This is my Swiss Army Knife, there are some like it, but this one is *MINE*!

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Today was the first day of Septemberfest at Kittery Trading Post, it’s their traditional big sale week, all sorts of promotions, discounts and the like, it runs for a week, I normally don’t go on opening day as I hate crowds, but I needed to stop off anyway to pick up some 20 gauge shotgun ammo, turns out it’s a good thing I stopped

Victorinox was there with their “Airstream” trailer, showing a bunch of their knives (including the SwissChamp XXL! that is one MASSIVE multitool!), there was even an original style (as in the original Victoria Swiss knife) in a nice presentation box

The highlight of the Victorinox trailer, though, had to be the promotion they were running, if you bought $40 of Vic. product, you could…

BUILD YOUR OWN VICTORINOX SAK! :smiley:

…Of course, there were some limitations to the promotion, as in, you could only build a Spartan, and you couldn’t customize it :(, but the fact remains, you got to use the official Victorinox assembly press/jig thingy that the Vic. employees use to build quick runs of a certain model, it’s the only Victorinox press/jig in North America

Technically, you’re really only assembling your knife, but the fact remains, it’s still pretty cool to be able to build your own SAK on official Victorinox hardware with instruction from a Victorinox staffer

So, without further ado, here’s MY MacTech-Made Victorinox Spartan
(Yes, I realize I had the toothpick and the tweezers in the wrong openings after I took the pictures, they’re fixed now…)

http://homepage.mac.com/mactechg4/.Pictures/IMG_3566.JPG

http://homepage.mac.com/mactechg4/.Pictures/IMG_3567.JPG

http://homepage.mac.com/mactechg4/.Pictures/IMG_3568.JPG

http://homepage.mac.com/mactechg4/.Pictures/IMG_3569.JPG

The scales have a “soft touch” finish on them, according to the rep, they haven’t yet put the soft-touch scales on the 91mm SAK’s yet, so for now, the soft-touch scales are unique to this particular model, and the blade is etched with the “Your Companion for Life on the Road” logo, making this model’s blade unique for the series

The walk-and-talk on my MacTech Made Spartan is just as good as a production knife, all blades and tools open with an authoritative SNAP, this shows how precise the parts are machined to, and how consistent the assembly jig works, if someone like myself, who has never even disassembled a SAK, can build one with the same walk-and-talk as a production knife, it really speaks to the quality construction of the Victorinox knives

It took about 5 minutes to assemble the knife, and it was dead easy, the jig basically does all the alignment and loading of the backsprings for you, all the operator does is position and align the parts, blades, and spacers, and drop on the bushings, and once the knife is together, cut the brass pins down to size and peen them in place, then press on the scales with a padded vise

Now, the real question becomes, do I treat this SAK as a shelf-queen, or put it to use, after all, it’s a basic spartan, nothing special in the line, just a good, basic knife, but it DOES have the soft-touch scales and etched blade, which make it identifiable as a “build your own” model Spartan, and more of a collectible, so, do I treat this knife as a collectible, or put it to use?

I should have bought a second Vic knife so I could build another Spartan, that way I’d have one for collecting, and one for use, and since the Build-It-Yourself promotion was just for today, I won’t have a chance to build another one…

2

I have a black Spartan, though with the regular plastic scales. Haven’t carried it in years. (I’m currently carrying a Soldier.) I should stop by the storage unit and get it.

3

You made me very sad.
The one thing in my purse stolen Monday, that I’ll miss and never get back, was the Swiss Army Knife my best friend in college gave me. :frowning:

4

Quick check: Spartan on end table? Check. Rally on car key chain? Check. Fireman in glovebox? Check.

I’m still jealous.

5

I was all ready to go “squee” for some Swiss Knife freakshow you put together but that looks like a … umm… pretty ordinary knife. Does “custom” only refer to the exterior scales or can you load in different tools and blades if you chose to?

6

It’s no ordinary knife.

It’s a Swiss Army Knife!

:smiley:

7

Per the OP, “you could only build a Spartan, and you couldn’t customize it.”

8

It IS a pretty ordinary SAK, but it’s an ordinary SAK that I assembled, I would have liked to truly custom-build my own SAK, but that was not an option, the promotion was that you get to assemble your own Spartan

It was worth it to me just for the hands-on experience with the Victorinox assembly jig, it’s a unique tool, custom made for the purpose of assembling SAK
this is a vid of the press/jig, and the guy that’s talking the customer through the process is the same guy that walked me through my build

Of course, if I WAS to custom build my own truly custom SAK, it’d contain;

Alox Soldier blade (thicker and more sturdy than the standard large blade
Combo tool (flat-blade screwdriver/bottle opener/can opener in one, does away with the need for seperate bottle opener and can opener blades, the Combo tool is found almost exclusively on the Bantam, a one layer SAK with the standard large pen blade and Combo tool)
CyberTool bitdriver and bit set
in-line Philips screwdriver
Scissors
Pliers
Saw
Magnifying Lens
StayGlow “Plus” scales housing a tweezer, toothpick, pen, and straight pin

I have no need of the corkscrew, the awl/reamer, the package hook, the file, the anemic 3mm LED flashlight, or the fish scaler

9

I’ve just bought a Hiker model to replace a Camper I lost several years ago.

It’s a sign of the times that I no longer need a corkscrew when camping - our wine tends to be screw-cap now. The screwdriver is much handier.

There a few lads on a bushcraft forum I visit who make lovely custom scales - walnut, cherry, spalted beech - that’s next on my list to get sorted (replace those nasty plastic scales).

10

I don’t remember retrieving the black Spartan, but it’s been in the house and has had some use. The knife that gets used the most is the Champion I bought in 1981 or 1982.

So why am I bumping this thread? I’ve just retired my 1990 Soldier. It’s ‘like new’, and I probably still have the box. Unbeknownst to me, Victorinox retired the Soldier in 2008, and replaced it with a new Soldier. A silver version of the Pioneer is basically the 1961-version Soldier with a keyring.

Anyway, now that it’s OOP, my Soldier will just be for looking at.