SAK Urban Chameleon Series

mazdaspeed6 · **on:** January 20, 2013, 01:41:03 PM

Does anyone have any information on the SAK Urban Chameleon series?

I have been searching the internet and have found little information on these knives. They seem to be incredibly rare. The extent of the information I have found is that they are waiter/barkeeper knives with special scales (many of them synthetic furs) produced as a joint effort between Victorinox and an graphic design firm in 1999. Any information I have found indicates that they were only sold in ONE catalog in 1999.

Thanks

Grant Lamontagne · **Reply #1 on:** January 20, 2013, 01:45:16 PM

I have half the series and I know who has the other half. That is the only complete set I know of that was ever produced.

They were indeed waiter or bartender models. I'll provide some links to articles I wrote as soon as I get back to a computer assuming no one beats me to it.

Def

Sent from my Motorola Atrix digital multitool.

mazdaspeed6 · **Reply #2 on:** January 20, 2013, 02:01:23 PM

Thanks!

Any info would be appreciated. Which ones do you have? It looks like there's 28 of them? I'd love to know what was going through the heads of those who designed them.

mazdaspeed6 · **Reply #3 on:** January 20, 2013, 02:14:31 PM

Oh, and by only one complete series, do you mean that only one of each knife was produced? My wife really likes the Big Cat knife (go figure) and I'm trying to figure out if it is worth my time to keep looking for it.

Thanks

enki_ck · **Reply #4 on:** January 20, 2013, 02:31:00 PM

Here's Grant's part with links to SOSAK articles to some of the models.

http://forum.multitool.or....msg493885.html#msg493885

And Karl's part.

http://forum.multitool.or....msg533355.html#msg533355

And the SAKwiki page for the series.

http://www.sakwiki.com/tiki-index.php?page=Victorinox+Urban+Chameleon+Series

mazdaspeed6 · **Reply #5 on:** January 20, 2013, 03:55:20 PM

Thank you all for the information, Reason I ask is a collector in our local paper is selling his knife collection and he has a bunch of these chameleon knives new in packages that he will be getting arid of. I've just started to collect SAK's recently and could not find much information on pricing as to what I should offer or pay the guy as I do not want to over pay. Its too bad the guy doesn't have them all, I think he has 17 out of the 28 and he doesn't have the "Big Cat" one. I'm thinking about buying them all from this guy if the price is right and spending time trying to acquire the missing 11. Is there any other knives you guys would recommend be must haves for my collection?

Thank you

Grant Lamontagne · **Reply #6 on:** January 20, 2013, 08:24:09 PM

Thanks for posting the links for me!

Other than the above, I have never seen these for sale. I would be very interested in any I am missing that might be available from the gentleman you mentioned.

Def

Sent from my Motorola Atrix digital multitool.

mazdaspeed6 · **Reply #7 on:** January 20, 2013, 08:53:02 PM

Hi,

Which ones are you looking for? I'm going to the guys house tomorrow night to look at his collection. Any approximate idea of the value or what I should be paying?

Thank you
Derek

ColoSwiss · **Reply #8 on:** January 20, 2013, 09:13:25 PM

Hi Derek,

I have six of the Urban Chameleons. Def has most of the rest in the series. Believe our ultimate source was the same. I bought mine, along with 50-60 other SAKs, from a long-time collector who was getting out of the hobby. Believe he had lived in Switzerland for many years. After I and several other collectors had picked over his knives, he sold the remaining lot, including most of the Urban Chameleons, to a member of SOSAK, who in turn parted then out to others, including Def.

Other than the ones Def and I have, I've only seen a few show up on ebay. They may be more common in Europe, but are definitely rare in the US.

Karl

Urban Chameleons (top two rows), along with some Coach leathers and Michel Jourdis.

Grant Lamontagne · **Reply #9 on:** January 20, 2013, 09:23:36 PM

Quote from: mazdaspeed6 on January 20, 2013, 08:53:02 PM

Hi,

Which ones are you looking for? I'm going to the guys house tomorrow night to look at his collection. Any approximate idea of the value or what I should be paying?

Thank you
Derek

Karl would have a better idea of what they are worth as he's seen others for sale. I have not, and so I can only say what I paid for them, and I'm not even 100% certain I have that number exactly right- it was a few years ago and I tend to buy an awful lot of knives and tools. I believe I paid somewhere around $20/knife, but I'd consider up to about $30 per. Individually I might go higher, but as a set (or part thereof) that's where I'd sit. While these are quite rare they are not exactly high demand items as they are a bit..... absurd.

Def

Sent from my Motorola Atrix digital multitool.

mazdaspeed6 · **Reply #10 on:** January 20, 2013, 09:27:14 PM

Thanks for the information Karl. Any idea what they sold on ebay for or ball park pricing I should be paying?

Def, yes they are surely unique!

ColoSwiss · **Reply #11 on:** January 20, 2013, 09:32:47 PM

I paid $25 each for mine. That was years ago. At the time I had never heard of them. Don't recall what they went for on ebay.

As Def said, a bit absurd. Also kind of fun and fairly rare. Totally impractical as a user, but every SAK collection should have one as a conversation piece.

Karl

Grant Lamontagne · **Reply #12 on:** January 23, 2013, 02:47:07 AM

Did you get anywhere with the seller?

Def

marduk · **Reply #13 on:** January 23, 2013, 03:48:22 AM

One is on ebay right now for a price of $250, the Chord Jester. The seller is from Conneticut. Interesting, no?

Grant Lamontagne · **Reply #14 on:** January 23, 2013, 03:49:32 AM

Not at that price, at least not to me.

Def

Sent from my Motorola Atrix digital multitool.

ColoSwiss · **Reply #15 on:** January 23, 2013, 03:56:31 AM

Quote from: marduk on January 23, 2013, 03:48:22 AM

One is on ebay right now for a price of $250, the Chord Jester. The seller is from Conneticut. Interesting, no?

That seems to happen fairly regularly. There'll be a discussion of some odd SAK here on the chat room, and a week or so later several will show up on ebay. Wonder why?