Talk:Swiss Army knife

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Apparently, 9/11 has caused the SWAK market to go down as they are now confiscated at every airport. This is why Wenger went near bancrupt and was bought out by Victorinox. More information can be found in this german Spiegel article Dabljuh 09:05, 1 September 2005 (UTC)

Recently, the german army has ordered a great ammount of SWAKS to substitute the knive currently in use which was never very reliable. Source: DIE ZEIT 33/2005 p. 57 ("Die dritte Hand")

1 Officer knives
2 Fiber??
3 See also: switchblade
4 Manufacturers:duplicate
5 SwAK
6 Wenger S.A.K. Image
7 Shields
8 Swiss Army
9 Swiss Military Issue
10 Discussion group/forum
11 MacGyver
12 Duplicate Content
13 introduction
14 Swiss Army Knife scales
15 wrong logo
16 Roman precursor to the swiss army knife
17 The new Swiss Military standard issue knife?
18 'Trivia' template deleted

[edit] Officer knives

Swiss officer knives are not red. They just get the same knife as everyone else, Source: A swiss officer

According to the german version of the article (http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schweizer_Taschenmesser) the knive used by the swiss amry has an aluminium handle. A (copyrighted) picture of the knive can be seen here: http://www.victorinox.com/newsite/en/produkte/produktdetails/detail.cfm?pid=0-8610-26

Is there any truth to the story that Swiss Army officers are issued with a model boasting a corkscrew, and other ranks a (beer) bottle opener only?LessHeard vanU 20:36, 1 April 2006 (UTC)

There is no truth to this rumour. Everybody gets issued the same aluminium-handle knife, regardless of rank, and there is no corkscrew included. I am an officer of the Swiss Army myself, so I should know...

I heard the red SAK with corkscrew was intended for comissioned officers, but wasn't accepted by the military administration. Apokrif 19:13, 23 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Fiber??

In 1896 ... he added a second blade and a corkscrew, and replaced the wooden handle with red fiber, making it last longer.

What would "fiber" mean in 1896 -- or today, come to that? Surely the red (plastic) handles are a recent thing? Flapdragon 12:14, 30 August 2005 (UTC)

I always assumed it was tough cloth, but now come to think of it, would tough cloth outlast wood? --Bash 05:22, 14 November 2005 (UTC)

[edit] See also: switchblade

I don't see what switchblades has to do with the Swiss Army knife, besides being another knife. Wouldn't Leatherman or Gerber be more relevant under "see also"? I suggest removing it. Bergsten 11:20, 22 September 2005 (UTC)

Good idea. Done. Flapdragon 21:31, 23 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Manufacturers:duplicate

Both the Victorinox and Wenger and the manufacturers have an entry dealing with the recent merging. Please concatenate.Reply to David Latapie 09:12, 27 October 2005 (UTC)

[edit] SwAK

i think that the abbreviation SwAK is used to designate another knife, one made by Frost , from Mora, and is a fixed blade knife with a green plastic handle, and SwAK means Swedish Army Knife, just my 2 cents ;) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 201.255.17.10 (talk • contribs) at 02:20, 8 November 2005 moved here from main article

[edit] Wenger S.A.K. Image

Can't someone get an image of a Wenger Swis Army Knife? All the pictures in the article have Victorinox knives, yet they are not the only brand mentioned.--200.44.7.123 02:29, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

there's one in the wenger article, not sure if it needs to be copied here though. --User24 03:06, 6 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Shields

"Victorinox cross is surrounded by a shield with bilateral symmetry" Actually, besides the logo one sees in the article, there are Victorinox knives with a simpler logo (a rounded triangle). Apokrif 19:17, 23 June 2006 (UTC)

From the opening paragraph of the article: The handle is usually red, and features a white cross, the emblem of Switzerland. Maybe I'm being nitpicky, but the cross is steel or "silver", not white. I suggest a change to The handle is usually red, and features a silver cross within a silver shield, indicative of a white cross on a red background, the emblem of Switzerland. Highlander3751 04:49, 5 December 2006 (UTC)

Go for it. Flapdragon 13:28, 5 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Swiss Army

Any pictures of the version actually used by the Swiss Army? --Joffeloff 17:32, 16 July 2006 (UTC)

Look for the Victorinox "soldier" model in a store (don't know how Wenger calls them, anyway it must be the same grey handles with 4 tools). Apokrif 17:50, 16 July 2006 (UTC)

Not a big deal but the picture : version supplied to the Swiss Army is NOT the army- issued model (nail file instead of a punch). However [1] is. Could someone fix this? 128.178.26.187 14:52, 29 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Swiss Military Issue

The knives issued to the Swiss Military are respectively -

Victorinox "Soldier" (model # 0.8610.26)

http://www.victorinox.ch/index.cfm?page=234&lang=E

Wenger "Swiss Army 70" aka "Standard Issue" (or Soldat in Europe) (US model #16520)

http://www.wenger-knife.ch/scripts/modules/Wenger_Products/page879532.html

there are pictures on the respective pages.

I have a photo showing both versions -

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v249/UnknownVincent/SAK/WengStdIss_VicSold.jpg

Vincent 15:39, 8 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Discussion group/forum

A useful resource is SOSAK - short for "Secret Order of SAK" -

http://knifeforums.com/forums/showforum.php?fid/32/

to register/join - post at -

http://knifeforums.com/forums/showforum.php?fid/31/

Vincent 15:39, 8 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] MacGyver

Which brand did MacGyver use, Victorinox or Wenger? madoka 09:42, Nov 8, 2004 (UTC)

According to http://www.answers.com/topic/macgyver, different models for different episodes - models identified are Victorinox Tinker, Explorer, Executive, Sportsman, Climber, and Wenger Traveler, plus some non-production models. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by UnknownVT (talk • contribs) 12:31, 11 October 2006.

Actually that's according to Wikipedia, as Answers.com is a mirror of it. Bloodshedder 17:44, 11 October 2006 (UTC)

As a former heavy-duty MacGyver fan, I will testify to seeing him use different models in the same episode. How he managed to get a spare knife in the African savannah is beyond me. Highlander3751 04:44, 5 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Duplicate Content

There is repeated content from wenger and victorinox in the 'history' section, and 'features' section. I'll probably do something about this which will end up in a much shorter article but with links to wenger and victorinox at some point, unless anyone has any objections. --User24 03:15, 6 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] introduction

... around 1920, right before W.W.I. Ouch. Deleted the last part. The german version also has another date. --84.72.163.173

[edit] Swiss Army Knife scales

The plastic cladding is usually opaque but may be transparent; metal and wood-clad models are available.

Really? I looked at victorinox.com and swissarmy.com and couldn't find them. The only SAKs with metal scales are the ALOX models, I haven't seen any with wooden scales.--Auspx 02:25, 17 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] wrong logo

i have never seen this "swiss army" logo before. maybe because it's just a fake and doesn't exist. it's definitively not a logo of the swiss army and i strongly doubt that any industrial company would use a logo stating swiss army due to copyright reasons. --157.161.36.240 19:43, 20 February 2007 (UTC)

I have suspected this too. The real swiss army knife is both made by victorinix and wenger, and the logo only has the victorinox emblem. --Philo

10:58, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Roman precursor to the swiss army knife

The Romans had tools very similar to the Swiss army knife (information here: [2]). Might be of interest to mention in the origins section. --Steerpike (talk) 10:19, 19 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] The new Swiss Military standard issue knife?

Can anyone confirm which knife and which manufacturer was awarded the contract for the new official army knife known as the Soldatenmsser 08? I have received conflicting information. Koalorka (talk) 04:17, 17 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] 'Trivia' template deleted

A 'trivia' template was on the 'Popular Culture' section. I deleted the 'trivia' template since the guidelines on WP:TRIVIA specifically reccommend Trivia be moved to 'References in popular culture' sections as we have here.Filceolaire (talk) 13:00, 2 June 2008 (UTC)