I have used Victorinox Swiss army knives all of my life. Bought my first Huntsman pocket knife at sixteen and have never looked back. When I found out that they were discontinuing my favorite Mountaineer model, I bought two more and had a friend dig the last one out of a little tourist shop in Switzerland for me. After ten years my first one has been getting a little frazzled around the edges and I have brought out one of the backup units.
A year or two ago I bought the Victorinox pocket tool and have been completely satisfied with its performance. I carried a Gerber pocket tool before that and am now totally dissatisfied with its quality level. All of the Victorinox blades lock. The pliers’ box joint has maybe one mil of play in it. All of the blades were shaving sharp straight from the factory (as always) and when you deploy one of them, no others pull out with it. The new Victorinox pocket tool even has scissors on it (the only oversight in the first generation design).
Although Leatherman lately has made vast improvements in its quality, the Victorinox pocket tool still wins hands down. My old Gerber isn’t even in the running. Ditto for my Gerber folding hunter. I recently purchased a mint condition 1975 vintage Puma 972 Game Warden and will begin carrying it once the custom belt sheath is finished. This twin blade folding hunter puts the Gerber lockblade to complete and total shame. I was talking with a chap who has carried a Puma 915 Emperor for many years and he couldn’t stop raving about it. I’m confident my new knife is going to be a winner.
So, the question before us is:
Victorinox or Wenger? Unless Wenger has made astronomical strides in recent times, they aren’t even in contention. They never have been in my own experience. The difference in quality is blatantly obvious. The can opener on the Wenger is a “me-too” sort of imitation of Victorinox’s design. Same goes for their scissors and other implements.
I’ve bought and lost several Swiss army knives over the years. I have always been a Victorinox man. Lately I’ve been curious about the expanded Leatherman-type of tools and played around with many true Leatherman models. They all seem imperfect, but you’ve inspired me to check out the Victorinox versions.
Victorinox, all the way. I have my dad’s Locksmith pocket knife in front of me right now for some reason. On my keychain I have a transparent blue Signature Lite.
I don’t agree with the OP re. the scissors. The Wenger scissors design is superior to the Victorinox. I used to sell em both and had to order a bunch of extra springs to replace them for people who had Victorinox knives. Neither is a GREAT knife, anyway… they just have great features. And being able to open a bottle of wine while out on the trail is not a trivial matter.
>> And being able to open a bottle of wine while out on the trail is not a trivial matter
God forbid you should find yourself in the position od W.C. Fields who said “once in the wilds of Afghanistan, we lost our corkscrew and had to survive on food and water for a number of weeks”
JillGat, do you have any picture links to the Wenger scissors mechanism? I’ll admit I’ve had an occassional problem with the spring on my Victorinox knife scissors, but usually only after doing something stupid like cutting my toenails with them. After extended use, the hinge screw can tend to start backing out as well. It takes several years of use for these issues to manifest though. Most people I know lose the knife long before these problems crop up.
I have a tiny Victorinox. It’s a good knife, very sharp, and the scissors work. My other swiss army knife is a normal size Wenger that I found in the back of a jeep, having been repeatedly smashed under heavy objects for five or six years. It’s just as good as the Victorinox.
But I don’t regularly carry swiss army knives; for one thing they don’t have a thumb loop or thumb peg. I prefer my knives to be convenient to open. These days I’m mostly carrying a tiny skeletonized Spyderco which works great.
I had a Wenger screwdriver shred itself on a fairly simple screw. The metal just wasn’t strong enough.
I’d love to get the Vixtorinox tool, but I can’t justify replacing my Gerber tool because, well, it works. I’ve had it for 7 years and it has never failed me. So until the day it breaks or I lose it…
Victorinox. The only Wenger worth having is the one that they actually supply to the Swiss Army. It, and the identical Victorinox model, must meet the same set of acceptance standards. The other Wenger models I’ve used have been inferior to Victorinox in tgerms of fit and finish. They also lack the little screwdriver on the end of the can opener.
Tomcat, trust me, you’re worth it. When you get a feel for the increased safety of having all the blades lock and the ease of use, you’ll be glad you moved up. My trusty old Gerber pocket tool rides in the glove box of my car. Don’t drive? No problem, chuck your Gerber tool into your disaster preparedness kit. The Gerber isn’t a crappy product like Wenger, it will do the job, but your time, health and enjoyment of life are more important. The facility and functionality that the Victorinox pocket tool provides saves you enough time in its first year of use to cover its cost. It also has a better array of implements that permit you to address each job with a more precisely appropriate tool.
I’ll put it this way, NASA is going to have do a lot of design work and then hire Curta calculator or Questar to build them a pocket tool for 4 Season marine environment combat before I think anyone’s going to beat Victorinox’s product.
To me, the two things about Wenger knives that are superior to Victorinox are the scissors (discussed above by other posters) and the can opener.
I’ve never liked the Victorinox can opener with it’s little screwdriver on the tip. I always seem to end up pushing too hard and getting that screwdriver on the wrong side of the lid and then I have to wrestle it back out. The Wenger design, on the other hand, is just a can opener. You get a rhythm going and you can slice the lid off a can without even looking or thinking about it.
chukhung, I have had the exact opposite experience with can openers on the Victorinox knives. I’ve been able to beat an electric can opener when I’m up to speed.
JillGat, I’ll definitely say that Wenger’s scissor design shows some thought. It seems as though they pivot the moving blade with a solid piece of metal that is levered by a relatively concealed spring. It still takes a lot of work to hurt the spring on the Victorinox scissors and I’ve only had to replace one in decades of using them. I’ll stick with Victorinox.
I am not totally certain, but I seem to recall once pulling a Wenger corkscrew straight whilst attempting to extract the wood-bark-like object from a vino flask. Very disturbing, it was.
