenger was seen by many (by myself also) as a kind of also-ran imitator of Vic, the 'authentic' SAK maker. @AreBeeBee hits the nail on the head.

I like his vision of Vic eventually bringing Wenger back as a minitool line or some nontraditional line of blades. Complementary but without cannibalizing the Vic SAK line.

In a world where Harley Davidson's name sells outsourced barbecue sauce, anything's possible. I hope the Wenger brand returns.
 
To the OP,

It might be a good idea to edit the title of your first post from Wegner to Wenger so it will be searchable in the future.
 
AreBeeBee said:
So I understand — it's to be just watches?
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So sad to pimp out the name for accessories but no longer make knives with the brand. Imagine if some company bought Case, quit selling Case knives, but continued using the brand name for truck driver caps. Leaves a bad taste in my mouth. :grumpy:
 
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