Wenger SAK's, why the bad wrap?

[sergemaster]

Amici,
If you were a first-time prospective SAK purchaser, and as a part of your research you were to use a search engine on both  Victorinox and Wenger regarding the better SAK, you will receive dozens of hits of postings in various knife forums and usually the post is the same.

Victorinox is the superior brand of SAK, and Wenger is of a lesser quality in both performance and material.

My question is why does Wenger constantly get a bad wrap when their products are just as good as that of Victorinox? Personally I prefer Wenger for it's size and and innovative designs, and cannot recall any instance when a Wenger has failed me during use. So again I ask the question, why the bad wrap?

Cheers,
Serge   

[ducttapetech]

I like both, but usually Vics is a little better fit and finish. There are a few other differences like the awl on the vic is sharp where as Wenger in not. Tooth picks tend to brake on the wengers. But on the other hand, Wenger is more innovative, locking blades and screw drivers and evo scales.

[P35]

they can't both be #1

[Gareth]

There does seem to have been a period where Wenger's QC wasn't up to scratch. I picked up a second hand Wenger that was woeful. Fortunately this isn't the case any more.

Often overlooked, is that we tend to compare 85mm Wengers to 91mm Vics, so people often say the springs feel different or softer. If you compare Wenger to the 84mm Vic then the difference isn't there IMO.

I truly can't see any difference in fit and finish between a modern Wenger and Vic.  Yes there are obvious differences between some of the tools; blunt or sharp awl, can openers, blade profiles etc but that's a question of taste rather than better/worse.

[Cleanser]

I prefer wenger scissors
I prefer vic tweezers
I don't like how wenger puts nail files on everything in place of a small blade.

my perfect SAK would combine elements of both.

I think the preference has to do with marketing.  My first pocket knife was a victorinox. Vic has deals with boyscout and has for a long time so that many boy's first knife (especially if they are a boy scout) is a Vic.  People have fond feelings for their first..

[kirk13]

As an EDC I think an Evogrip 18 is very hard to beat,and the EvoWoods are just brilliant.Its only hanging out with you guys that has swung me more to Vic,mostly cos of the bigger range and the modding side of things.

[Tyler_]

The Wenger's backsprings are pathetically weak on the new ones I have.  I have the Evo 63 and the Wenger Picnic.  Barely any walk or talk.  Both pale in comparison to their Vic equivalents the Waiter and Bantam.  That said I do own the Wenger Standard Issue and it is just a good as the Vic soldier.

[Chako]

I tend to like Wenger a little more than Victorinox, from a purely collector point of view, due to their quirkiness. Vics do have a better fit and finish overall though.

[Mr. Whippy]

Totally love my Wenger S557.  Great SAK.  The scissors, pliers, alligator wrench and inline phillips are brilliant.

I also really like the Large Mountain bike, and Minathor.

I ALSO think the Wenger Business Tool is topnotch.

The things I like better about Victorinox:  The can opener, Cybertool driver and pen in the scales.  I also like the fact that Victorinox are easier to mod.

[enki_ck]

I for one am a big Wenger fan. I prefer them to Victorinox, and have said so here often. My favourite is the forester/evo 17. Wenger was and still is the more inovative of the two. Wengers have much better scissors and pliers, locking screwdrivers, locking blades on a 85mm sak, toothpics and tweesers which are much harder to loose than Vics, IMO better can opener, and I prefer to have a nail file instaid of the extra small blade. The fact is the springs on the old ones were a bit weaker than Vics. Not anymore. And the markerting of Victorinox was far better than Wengers. If given the choice, I would choose Wenger any day. 

[Gadget Guy]

I think its because people simply don't know any better.    I use and like both very much. I don't like some of the cheap swiss cross logos that Wenger uses, other than that I really don't have a problem with Wenger at all.    In fact, I just picked up a couple of 111mm Wengers with stonewashed blades and I thought they were really cool. I would love to see both Victorinox and Wenger offer stonewashed blades...

[Vemo]

Until recently I was a Victorinox man. I think the only Wenger I owned was a very useful Watchmaker 85. Then I got the SOSAK 2010 knife of the year, a Wenger EvoWood 18. I started using this as my EDC and just love it. The timber scales make it durable and tools are exactly what I need. The can opener was a bit stiff at first but apart from that I've had no problems. The blades don't seem to have the brilliant shiny chrome like polish on them that Victorinox has.
Since then I've discovered the quirkiness of the Wenger, the Business Tool, the Minathor - they even make an oboe reed making knife and one for the Bernina sewing machine! Now I'm waiting on a Pocketgrip... 

[Stirling3749]

I wouldn't know. I only go with Victorinox and that's because I had heard that the fit, finish and overall quality are better so maybe that's part of the reason Wenger doesn't get as much attention, folks are told one is better than the other.
But then where does that information originally come from? Bit of a chicken and egg thing here.

[KiwiMark]

I bought a Victorinox specifically because I read about a new model and it sounded like it would be a GREAT tool for what I did.  It was an article over 10 & a 1/2 years ago in ZDNet about the brand new Victorinox Cybertool (since then new variants have been made so it is now called the Cybertool 34).  So I enquired at a local Victorinox stockist, they hadn't heard of it but said they would ask the rep about it.  When they contacted me to say it was available and gave me the price I said "get me it" and they did.  Since I got a hold of it I have EDCed it for the last 10.5 years and have no reason to swap it to anything else.

Since I have been so happy with my first Victorinox I haven't had a reason to try other brands so I have bought another 4 Victorinox SAKs (but the Cybertool 34 remains my EDC) and a Victorinox SwissTool X but no Wenger SAKs. Perhaps this is quite common, people get a Victorinox and like it so much that they never try another brand of SAK.  The most common SAK recommendation on bladeforums seems to be the Victorinox Farmer (I bought one, it is a great SAK) - start with that and what reason do you have to ever look at another brand?

If more people got a good Wenger for their 1st or 2nd SAK then they would probably be happy with either brand, maybe I'll buy a Wenger and see what it is like at some point.

[Gareth]

That's a very good point, Victorinox are far more readily available here as well.  I've only just recently had a shop open near me that actually stocks a range Wenger knives.  Before that I'd of had to go to a different city altogether just to have a look at one.  A good number of shops stock at least a basic range of Vic however.

[AimlessWanderer]

For me Victorinox always seemed to be the popular choice, probably due to availability. It was many years before I tried either though, the first being a Vic Tourist which I fell in love with straight away, and I've bought several Vics since. Wenger for some reason seemed to be the underdog for a few reasons, but that changed when I got my first item from them - a Swissgrip! What an impressive bit of kit!

Recently my EDC Deluxe Tinker has been replaced by a Motorist, and keychain carry is a stainless Pocket Tool Chest. Both manufacturers have their strengths, and as mentioned before it's mainly down to personal preference. I think for the uninitiated Wenger can come across as very gimmicky - they certainly were for me - but I've now got 5 wenger pieces and love them. I still love the Vic's too though, and have been more than happy with offerings from both camps.

I still say Vic has the superior fit and finish, but love Wengers innovation and design (and smaller size). I think Victorinox is a good way to get someone introduced to the joys of a SAK, with maybe Wenger being a follow up choice. Wengers softer backsprings and quirkiness of design might not always grab a first time SAK user. I suppose it's a bit like most people get introduced to (or into drinking) white wine before red wine ... but now I'm happy with a bottle of either rattling down my gullet   

[enki_ck]

That's a very good point, Victorinox are far more readily available here as well.  I've only just recently had a shop open near me that actually stocks a range Wenger knives.  Before that I'd of had to go to a different city altogether just to have a look at one.  A good number of shops stock at least a basic range of Vic however.

For me it's the other way around. When I was a kid, there were 2, 3 shops in my town that had Wengers, and only one with Vics. Now there are no more Wengers, and if i can find one the prices are much higher than Victorinox. Actualy I noticed wengers beeing priced higher all over the web too.

[Carlos]

I've got the wenger s54 and the vic swisschamp, which should be the equivalent models on both ranges. While the swisschamp is, for me, an all around tool, the s54 is more of a collector tool, with not that much practical use: too wide and some of the tools have quirky designs. Examples:
- the wenger magnifier has a small screwdriver on the end, which limits its reach to about 8mm. And that's an whole layer just for that;
- the wenger ruler+compass is just too big and bulky: it wastes 3 whole layers;
- another plus for the vic is the amount of tools they've loaded on the "backside": the swisschamp has 5 implements, corkscrew, chisel, screwdriver, hook and awk, while the s54 has only 2, corkscrew and awl, which gives more "tool density" to the vic.

Don't get me wrong, I do like wenger's. Comparing the s54 with the swisschamp I miss the wrench tool, the locking blade and philips. But really that's it. For all other tools I prefer the vic's counterparts (even the scissors, note).

Another factor which I think has been important to the vic predominance is the "innovation target". While wenger targets their innovations for the collector and/or specialized user, just see the recent titanium models, vic does it for the masses, with examples like those electronics gimmicks (voyager, traveller), led lighting, cybertools, and so on.

[Stirling3749]

As far as availability, I find that way more non knife stores are packing Wengers only.
Pretty much the only place around me that offers Victorinox knives is House of knives and it's pretty much a 50/50 mix of Wenger and Victorinox and all the watches/pens are Wenger.