Why is Gerber better than Victorinox?

Walking Man

Walking Man

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This is not a flame post, read on.
I have nothing against Victorinox
EXCEPT for their scissors. It seems those guys and Wenger's scissors little wire spring thingy ALWAYS get F-ed up.
Gerber seems to have solved this problem,
so why can't other companies follow suit?
Thoughts?
 
Bit of price diff. between the two also, maybe Vict. just dont but the money into somthing it sells for 10-20 bucks. Just a guess.
 
Well first off don't mix the two Wegner and Victorynox are not the same company. They both make Swiss Army Knives but Wegner is the one and only SAK. They are the only ones purchased by the Swiss Army. Victorynox makes the cheap knock off if you will.

Maybe that is why the Vic scissors are sh.t.
 
i thought wegner was the one thats the phony, people are always saying their quality is not up to par with victorinox, can somenoe please clarify this?
 
Wegner and V-Nox are BOTH authorized by the Swiss Army to make the issue knife, under the same specs. Like if Ka-Bar and Camillus jointly held the contract to make the USMC issue knife. Victorinox is pretty universally agreed to be better quality, and the higher price of V-Nox vs. Wegner supports that.
 
Excuse me for a second, Victorinox are the knives used by the swiss army, wenger is the f.ke one. In switserland you can hardly find a show that sells Wenger because they think it's worthless.
I have my Victorinox since 12 years now, I got it from a swiss special forces guy that works with Koy 12, and it still works perfectly! The wenger I bought a few years ago is already broken! the only good thing about it was the siscors!!! but with the victor inox you can fix that sissors problem by pulling out that "spring". Then the sissors won't break up again!
Victorinox is the one and only knife used by the swiss army and swiss special forces!!!
 
So what do you guys think though?
Am I right in saying that the scissors on Gerbers are much better or am I just crazy, insane, or plain ol' wacko?
 
Just to help clear the confusion -

There are only two companies by (Swiss) law that can call their knives SAKs (Swiss Army Knives)

These are Victorinox and Wenger.

By agreement some time ago
Victorinox call theirs the "Original" SAK
Wengers call theirs the "Genuine" SAK

BOTH companies supply the Swiss military with a standard issue pocket knife:

Victorinox Soldier:
0-8610-26.jpg

Soldier ( 0.8610.26 )
Official Army Knife as used by the Swiss Soldiers
http://www.victorinox.ch/newsite/en/produkte/produktdetails/detail.cfm?pid=0-8610-26

Wenger Standard Issue
i590097sq01.jpg


There's been long standing debate to which brand is "better" - both have long set the benchmark for manufacturing quality - the SAK is synonomous with "quality".

For further details and a tool-by-tool comparison/analysis see this long review in the Knife Reviews & Testing section
- linked:

SAKs - Victorinox or Wenger
 
"Am I right in saying that the scissors on Gerbers are much better"

I think you'll get differing opinions on this, for example, check out the review of the gerber tool at www.equipped.org
Their major complaint about the gerber tool is the scissors. Most folks like the vic scissors for small work and paper cutting etc. I think that the wenger works better at times for cutting wire or anything that will slip out of the vics. the leatherman micra is tops IMHO when it comes to scissors on a multitool. I usually carry a micra on my keys and a vic and/or leatherman in my pocket
 
Scissors on knives and multitools are fine as long as you remember their limitations. I keep a Victorinox Champion and a Leatherman Pulse in my desk but when I need to cut paper I reach for the 99 cent Office Depot scissors or an Exacto knife.
 
Of the SAK or Multitool scissors owned, I like the LM micra the best (which is not suppressing since the scissors are the main tool).

The LM scissors on the Wave and the PST II are also very good with a strong spring design and fairly long cutting stroke.

While I generally prefer, Vic SAKs, I do like the Wenger scissors better because they have a stronger spring. The Wenger scissors are small and serrated – not the best design for stuff like paper and thin cardboard, but they work very well on harder to cut materials.

The Vic’s scissors are ok for light duty use, but the spring is the weak link, tending to pop out or break in heavy duty use, but hey if they are good enough for the Swiss special forces guys…..

I didn’t like Gerber/Fiskars scissors on their multitools at all – they managed to combine a flimsy design with very small cutting stroke that doesn’t cut well.

The worst that I have tried was the Schrade Tough Chip, this is a scissor tool like the Micra, but bigger. I had hoped that the Schrade’s size would allow it to handle materials which would give the Mira a hard time – it turned out that the Tough Chip was usesless for anything harder to cut than paper.




- Frank
 
Just as a side note I just recently noticed that my Supertinker has a small recess to prevent the spring sliding off the top moving scissor arm. This is a big improvement over my Swisschamp scissors and avoids annoying spring slippage.

I've always found SAK scissors very good for fine cutting work as long as you don't abuse them. If I need to cut a tougher material, I choose a better tool for the job. Simple.
 
I don't abuse them!!!!
But somehow the wire always gets disengaged.
I will admit I'm not most careful person in the world,
but I don't think I did anything out of the ordinary (at all)

And I did finally find an end to my dilemna.
The manager at the knife show said he did testing on fishing line, and the Micra beat the Crosscut mercilessly.
So that is what I now own.
Thank for your input, everyone.
 
nim.,
Victorinox and Wenger both share the contract for the swiss army knife (Victorinox since 1890, wenger since 1893, both share contract since 1908). As far as quality? they both are good! personally I prefer victorinox. Both are real sak's. They are both made in switzerland, Wenger in Delemont, Victorinox in Ibach.

As far as scissors are concerned wenger, and victorinox made scissors are different. Victorinox uses the wire spring, wenger uses a small bar that works off the mainspring. Ive never had a problem with either. I think Ive had two wire springs break on a couple victorinox, one on a classic, the other on a champion (?) in the last 19 years (?).
 
Well I prefer Wenger. The one and only Wenger I have had was great and I loved it. Victorinox junk I never liked they have always been dull and stiff compared to the Wenger.
 
really? dull? Ive never had a problem with victorinox being sharp, or easy to sharpen :confused:
 
Originally posted by Nimravus
Well I prefer Wenger. The one and only Wenger I have had was great and I loved it. Victorinox junk I never liked they have always been dull and stiff compared to the Wenger.
Click to expand...


Victorinox junk ?????

You must be using a different Victorinox brand to me ! Every one of mine are easy to sharpen, smooth to open and are as good as the day I bought them.

Which Victorinox have you been using ?

Although I prefer Victorinox in overall finish, Wenger are a very fine knives too.
 
The original company that produced Swiss Army knives (SAKS) began in Switzerland (of course). The Swiss Government wanted a standard issue Army knife in 1886. Victorinox a few blade smiths from a German-swiss town filled this demand in 1890. Wegner which started in a Swiss-French town made a Swiss army knife in the late 1890's. Lawsuits broke out, Victorinox won the cases, but Wegner could simply move to France and open up shop there and do whatever the hell they wanted. So they both settled, Victorinox wanted to be called the "Original" swiss army knife and Wegner could call themselves the "Genuine" swiss army knife. So indeed Victorinox made it first, but Wegner made a copy. Wegner seems to be moving to Serrated blades, scissors and becoming more cost effective. Victorinox is sticking to PE everything expect on there only one hander and the saws.
 
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