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Why use a knife to break off a few bananas??? I carry two knives with me daily and breaking a larger bunch into a smaller bunch does not require a blade! Or is this just a BF thing?
Back and still addicted to the Classic.
- Thread starter Juergen23
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It wasn’t breaking off a few bananas. Imagine about 8-12 bananas with thin blue/yellow tape wrapped around them. To be sold as a family pack. It was the tape I cut because I needed just a few bananas.
Imagine about 8-12 bananas with thin blue/yellow tape wrapped around them. To be sold as a family pack.
It was the tape I cut because I needed just a few bananas.
It wasn’t breaking off a few bananas.
Imagine about 8-12 bananas with thin blue/yellow tape wrapped around them. To be sold as a family pack.
It was the tape I cut because I needed just a few bananas.
Wirelessjunkie
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Thats exactly it. You don't need higher complexity steels to cut well. Thats one of several big revelations I discovered through knifemaking. If you have a steel that wont fall apart when run thin behind the edge, and it allows you to finish your work easily, and it's corrosion resistant enough (if thats something you value) then using things like CPM steels starts becoming redundant... The cost of R&D as well as the waste created due to high complexity steels often being a PiTA to work with (tendencies toward warpage, excessive abrasive wear, sensitive to heat treat protocol) all gets passed to the consumer.
I'm not saying that everyone should trashbin their supersteels, but Im trying to explain why I dont want brands like Victorinox to jump in on the hype with their regular lineup. Their prices are still reasonable because they have their processes dialed in, and as expensive as knives are there needs to be something for the rest of us who just want to have a consistent knife we can literally get anywhere, and not have to obsess about things like special sharpening kit, blade chips from hitting a staple, losing it, etc etc. Theres other budget friendly brands, but not many are as consistently good as what Victorinox has been doing for a very long time. I'd also rather support Switzerland than China right now with my budget blade purchases.
I'm not saying that everyone should trashbin their supersteels, but Im trying to explain why I dont want brands like Victorinox to jump in on the hype with their regular lineup. Their prices are still reasonable because they have their processes dialed in, and as expensive as knives are there needs to be something for the rest of us who just want to have a consistent knife we can literally get anywhere, and not have to obsess about things like special sharpening kit, blade chips from hitting a staple, losing it, etc etc. Theres other budget friendly brands, but not many are as consistently good as what Victorinox has been doing for a very long time. I'd also rather support Switzerland than China right now with my budget blade purchases.
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Ah, that's different. The market I shop doesn't do that so no knife required.
And what’s great as well, is that anyone can sharpen these so-called simple steels. A simple stone and some common sense is all that is required.
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One of the reasons I'm a fan of Buck as well as Victorinox. I don't have the patience that some do when sharpening so getting a decent, slightly toothy edge, is my goal and it's easy with those steels. I almost jumped on the Magnacut bandwagon but realized, I have zero use for that or other "super" steels.
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This is just one of the things I've always loved SAK. The wife and I have been spending our kids inheritance since they have done so well. That sometimes means flying someplace with carry on only, to travel light. I will mail a small SAK to myself where we will be staying, and use it for the duration of the trip, then gift it to the airport shuttle driver when we leave.
While on vacation, the SAK gets used for whatever, and if it needs a touch up, there's coffee mugs everywhere. A quick stropping on the bottom of a coffee mug makes a nice toothy edge for the day. In Key West, the little classic has sliced squid tentacle for bait, sliced the little key limes for the cold vodka tonics, sliced up bell peppers and onions and meat for the kabobs we put on the grill, snipped price tags off souvenir t-shirts, and many other jobs. At breakfast, I just use my coffee mug to make sure the blade is ready for the day. Takes about 10 seconds or a half a dozen strokes. Do that with the miracle steel of the month.
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I think I mentioned earlier that I carried a Classic for many years along with a larger pocket knife. However, once I handled a 74mm SAK, I switched over immediately as it's a much easier size for me to use. My first 74mm was the Ambassador and I have two or three spares NIB but then came across the Executive which I preferred, mostly, because of the file blade (which works well on most firesteels). So that model has been my EDC SAK now for at least a couple years. I have two spares NIB of the Executive as well. A shame Victorinox dropped that size range. I still don't understand why they did.
Wirelessjunkie
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I think the 58mm line is the easiest for them to sell as many non-knife folks will buy them as a souvenir. For example when I was at Rheinfall waterfall in Switzerland last year, the Classic was for sale as a souvenir with special scales. It also makes a great item for corporate gifts.
Then there are the classic 84 and 91 models like the Recruit and Spartan. These will always sell as they represent the SAK so well. They’re like the epitome of the SAK.
The 74mm line was neither of those. More of a specialty item. I think for that reason they dropped them.
I was always mystified why the executive was neither marketed or advertised. The executive was never seen in public display. Never seen in any of the SAK displays in the big box stores or sporting goods stores. Not even in the backpacking stores.
And it was priced insanely. For the price of an executive, you could buy a recruit and classic both. You cold buy a tinker or spartan. Hell, if shopped online some, you could find a compact for the price of an executive. Crazy!
For many reasons, Victorinox chose to push the classic over any otter small SAK. If the executive was priced not that much higher than a classic, and was at least found in the open market, I'd likely have been carrying one. But is wasn't. Only the members of the board at Victorinox know why.
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I think I paid $26 each for two of the Executives 3-4 years ago (Amazon). The last one, I paid closer to $40. I've got a few larger SAKs stowed here and there and they are certainly, then, and especially now, better bargains for what you get by comparison. I have two Champs that were around $60. I've been out of buying knives for a couple years as I had more than a lifetime's supply already. I got carried away during the plandemic...
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They’re the best pocket knife money can buy. No other brand offers this much value for the price you pay. And don’t even bother with other brands. Once had a nice Böker barlow. Cost me roughly four times as much as a basic SAK. It didn’t cut any better, had no handy tools on it and was a brick in the pocket. I returned it.
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I tried a Boker once because of the lovely stag scales (which were quite uneven in matching the thickness of one side to the other). Nice knife, in general, but as you point out, a brick. It went back a couple days later. Hard to find anything wrong with a medium size SAK for an EDC vs. anything else. Because I carry the 74mm Executive, I do carry a second blade only folder as I've posted earlier. Thing is, I carry that out of habit more than need. Upwards of 99% of daily tasks are covered by the Executive, including light cutting.
Give me a Classic and perhaps a Recruit for food duties and I’m a happy man.
Yeah, the one time the classic is not enough, food. For that, if I'm going out someplace where I think I'm gonna be dealing with food, I'll carry my alox bantam or even my Victorinox florist knife. The florist is one of the great under estimated and over looked pocket knives from Victorinox. The thin chisel grind is easy to sharpen and cuts like the dickens. Very light weight, it can even be dropped in a shirt pocket of my Magellan fishing shirts. Nylon scales are nigh on indestructible and have good grip. I've long sworn off the "new" cellidor scales with the hollow spots in them.
With a P-38 and Victorinox quatro in my wallet, I don't need the opening layers of the bigger SAK's. For food duty, my wife carries a red handle Victorinox serrated edge paring knife in her purse, with the red plastic blade cover on it. Makes for a very light food duty knife.
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Unlike the majority of regulars here, I've never chased that stuff. To be fair, a SAK has its limitations for heavier duty work but a Climber or Huntsman is probably all the knife/tools most people need vs. want. I like my solution which I've been doing for decades - the Classic (now one of the 74mms) plus a locking blade knife (Buck 501 for a good 20 years and now, one of three Benchmades). I do have a crap ton of other knives but they were bought for fun, not in pursuit of the perfect knife (although, for me personally, the earlier Fallkniven Pilot's knife is as good as anything I would ever use a knife for (mostly bushcrafty camping tasks).
Yes, the SAK has some limitations. But if I reach a point that I think my SAK of the day is not enough, Then I don'y bother wit a larger folder at all, locking or not. I go from small SAK to my old standby, a Buck 102 woodsman. A smallish medium fixed blade. No worry if a blade is going to fold over on me in any heavier duty stuff than I will b e using a SAK for. The woodsman is always in my daypack, and there's a 12 inch Ontario machete in my car trunk for any heavy duty stuff. Plus the fixed blade is actually lighter than a lock blade. No locking bar, no backs spring. With a kydex sheath it weighs in at 4.3 ounces. I'd rather have that fixed blade than any locking folder. Way easier to clean fish guts out of, and way safer. Nothing to unfold or fold.
Small SAK and fixed blade works for me.