This is my first swiss army knife. I did own one when i was a kid, but its lost now, and was not the swiss champ. I do remember that they were heavy duty multi tools...strong. That is why I was OK with buying this one as my first. I knew it would be good.
I dont plan on this being a swiss VS leatherman post, but this is just what i use and able to compare it to.
I own a leatherman wave that i have all the little accessories for. My leatherman i see as more industrial tool, because the heavy duty pliers, the extra number of bits, I actually have the victorinix tweezers, pen, and knife sharpener, flashlight, ferro rod, bit entension, all the extra bits in my leatherman sheath too. All of that and more, which makes a puffy leather pouch, and heavy. Not ideal for quick grab and go. I often worrying about losing pieces out of the pouch. But in an industrial environment, that is OK, because i most likely will find it again.
I see the swiss champ as more when your going out in the woods. I dont really need heavy duty pliers, nor various bits types and sizes. It is one unit. I dont have to worry about losing pieces out of it. I just throw the thing in my pocket, or clip it on my keychain/pants/backpack.
MODS:
I removed the toothpick as i find that quite gross to reuse. I shaped a ferro rod to about the same size as the toothpick. Fits perfectly. It wont get more than 100 strikes, needs support when striking, was a pain to make (i busted a couple figuring out how to make it) but it would do good in an emergency. At least better than a toothpick, i think. I am not sure why they dont already have ferro rods in them.
I stuffed 1/2 cotton ball down under the phillips, since there was extra space and it did not hinder the movement of tools beside it. This is wrapped within a fish hook.
I cut a second pin hole alongside the original pin location. I added a sewing needle to this new spot. I cut too big of a section, so sometimes the needle falls outwards. Luckily i placed the hole directly behind the corkscrew, the needle only comes out a 1/16" then hits the corkscrew and stops.
I filed down the inner mouth of the cap lifter to allow it to scrape firesteel. All i did was rough it up and make a nice sharp edge on the mouth. The mouth is wide enough to accommodate 1/4 inch thick and smaller firesteels.
I added a drop of super glue to the scales to help hold them on. As they were wobbling after a few times of taking the scales off in attempt of trying to find places to put things. There is another spot under the scales to add a half of toothpick or more of materials. You could fit some char cloth in there. I was attempting to fit a fish hook and line under the scales. However you would have to cut a lot of plastic support beams under the scales and i feared that if i gripped it hard and worked the knife, that the scales might break, so i didnt attempt it.
The latest mod i did, was swap the scales from the swiss champ with a traveller i bought on ebay. I had to drill a hole to accommodate a part protruding inwards on the swiss. This enhanced the usability by adding a clock to the scales while retaining the tweezers, pin, pen, and toothpick. PS I broke the alarm clock gong because i was not aware of its presence when removing the scales form the original traveller. If you do this the gong is under the button. Only pull the scales up near the pivet points to avoid damage to the electronic components. Clock still works, and that is mainly what i wanted.
CONS:
The one thing i wish it had some a ferro rod.
There is no real good wire cutter. The pliers has a small one. I tried cutting a 12/2 wire with it and they cut 1/4 into it, I ended up just wiggling it back and forth to snap it instead. The wire cutters are small for things like individual phone lines, etc.
Im still not sure about the pliers. I used them successfully to remove the inside of a chamber of a peanut lighter that was stuck, but on the other hand i could not bend 12/2 wire to certain shapes. They are kind of the thing that you think "Im not sure if they would work or if i need to go get real pliers".
The magnifying glasses now are plastic. But that is with every swiss knife since 2007.
The main blade's fingernail groove on the spine (i feel) is on the wrong side. It is facing inwards towards the other tools instead of outwards towards the scales. This would not matter if the blade was in the middle but since it is on the edge closest to the scales, it is a little hard to get out compared to the small blade WHICH does have the groove on the side of the scales. TL;DR The fingernail groove on the wrong side makes it more hard to get out than it has to be.
I wish the lanyard keyring could retract like the leatherman does.
This is more of a preference. I wish they had the option to insert a clock like the expedition has in the swiss champ, because i would of gotten that one instead.
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PROS:
compact one unit. If you compare a leatherman with the old leather sheath fully equipped with flashlight, bit extension, bits, etc. and the swiss knife by itself, the swisschamp is by far smaller and more portable. At the same time it has more tools than the leatherman, and is only shy the needles nose pliers and hex/star bits.
Solid, incredibly strong mutli tool.
Comes with all the extra accessories (compared to smaller swiss army knives). Tweezers, blue ball point pen, corkscrew eyeglass flat screwdriver, toothpick, and small pin.
Coming from a leatherman, i was a little worried about no locking blade. Now playing around with this and testing it out. My fears are relieved. It takes quit a lot of pressure to move the tools back out of "open state" enough to not worry about safety. Which was my concern.
To pull out a tool is much quicker than the leatherman. (assuming the leatherman is in a leather pouch, and the swiss is in your pocket). No locking tools makes it quickly able to return to close position. Each tool is accessible the moment you pull it out (some tools on the leatherman you have to open the pliers handles, flip the tool you want out, then close the plier handles).
The leatherman does not have an awl. :) I have been missing that. (nor a scraper too)
The leatherman does not have a hook. I, at first, thought this was stupid. However i have come to love this tool when learning/refreshing/using knots with paracord. The hook is just the right size to grab the knot and pull it at part at ease (even when it had hundreds of pounds of tension on it and tightened the knot up hard).
I was worried about the width of this mutlitool. This is probably the maximum size that you can fit into your hand comfortably and still use every tool to its max. I can easily carve with the knife (my biggest worry).
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All in all i am not disappointed. It is worth the 80 bucks. There are many times i foresee that i will take this out as opposed to my leatherman.
UPDATE:
In just months since buying this, I have not left it home once. I even sleep with it in my jeans. It fits nicely in the inner pocket (the 1800's watch pocket) of my jeans. I have used this at least a hundred times. I have used some tools that if i had the chance to swap them out when buying, I would of removed them for something else. I am quite impressed...and glad you are not able to swap tools out as i would of removed some that i now considered needed.
I have only needed my leathermans once in that time frame. And that was to cut heavy 12/2 gauge wire. Luckily i found that the swisschamp can surprisingly cut all 6 gauge wires on my guitar. I really did not think it was going to be able to cut the low E string, that it was too thick to fit in the cutter in the pliers, but it did.
I bought this for camping/hiking, but i am surprised at how many applications it can be used at in industrial.
The quality of this is phenomenal.
UPDATE 2 and REPAIR
I have used a lot of tools that i never thought i would use. I do a lot of hand grooming with the scissors and file. I use the parcel hook to unwrap knots in cordage (mostly 550 paracord). The chisel i use for wood carving and adjusting wood shapes. I have tried to start a fire with the magnifying glass on a hot summer sunny day, but i was unsuccessful. i have used it though to magnify a new capacitor connections that i was soldering in my monitor. I have used the tweezers to pull out a few ticks and wood splinters over the months. I use the needle for poking blisters open and hitting reset buttons. I have used the corkscrew to clean out things with its dull small point. I like having the pen, but i try not to use it unless i have to because they are a few bucks to replace. Its nice to have if you are too lazy to go get one or you forgot one. I wish the ink was optional because i would choose black because some documents require only black ink pens.
I have bent the large flat head screwdriver on a screw in a 100+ year old house that the screw has probably been there since built. The metal twisted a little bit and surprisingly did not mess with the hinges of the tools. I also somehow managed to make the pliers grind together. So they kind of stick instead of freely swinging open and close. I decided that i would send it back to SAK for repair. It cost me $3 to ship to them a couple states away in CT. IT also cost me $5 for them to ship it back to me. It took 2 weeks from the time i made a repair order to the time i received it back. I missed it greatly. After carrying it everyday, you really dont realize how much you use it until you do not have it. I love that i finally have it back. Since not having my SAK, i have went to reach for it at least 20 times only to realize that it is gone. I realized the leatherman hurts my hand when whittling with the knife as opposed to the SAK that fits comfortably in my hand for hours. Unfortunately, they did not fix my knife. The pliers still stick, and the flat head is still bent. All they did was clean my knife and give me an extra toothpick. I am a little PO'd that they did not replace the flat head, and figure out the problem with the pliers grinding. I probably wont ever again send in my knife for repair as every time i do it cost me 1/10th of the price of just buying a new one. Regardless i am still happy to have my knife back.
UPDATE 3 Downfalls of Swiss:
Its been almost a year since buying this. I love it greatly. Dont get me wrong, if i lost it i would buy another instantly. However I have found some major downfalls to the swiss champ.
I do a lot of electrical work and work with 12/2 copper wire. I pretty much find my swiss useless with 12/2 wire. I can cut it, but it takes a lot of work with the small wire cutters on the mini pliers. I have to cut the sides of the wire and bend it to snap the wire. Not ideal. Much easier to go get my regular tools, or a leatherman. I really wish the pliers had a better wire cutter that could easily cut through a single 12/2 wire better.
The up side for leatherman is the interchangeable bits. You can get the bit extension that is basically an adapter to a regular bit size. Let alone get bits for its own size. This basically makes your leatherman into a versatile screwdriver. I wish they did this with the philips. Now i know the cybertool has this, but you lose a ton of other tools by adding this. So if you come across a torx head screw, and all you have is your swiss champ, you are screwed.
That is pretty much why i use my swiss for outdoors/camping/hunting and use my leatherman for commercial/industrial work.
UPDATE 4:
After about 2 years of owning this....i would have to say unfortunately that i dont use it anymore. I love it a lot. But i dont find it economical.
1) The scales keep breaking. This could be the actual scales themselves or the circular hubs that go around and actually attach them to the knife. Yes you could use it without scales, but it hurts your hand like hell. Wihtout the scales it is quite useless as a knife. I have broken these numerous times. I am not doing anything extravagant with them either. Just day to day use. One time i broke the scales by dropping the knife "once" on pavement. Granite it was pavement, but com' on. Even if you had gotten wood scales, they would eventually work their way out of the attachment to the knife. The knife lays out in my car now without one side scales, because i am sick of buying new scales.
2) The Philips head is not interchangeable. Unlike the leatherman's, where you can swap out the Philips for something else, or buy a new one if it broke or buggered up, you cant do that on the swiss. I had mine bend and is a little buggered.Sometimes i need a different size than what is available. The leatherman tool kit allows me swap out for the needed part.
3) everything in the knife requires fingernails. If you dont have them you will have trouble getting out anything. In the leatherman wave you can easily get the knife, saw, pliers, and filer out without nails at all.
4) This is kind of stupid reason but it does actually come into play when you hold a knife day to day. The keyring loop does not retract without modification to the knife. This sometimes gets in the way. Even if you dont have a keyring on it.
The main problems are the scales. As that utters the tool useless if they break. You can work with it, but not long afterwords. My latest is the leatherman wave due to these problems.
UPDATE: I dont use this anymore as the scales broke off and the knife bent a little. I instead use a leatherman as it quite sturdy.
| Color | Red |
|---|---|
| Material | Aluminum |
| Brand | Victorinox |
| Item dimensions L x W x H | 3.58 x 1.06 x 1.3 inches |
| Item Weight | 0.08 Kilograms |
| Included Components | Pocket Knife |
| Number of Pieces | 1 |
| Folded Size | 1.063 inches (l) x 1.3 inches (w) x 3.58 inches (h) |
| Drive System | Centre Drive |
| UPC | 785983908658 046928535019 066519359961 469285350192 |
| Global Trade Identification Number | 07611160100634, 00046928535019 |
| Manufacturer | Victorinox |
| Part Number | 1.6795-X4 |
| Item Weight | 2.82 ounces |
| Product Dimensions | 3.58 x 1.06 x 1.3 inches |
| Country of Origin | Switzerland |
| Item model number | 1.6795-X4 |
| Is Discontinued By Manufacturer | Yes |
| Size | 91 mm |
| Style | SwissChamp |
| Pattern | Multi-Tool |
| Item Package Quantity | 1 |
| Handle Material | Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene |
| Blade Edge | Chisel |
| Usage | Multi Hand Tool |
| Batteries Included? | No |
| Batteries Required? | No |
| Warranty Description | Victorinox guarantees all of its Swiss Army Knives to be of first-class stainless steel, and provides a lifetime guarantee against any defects in material and workmanship. |
