Wenger makes a replica of it's first SAK from 1901

Pretty cool and a clean looking knife.
 
whoah! I think I will just look for now. :D.
 
Wow, I like that! Why don't they do a regular run of them? It looks much nicer than the cheezy "futuristic" SAKs Wenger is making now. Nice thick blade and tools- I dig it.
 
I saw that a while back. The thing looks awesome. It would be awesome if they parlayed it into a (not so expensive) production version.
 
I just noticed that the scales are "top quality vulcanized fiber". I thought at first that they were wood. Is that a fancy Swiss way of saying "Micarta"?

Even nicer.

It's funny how the market drives companies to continually update and change their products. Different doesn't always mean better. The original design looks pretty close to perfect. Even with this painstakingly accurate reproduction, Wenger couldn't resist the temptation to "improve it". They should have left the blades carbon. But I guess it makes sense to use stainless, most of these will be safe queens.
 
I just noticed that the scales are "top quality vulcanized fiber". I thought at first that they were wood. Is that a fancy Swiss way of saying "Micarta"?
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I think it's a fancy way of saying "hardened rubber."

Wenger couldn't resist the temptation to "improve it". They should have left the blades carbon. But I guess it makes sense to use stainless...
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No, when charging a $380 premium for a "handcrafted replica", it would make sense to use the the authentic type of steel. ;)
 
Bob W said:
I think it's a fancy way of saying "hardened rubber."
;)
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Hmm. "Vulcanized" does imply rubber. But the scales do look like linen micarta. There's definitely some kind of fabric in there. Maybe it's some sort of weird micarta-like stuff, but instead of using phenolic resin, the "polymer" is natural rubber- vulcanized, of course. Not something you see every day anymore. I hazard that Wenger would have had to get a batch of that stuff custom made. That would go part way towards explaining the price. What might have been a fairly common material back in the day is now pretty exotic. Also, we need to bear in mind that EVERYTHING in Switzerland is crazy expensive. I was there last year, and it cost a little over the equivalent of $30 bucks to eat at McDonalds (for 2 combos off of the regular menu). On average, everything there seemed to cost about 3X what it does here.

With that in mind, the price of regular SAKs is even more impressive, for what you get. BTW- they cost about the same in Switzerland as they do here. Which means that, for the Swiss, they are crazy cheap. I heard that the average salary of a waiter or waitress in Switzerland is the equivalent of $70,000 (USD) in Zurich. You would certainly need that much just to get by.
 
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wintermute said:
When I was over there I noticed that the only things that you can get cheap are SAKs, (Swiss) watches, and chocolate.
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You're right- we noticed the same thing- the stuff that the Swiss are known for exporting was cheap there. I'd add cheese to that list, too. Man, they have some killer cheese in Switzerland! Not only the "holey" stuff we get in the grocery stores, but much better versions of that, and tons of delicious stuff I'd never seen before. Mmmmm. Their grocery stores have entire aisles full of nothing but cheese. We ate so much cheese there!
 
Bob W said:
I think it's a fancy way of saying "hardened rubber."
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Sorry Bob, they are talking about paper that has been vulcanized (treated with acid and pressed), in the 1800s they made cheap suitcases and trunks from it. It is also the material used for spacers (red, under loveless scales) or stacked in Morseth knives
 
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