Why a Swiss Army Knife.

[OrangeSport]

I have quite a collection of SAKs. I think some of their best features are:

Brilliant build quality
Non threatening / socially acceptable
Well designed tools which work
Particularly brilliant scissors
Lots of choice and options
Easy to keep shaving sharp
Amazing no-quibble repair service
Good value

I completely blunted the metal saw / file on my Ranger through misuse. The saw was replaced, the knife serviced and new plus-scale tools were added, all free of charge.

 

[Glow_worm]

I'm not sure anyone has specifically addressed this yet, so I'll add my thoughts:

Availability. When I joined the Scouts c2001 and bought my first knife, it was the brand the local outdoor shops stocked.

Value- price for the quality was and still is incredible.

Quality- mine has survived an amazing amount of abuse when I've been too lazy to go and fetch proper tools, it was even used as a hammer during an emergency roadside vehicle repair hundreds of miles from home in winter when breakdown services were on a 72-hour delay to schedules due to snow.

Warranty- Lifetime, and if you abuse it they will repair or replace for a small fee (£10/15).

Material- Stainless blades are perfectly adequate and maintenance free. High-tech steels are great for internet/armchair enthusiasts, but make an insignificant difference in every day real world use in my experience (and I've made a living using everything from tiny intricate carving gouges to knocking out building timbers with 8lb hewing axes)



I've had that Victorinox Huntsman about my person ever since until recently, and spent as much (if not more) of my life living/working/playing outdoors as most outdoorsy people. There have only been a couple of occasions in all that time when I'd have been better off with a fixed blade knife.

I'm not really interested in knives, to me it's a tool like a tape measure or square. I've forged a few fixed blade knives but every time folk have offered money for them in a matter of a few weeks, and I've always sold them on the spot, thinking 'I can make another if I feel the need' but haven't really felt the need.

Having a variety of tools always about the person is great and I regularly used both blades, the screwdrivers on the end of the can/bottle opener, the scissors and the saw, the hook very occasionally. Tweezers-great. Toothpick- sometimes useful for odd uses. It saves a lot of time going to find proper tools. I owned a Leatherman thingy once and never got on with it, too bulky/heavy, if I'm planning to do any sort of practical task I'll take proper tools with me. The Victorinox is just the right balance for unexpected things and odd jobs to save time getting proper tools out.

Some of the other tools on board I could live without (stupid awl thing for doing horrendous bodges, corkscrew).

Having said all that, at the moment, I'm trying a Super Tinker instead. It's thinner and lighter, and I don't really need a saw at the moment (I used to do a lot of heritage fruit tree restoration/pruning, and the saw was ideal for some tricky cuts and the knife blade good for cleaning up any rough cuts). Philips screwdriver instead of a corkscrew is a bonus.

 

[Pattree]

(I used to do a lot of heritage fruit tree restoration/pruning, and the saw was ideal for some tricky cuts and the knife blade good for cleaning up any rough cuts)

………. and you didn’t use Tina tools? [Shock ]

Edited to save extra post:
Working with fruit trees and roses during the late 60’s / early 70’s we reckoned that a Tina knife (pruning, grafting, budding and taking cuttings was worth an extra 10% on piecework.

I still have three out of the four!
They are drawer queens. I don’t use any knife much.

 

[William_Montgomery]

stupid awl thing for doing horrendous bodges

The reamer. I've found that to be one of the most useful tools on the SAK. Good for making joints, toggles, lashings, etc

 

[Glow_worm]

Pleased to see yours gets used! I've never found the need to make a hole in anything out in the wild and have often considered altering or replacing mine with a tool more likely to be useful to me.

………. and you didn’t use Tina tools? [Shock ]

Tyzack bow saw, Sheffield made fixed blade pruning saw in belt sheath (all 'vintage' tools to match equally old trees!), and Victorinox Huntsman are all I need! I do have a rather fine vintage Bontgen & Sabin combination secateur/knife which I use occasionally for the enjoyment of it, but I get the impression they were more for show than practicality. The Tina kit looks rather nice but unlike you did, I wouldn't use it enough to justify the cost vs. time saving.

 

[Aristotle]

I am on holiday with my family this week.

My Victoinox Huntsman Swiss Army Knife has been used multiple times, for various tasks, by family members, every day.

It was similar on a group holiday in Morocco earlier in the year. Nobody else had a pocket knife or tool and it was used frequently.

If I didn't have it, we wouldnt be able to use it. A tool kit wouldn't fit into the pocket of my shorts.

 

[Laurentius]

In my experience most people do not have the tools they need to hand when they want them, that is where the SAK comes in, SAK to the rescue. I confess I have not used one for at least a couple of hours to trim a split nail.

 

[Aristotle]

In my experience most people do not have the tools they need to hand when they want them, that is where the SAK comes in, SAK to the rescue. I confess I have not used one for at least a couple of hours to trim a split nail.

Surely any self-respecting bushcrafter has a fully-featured tool kit stored about their person at all times? -with a sled/trolley to cart the bigger items?

Swiss Army Knife? Pah!

 

[Glow_worm]

Nah a self-respecting bushcrafter would flake an appropriate flint* tool on the spot!

*or jade, obsidian etc depending on worldly location...

 

[forrestdweller]

Warranty- Lifetime, and if you abuse it they will repair or replace for a small fee (£10/15).

didn't know about the warranty -- do you have to send it directly to the factory or could you go to a place which sells them? (=i 'live' in central america, so shipping and ridiculously high shipping and import fees (+red tape) are something to consider...)

 

[forrestdweller]

Surely any self-respecting bushcrafter has a fully-featured tool kit stored about their person at all times? -with a sled/trolley to cart the bigger items?

Swiss Army Knife? Pah!

i'd say Felix Immler has proven you wrong

 

[Aristotle]

i'd say Felix Immler has proven you wrong

I was joking.

 

[Glow_worm]

didn't know about the warranty -- do you have to send it directly to the factory or could you go to a place which sells them? (=i 'live' in central america, so shipping and ridiculously high shipping and import fees (+red tape) are something to consider...)

I'd check Victorinox's website, they are excellent in terms of customer service and give clear instructions. It varies between countries.

 

[forrestdweller]

I was joking.

relax, so was i

 

[Glow_worm]

Multi function pocket knives have been around in the UK for a long time. Have a look at this selection from the Army and Navy Stores, 1883.... before the existence of Victorinox, and long before the adoption of these by the Swiss Army.

How times have changed- the 'Boy's knife' for example, and a couple of elegant 'Ladies' knives'. A far cry fom the tacky 'fashion' knives Victorinox have recently aimed at females, colour coded to match todays outfit. Vomit.

 

[OrangeSport]

That's really cool, but just noticed postage costs....

How did mail order work back then?

 

[Glow_worm]

With up to 12 postal deliveries a day in parts of London, it worked a lot better than these days!

Actually that's besides the point- parcels would generally go by rail, and be forwarded from the nearest station. Again, probably not a great deal slower than many couriers today...

The Army and Navy stores were for officers and some other servicemen, although they eventually opened their doors to the wider public. But plenty of people managed to wangle purchases despite not being of the officering class. And there were plenty of other places to source a pocket knife.

 

[Ducks]

Interesting discussion.

Step back a bit.
What do tools ‘do’?

Separate things. By cutting, prying or pulling.

Modify things. By cutting, filing, poking a hole.

Fasten/unfasten things. By means of screws, nuts/bolts, and nails.

I have a garage full of tools that excel in every one of those areas.

But I don’t carry them all when I leave the house.

I have to compromise on what I’m carrying when I leave the house to deal with an unexpected situation that requires a tool.

Enter the SAK and the multi tool.

The SAK predates the multi tool by decades. Tim Leatherman created his multi tool to be a ‘Boy Scout knife with pliers’.

To me, the SAK feels like a knife should feel in the hand. And does a reasonable job on most of the above tasks. And tends to be smaller and lighter than the comparable multi tool. I will admit that the multi tool shines when a need for manipulating nuts and bolts is added to the mix.

IME, both work and folks that need a tool for mechanical repairs tend to lean heavily towards a multi tool and folk interested more in outdoors and traveling towards the SAK.

 

[TLM]

Went through most of this thread again, what came to mind was "why not" and the only good answer to that seems to be "when not legal". When a blade is needed a sharp one is often the best answer.

I carry one almost all the time though I must admit that LM might be used more often because of the changeable bits.

 

[Pattree]

There is another drumbeat answer to “why not?”

Simply because I would very rarely use it. I acknowledge that I must have a very different lifestyle from most people here.

I hear you all - you use your Swiss Army knives three times before lunch (to almost quote) but I do not.

I have just returned from a couple of nights camping. My Opinel Explore didn’t come out of the Bergen pocket the whole time.
I cooked on my Kelly Kettle while one of my daughters used her tranny.
The only edged tools that I used were an SS spork abs a pair of secateurs.

I have a generic multi tool but I don’t think I’ve used it more than three times in the 10+ years that I’ve owned it.

My OP arose from the realisation when I first came here to BcUK that everyone seemed to have one. It’s surprised me. It seemed like some sort of bushcraft regalia. I simply wondered why and asked the question. There is absolutely no criticism, just curiosity.

In many decades of camping and travelling the world in the Far East and Sun-Saharan Africa, to small remote forest villages, I had only ever seen one in use once. (We got water in our diesel in a Mercedes G-wagon. There was a Phillips screwdriver in the tool kit but the driver used his Swiss Army knife to get into the fuel tank.)