Why no Victorinox Steel Upgrade?

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Frailer said:
The answer is the damasteel blade increased the base price roughly tenfold.



Exactly.

Unfortunately the rapid influx of new folks into the “knife culture,” combined with the proliferation of Internet forums and YouTube reviewers extolling modern “supersteels” as *objectively* better (apparently many of them work in places with tiny cardboard recycling bins that have them slashing a *lot* cardboard) have created echo chambers filled with folks who believe their opinion to be the most correct one.

For the record, I have no ill will toward anyone in the hobby, nor do I begrudge them their search for the ideal knife or best-formulated steel for their needs. I sincerely wish them all the best.

I just wish they’d stop trying to make me agree with them.
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I am not trying to get you to agree with me. I am saying that you have the knife that you want. Why are you against me asking for the knife I want. I appreciate the fit and finish of SAK’s, their variety of tools, and their value for price. I just want one blade with a better steel. It’s not the end of the company or the world.
I can afford a premium blade because I don’t chew. If you want cheap knives so you can spend more on tobacco, that's your prerogative. Just don't tell me Victorinox will go belly up if they offer a premium blade.
I bet you guys were disappointed when Victorinox switched from Flint to 1.4100.
Also Damasteel blades don't cut any better than the standard blades.
 
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tiguy7 said:
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I am not trying to get you to agree with me. I am saying that you have the knife that you want. Why are you against me asking for the knife I want.
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I’m not. Re-read what I wrote. I in no way begrudge you seeking what you want. There are any number of people who would make such a thing for you...for a price.

I just want one blade with a better steel. It’s not the end of the company or the world.
I can afford a premium blade because I don’t chew. If you want cheap knives so you can spend more on tobacco, that's your prerogative. Just don't tell me Victorinox will go belly up if they offer a premium blade.
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Again, “better” is a subjective term. You want a different steel. We are in agreement that doing so would not cause Victorinox to go belly up. But what you fail to mention is what advantage would doing so provide to Victorinox? “Not going bankrupt” is—I suspect—an insufficient motive. They would sell you a knife, and they would probably sell them to several thousand other folks as well. But this would represent a minuscule drop in the extraordinarily large global bucket that is Victorinox’s market, at the cost of changing their highly efficient manufacturing processes.

I don’t know where the tobacco non sequitur comes from.

I bet you guys were disappointed when Victorinox switched from Flint to 1.4100.
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This is what I’m objecting to. Sneering at those who disagree.
 
image.jpeg You’re telling me not to bug Victorinox for a better blade. I would prefer to have the SAK package for many of the reasons you like it. Victorinox is already experimenting with Damascus blades. I am trying to nudge them to angle for performance rather than showpieces.
They make an Executive Model with 18kt Gold handles and hundreds of Diamonds for $75,000. It has about 33 cents worth of steel in it. For that kind dough, I would like to see an improvement in performance.
In post 96, afishhunter talks about keeping SAK prices low because he is stretching his income to cover tubes of chew. Could have done better job of referencing this post. He also says that Victorinox knows what they are doing. I don't completely agree. When you make a $75,000 knife that has the same steel as flea market knives that were confiscated by TSA and are being resold for a couple bucks, I say the world is upside down.
I was just having little fun with cave man knife. It is hard to sneer when your tongue is in your cheek.
 
When you say, “There are any number of people who would make such a thing for you,” it sounds like you are steering me away from Victorinox. Thanks for the link.
 
I’m saying that if there is something you want in life you have the choice of going to get it or waiting for someone to bring it to you.

It’s like Dr. Phil says: “Do you want to be right, or do you want it to be happy?”
 
If the MKM version of the SAK would offer some different tools (I don’t need a corkscrew and a fork) it would be the answer to this.
 
Currently I do not have any knives with special upgraded steel, that is not to say I won't someday. I have a jar that gets my pocket change at the end of every day and when it gets full I think I am going to acquire a Leek composite blade knife. Not so much that I have a need for the steel upgrade that I know of, it is more like scratching an itch. I will be using it to satisfy my curiosity in an attempt to prove to myself, one way or another, if steel upgrades are really worth the added expense in the blade and equipment to sharpen them. Granted, I suspect the Leek is likely not most peoples first choice for a steel upgrade and for me it is the fact that I like the Leek blade shape as I lean towards straight or near straight cutting edges similar to a traditional Wharncliffe, lambs foot or rope knifes for most tasks, cutting steak being a regular exception. That is not to say I dislike other blade designs. My personal history, if examined over my 68 years, would show that for nearly all of those years a Schrade Cattleman would settle down into the bottom of my right front pants pocket on a daily basis until recently when I discovered an old SAK Champion (b) in a toolbox that I did not know I had. (see >>> https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/the-non-knife-nut-knife.1728592/#post-19751586 <<< for further explanation) It may be my rural upbringing by people that went off to and survived wars, the Spanish flu, the Great Depression and knew the hardships that those things brought as well as other events that brought the same or perhaps Mom's ancestors from Scotland and their well known tight purse strings, but, if I had $75,000.00 laying around and a gold, diamond studded Swiss Army Knife seemed to tickle my fancy and felt I should be getting more bang for my bucks, I am pretty sure I would be letting someone else acquire that pretty SAK while I would do something more practical with the cash. I am afraid I would get something a little newer than my 1999 model year pickup with 112,000 miles on it that is getting ever more difficult to find parts for, pay someone to fix the "T" key on this laptop computer that doesn't work often enough and donate the remaining $55K to my favorite charity ... before I check out. Please know that this is not intended to show scorn for anyone or a knife blade steel. The ability to achieve most anything is what makes America great and what trips my trigger might not trip yours. Heck, I have been known to spend what most would consider too much money on fine British double shotguns from the earlier part of the last century and I still have my 1969 MGB Roadster that I bought in 1977 that now has 23,000+ miles on it. None of us are getting out of here alive so enjoy it while you can ... the clock is running. ;^)
 
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tiguy7 said:
It's not Gold plated, it's solid 18kt Gold.
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You know you forced me to re-read that ... hahaha! Thank you for pointing that out. It sure is a pretty knife! I am pretty sure if I owned it I would not be gutting deer with it though. ;^)
 
Hairy Clipper said:
It sure is a pretty knife! I am pretty sure if I owned it I would not be gutting deer with it though. ;^)
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You guys do know that that's kind of the point. Whichever steel was used for the blade won't matter because whoever buys it will most likely never use it. It will simply be a piece to show off.

@tiguy: I've said it before but it seems that the point did not get across. The point of vast majority of these responses is not whether we think or not that Victorinox could provide an upgraded steel, but rather that *we understand why* they haven't done so. Please reread the answers from the latter perspective.
 
I am not understanding the logic of dissuading Victorinox from upping their game via short runs. There are at least 30 widely available steels that outperform 1.4100.
 
tiguy7 said:
I am not understanding the logic of dissuading Victorinox from upping their game via short runs. There are at least 30 widely available steels that outperform 1.4100.
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I don't think anyone (or at least the vast majority of folks) here is trying to dissuade Victorinox from upping their game in any way. Again, that was not the question. The question is (verbatim from the original post): "Why does Victorinox not upgrade the steel in SAKs?" And most answers have been largely from the perspective of why we think that they haven't, not that we think that they shouldn't. Even when the answers have steered toward why maybe they shouldn't, if you read carefully you'll find because there is elements of price and functionality that folks have come to expect from them that we would not like to sacrifice, not which steel is used. If Victorinox where to improve their steel in a way that does not change those price and functionality tenets then, personally, I would welcome the change, and I would agree with you that it would be silly not to.

Regarding the special runs, since they've done them before, I really don't know why. But remember that you can always submit the idea.
 
Hypothetically, say they did try upgrading, itd only be worth it if they were to squeeze all the performance out of the steel they could. Running any of these modern steels on the soft side for the sake of easy sharpening would be pointless...unfortunately that’s something I can see happening.
 
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