Clan of the Classic
- Thread starter Snow Walker
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- Jul 3, 2014
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- 93
Thanks for all the replies! We've made it to Page 2...only 76 more pages to even up with the "Cult of the Peanut"!
Any pics of the Classic cousins - Ramblers or Rallys?
Any pics of the Classic cousins - Ramblers or Rallys?
Here's a extrapolation of a thought from some facts; Given how popular the cult of the peanut is, with the relatively lower production numbers of Case, how much bigger can the Clan of the Classics be, given that Victorinox makes 9 million of them a year?
And Of course we'd have to consider the amount of clan members if the rest of the 58's are considered cousins!
(even if they are a bit, shall we say, over weight?)
At what point does a clan become a horde?
- Joined
- Jun 15, 2014
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- 28
I am in the Clan of the Classics as well. Purchased on 2010 and had never leave my pocket since.
Small size, good tools and nice looking. Cant look anywhere else for a basic SAK 😊
Small size, good tools and nice looking. Cant look anywhere else for a basic SAK 😊
I am a member of The Clan of Classics. I am also a Case Jackknife CV fan. Add to that a SAK Super Tinker, a P-38 can opener, and a Craftsman 4-Way screwdriver and you have my edc. Jackknife inspired to say the least. The 4-way got me out of trouble and saved a classroom of students from another student's possible meltdown. That was worth the $.99 I paid for the 4 bit!
I'll throw in a dissenting opinion - for me, Classics really are a near miss, and I don't really understand why it, rather than any out of a dozen competitors is so very popular. It's close to excellence, sure - but doesn't it bug people that the knife itself is really good for nothing? The knife is too small to handle anything that the (excellent) scissors can't. The toothpick, if you use it, is gross, and if you don't, is useless. The tweezers are too bendy to provide firm grip.
And it's not like Victorinox don't know this. After all, they created the Midnite Manager. Sure, it still has the useless knife. But it also has a philips screwdriver/ caplifter (ok, I'll admit, the caplifter sucks). And in the scales there are a pen - who hasn't needed a pen before? And a bright-enough LED for dealing with unexpected darkness. Basically the same size, but so much more utility!
And it's not like Victorinox don't know this. After all, they created the Midnite Manager. Sure, it still has the useless knife. But it also has a philips screwdriver/ caplifter (ok, I'll admit, the caplifter sucks). And in the scales there are a pen - who hasn't needed a pen before? And a bright-enough LED for dealing with unexpected darkness. Basically the same size, but so much more utility!
U
I don't carry a Classic anymore, but I do carry SAKs (an Executive and a Spartan), and I do use the toothpicks. How is it gross? If you use it on your own teeth, you simply wipe it off before putting it away. There are no nooks and crannies on the toothpick for stuff to get trapped in. And I'm assuming that only one person uses the toothpick. Same if you use it to lightly clean lint out of the SAK.
Jim
I don't carry a Classic anymore, but I do carry SAKs (an Executive and a Spartan), and I do use the toothpicks. How is it gross? If you use it on your own teeth, you simply wipe it off before putting it away. There are no nooks and crannies on the toothpick for stuff to get trapped in. And I'm assuming that only one person uses the toothpick. Same if you use it to lightly clean lint out of the SAK.
Jim
It sounds like you've discounted the Classic in your mind before you really try to utilize it.
1. I use the knife to: open boxes, open plastic bags, open blister packs, cut zip ties (the small ones), cut stretch wrapping, cut cardboard. All of this would be extremely annoying to do with the small scissors.
2. The pick I use to pry up adhesive labels, clean out tight spaces.
3. The tweezers I use to pull splinters, pull ticks, pick up tiny calibration weights.
4. The Scissors I use to make fine cuts on labels and paper, cut threads, trim finger nails.
5. the File/SD gets used on my nails, fastening electrical connectors, light prying and scraping jobs, tightening screws on my Svord Peasant.
The uses are limited by your creativity. The Classic has a lot more upside going for it.
- Joined
- Aug 1, 2013
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- 631
I'd like to join the cult.
The classic is a great little knife. What it lacks in size it makes up for in variety.
Ken K
The classic is a great little knife. What it lacks in size it makes up for in variety.
Ken K
I used to be like you. I once thought the tiny Victorinox classic was a joke. Then the better half ended up with one in a round about way when the company she worked for got a bunch of them with they're corporate logo on them to gift to clients. She ended up wtn one on her keyring on a quick release hook. I gave the little thing a month before it was trashed. I was wrong. For a few months I watched Karen use and abuse, and even torture that tiny tool. She pried with the SD tipped nail file, sawed away on materials that I would have went and got another tool. She used the scissors for things that any Elsner has foreseen.
It wouldn't die.
It got a little play in the blades/tools, but it kept on keeping on. I was impressed enough to go out and get one, and do an experiment. I put one in my pocket and for the next month, if any pocket knife/SAK job came up, i'd try to use the classic first. Cutting jobs, small screw driver jobs, scissor jobs, tweezer jobs. Opening UPS and FEDEX boxed, mail, cutting twine, and even picking a thorn out from between the paw pads of Pearl The Wonder Corgi. The tweezers worked fine for that, and a splinter or two.
The SD tip worked fine on most of the small phillips screws I felt with. It also makes a decent bottle opener for a cold imported brew when used right. The 1 1/2 inch blade is a full 1/2 inch longer than the extended blade on a Stanley Utility knife, so it was capable of any box cutter job. The only failing of such a small knife blade is dealing with food stuff. Cutting open plastic blister packages was easy. The very thin blade sliced through the plastic fine.
So in the end, if you don't understand it, then it's a case of YMMV. But it seems like there's plenty of people who do understand it, as it's THE most mass produced pocket knife on earth. Has been for quite a few years. But that's okay. the people who live them do so because they work for them. Lot's of people don't understand the AK-47. It's ugly, crude, and the target shooters at my gun club with the all out bolt action rifles with Turkish walnut stocks and scopes that cost more than the rifles make fun of them. Yet, the AK-47 is not only the worlds most popular riffle, produced in more countries in more numbers than any other rifle in history, they flat out work.
I think there is a reason that some things become world wide icons, like Bic pens and lighters, Timex watches, and Victorinox SAK's like the classic. They just work. To make the statement you make about the knife blade not being able to handle anything the scissors can't, tells me that you have never really tried one on a day to day trial. No, I would not want to be dropped into the Canadian wilderness with one as my survival tool, but in an urban/suburban environment, it does quite well. You should try one for a month. A real honest trial. You may be as surprised as I was.
- Joined
- Jul 25, 2010
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- 7,432
Well... I´m not that great Classic guy. I just don´t get warm with it. I own several of them and had them on my keychain for many years. But later I´ve tried die Minichamp and the Rally or the the LM Micra. I like these tools more than the Classic. It just doesn´t speak to me...
- Joined
- Mar 7, 2014
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- 937
The knife blade on the classic is not useless. I put a full zero bevel convex edge on it and it is my go to detail knife for whittling. The temper is perfect and the blade will always spring back to true when bent. Useless? It can cut open envelopes, boxes, blister packs and other stuff. It also does great for minor surgery and as I said whittling. don't knock it till you give it a chance. I never carry it by itself, it's always in conjunction with a good barlow which does the heavy stuff really well. It's a pint size champ, it can't do stuff a bigger knife can do as easily but it's plucky little beggar. Go on, give her a shot.
BTW a zero bevel convex edge on the classic makes it even more slicy than usual, all you classic fans should giver her a try. :thumbup:
Have a good one y''all and keep safe.
James.
BTW a zero bevel convex edge on the classic makes it even more slicy than usual, all you classic fans should giver her a try. :thumbup:
Have a good one y''all and keep safe.
James.
- Joined
- Jul 3, 2014
- Messages
- 93
Interesting mix of "Classic love" vs "Classic dislike" so far in the replies. The important thing to keep in mind is the concept of carrying the right tool for the right job. There is a time and place for everything. My Tramontina machete, a hard-working farm tool, is in my barn. My Opinel #9, a traditional French utility knife, is in my lunch box. My Case Sodbuster, a solid working-man's knife, is on my outdoor belt. My Classic and Peanut, both unobtrusive small-job handlers, are in my watch pocket at work (only certain blades get by at a public school).
I still agree that the blade on a Classic is a little on the small and thin side, but it still does the jobs it is asked to handle. I'd be a little happier if it was the size and thickness of the small blade on my Peanut, but I doubt Victorinox is going to make that adjustment for me...and I'm OK with that.
I still agree that the blade on a Classic is a little on the small and thin side, but it still does the jobs it is asked to handle. I'd be a little happier if it was the size and thickness of the small blade on my Peanut, but I doubt Victorinox is going to make that adjustment for me...and I'm OK with that.
With its diminutive size, useful tools and colorful scales, the Classic is one of the few knives that are accepted by the general public as being useful tools rather than dangerous implements. Even in a store, an office or on public transportation, a Classic will not cause comment if it is taken out and used discreetly. 
Count me in! I have 1 classic... which lead to 2 signatures.... and a manager. I tend to keep the signature on my keyring as I like having the emergency pen and I usually have an 84 or 91mm SAK on me which has a toothpick. I agree the classic is one of the best. It works for both knife nuts and non knife people. I've gifted one to my brother, my sister and my girl. It's so simple and unobtrusive that it made it on all their keychains as well. LOVE IT! :thumbup:
Sure the Classic is classic... but c'mon... isn't the Rambler so much better? A terrific extra blade and -- arguably more important -- they put the knife blade on the right end of the knife, away from your keys?
The Classic is, I believe, the best selling pocket knife of all time... and that's gotta count for a lot. And it's a good little knife.
But, gotta say it, the Rambler is soooo much better.
Sorry, sorry... I know this thread is supposed to be a Classic lovefest, and I wish with all my heart I could be rolling around in it... But.
Have fun folks. Truly.
The Classic is, I believe, the best selling pocket knife of all time... and that's gotta count for a lot. And it's a good little knife.
But, gotta say it, the Rambler is soooo much better.
Sorry, sorry... I know this thread is supposed to be a Classic lovefest, and I wish with all my heart I could be rolling around in it... But.
Have fun folks. Truly.
If the rambler was as available all over like the classic, for almost the same price, (I'd be willing to pay a small bit extra for the mini phillips) I'd probably agree with you. But and here's the big thing with the classic, it's the combination of availability, price, and variations of the theme that does it.
The Classic is so widely available in some of the most unlikey stores and venues. Almost every big box store has a supply of them, and for the base price. Someitmes even marked down. It's the gateway drug for SAK's. Walmart, Target, surplus stores, Dick's sporting goods, L.L. Bean outlets, and gobs of travel Souvenir shops where ever you go on a trip. The classic is THE choice with the location logo on them at tourist sights all one the world. And that's where the little classic has really taken over, the theme knife.
We have a niece down in Houston Texas that travels a lot. She went through college and got a degree in art and industrial design. One of the things she does is design logo's. She's done corporate and business logo's for companies all over and some of those design have been on classic's. Small electronic companies, a machining company in Dublin Ireland. Plus she's and avid backpacker and when she travels for business, she fits a backpacking trip in somehow. She's got a display pegboard that next time I'm in Texas I have to get a pic of, or have her send me one, that she's got a slew of classics that is her travel souvenir display.
She's got classic's with logo's from the southern most tip of Tierra Del Fuego, her climb/hike up Mt. Fugi in Japan, Austria, South Africa, Germany, and a few places I've never heard of. She's been to Japan a few times, and apparently the Japanese are nuts over anime stuff, and they have all kinds of Vic classic's with different anime characters on them. And the two things Bronwyn is never without in her purse is a spork, a Bic lighter, and a classic. She likes that she can fly someplace with carry on bag, get off and at the first or second store buy a classic cheap and drop it in her purse and she's good to go. The other 58mm's don't have that kind of wide spread easy availability world wide.
The classic is almost like an Opinel, so easy to get and cheap, it's almost a disposable tool. Especially when you buy them from TSA confiscated dealers. There's a lady that shows up at local gun show twice a year, and she always has big boxes of confiscated knives. some junk, some bad condition of brand x. But a lot of SAK's. About 95% of the SAK's are classics, with a few ramblers, a manager here and there, an odd waiter or bantam or recruit. The classics are something like 4 dollars, but if you buy 3 or more, it's 2 dollars each. MOst are unsharpened and almost unused. Just dirty and in need of a bath with some Dawn dish detergent and warm water. Carried a lot but used little. I'll stock up and buy a bunch and use them as give aways for people I see without knives. I think of classic's as the Giddeons Bible of pocket knives.
If more stores sticked the rambler or manager in the numbers of the classic, for a price that was closer, it would be a different game. But they don't, so the classic is Victorinox's gateway drug to SAK's. And for most people in a modern urban/suburban environment it's good. Handles all the basic functions of knife cutting, scissors, small phillips screws, and can even open a bottle if you use the SD tip of the nail file the right way. Most people just put ne on their keychain and forget about. And it's there when you need it. The classic is the Bic pen of pocket knives.