Review Victorinox - Scout / Camper Pattern Knife ...

[old4570]

$36 Oz Bananas to my door , simply makes this the cheapest - Scout / Camper Pattern Knife to my door . I don't know that I could do better ..
So are Chinese knives the only knives to consider ? Obviously not ! But for some reason this knife brand flew completely under the radar .
And I only came across it by pure accident on FeeBay ! ( A happy accident ) .

Snap crackle and pop are excellent ( fit N finish ) . Be hard to do better anywhere close to this price point ! So nothing to complain about , Swiss Quality !
The factory edge was toothy . Kind of very much reminded me of my own 60 grit edges I do sometimes on softer steels .
Speaking off , the 55HRC file just and only just bites .
Slicing rope I got a 250F ( Fail ) on the factory edge , and slicing paper was tricky Cos of the toothy nature of the edge .
Hmmmm , I guess Victorinox has never done particularly hard blades as they most likely want to make re sharpening relatively easy .
It is a budget knife after all ..... That's bolted together really well !

Thinking about it , I haven't purchased a Victorinox since the early 80's ( Did I buy one for my brother a year or so ago ? ) . For myself in anyways !
And those knives are relatively Mint after ( Holly Smoke Batman ) 40 years or so .
So I don't think buying a Victorinox is going to be a bad choice . But in all seriousness , for some reason .. I forgot all about them .
Now I just have to resharpen it and see what happens .

 

[old4570]

Resharpening !
I started with 180 grit diamond that's well worn by now ! It ate the steel !
Then I move to 600 grit diamond to clean the edge ..
1500 grit oxide to clean some more and make the bur smaller ..
Once the bur was minimized I moved to my 5000 grit stone ..
Once I could no longer feel a bur I did a little leather stropping till the blade sliced paper nicely .
And then I did a little cardboard stropping which made it slice paper even better .. Buttery smooth slices !
Should be a nice day today 15 Feb 23 .... More slicing ...

 

[old4570]

Ok , a 300R ( R for roll ) on the rope .
300 slices with a easy wood strop return to slicing !
I came back inside and stropped the edge back almost as good as when I started . ( Almost )
Hitting that wood board does FUBAR the edge some which is hard to strop back from ( back to 100% starting point )
I would most likely need to kiss the blade with the 5000 grit for a 100% restored edge .
My guess is the edge is .............. around 20 degrees . It's such a small blade , so putting the angle meter on it ????
Anyways , 300 is good . Easy strop back is good .. Fit and finish is really good ! And the price is really good !
So some one knows how to put Chinese knives to shame on price and quality ! ( The Swiss )

 

[fastevo]

I recently “rediscovered” the SAK as well and they are still, even with current price hikes (like everything else) a shining bargain! The quality is crazy good and the Alox versions seem as good as knives costing 3 times as much. I do wish we could get Victorinox to produce some with 60 hrc Aeb-l or better yet 14c28n though! Steve

 

[Piddling]

Aeb-l or yet better 14c28n --- YEA YEA YEA!

 

[Guy McVer]

My guess is the edge is .............. around 20 degrees . It's such a small blade , so putting the angle meter on it ????

22.5 degrees per side according to the common wisdom, but 20 degrees is close enough for sharpening. I sharpen all of my swiss army knives at 20 degrees per side.

If you ever need to find 22.5 degrees, just draw an equilateral triangle. Use literally anything as a measuring stick to ensure that each side is the same length. If all sides are the same length, then all angles will be exactly 60 degrees. Now bisect the triangle into two mirrored triangles by drawing a line straight down the middle. This gives you 90 degrees at the base and 30 degrees at the top. Now you want to make a third triangle with your 90 degree corner by drawing a new line connecting two points at equal distances away from the 90 degree corner along the existing sides. This new third triangle has two 45 degree corners. Half of 45 is 22.5, so we do the same thing again with one of our 45 degree corners and we're done. You have successfully found 22.5 degrees without using a protractor and without using any standard unit of measurement. You only used your eyeballs and something to draw lines with.