'Swiss Army STYLE knife' review

[Jothra]

Don't get your hopes up too high. If it's all you've got, sure, but these things are pretty high-maintenance if you want them to stay marvy.

[trey]

Hey Jothra, I definitely don't have high hopes.  Just want to play with it for the low price. 

[Jothra]

That's just about the best answer I can think of. Have fun!

[Lynn LeFey]

Trey: NOOOOooooooo!!! You could have used that money to buy a decent cheeseburger!

In all honesty, for VERY short term use, I don't think this tool is as terrible as I often make it out to be in my head.

I WOULD make fun of you (Trey)... except I bought TWO of these things, so I have NO room to criticize.

[trey]

Oh, go ahead and make fun!  I know it's probably garbage, I just want to try it out.  And I wish I could
find a decent cheeseburger for that price.  Most of the good ones are about double that here.  Still haven't seen the knife, maybe soon.

[Lynn LeFey]

At least the deal extreme one for $2.90 doesn't waste space by adding the useless saw and fish scaler. I actually considered picking one of those up.

[Jothra]

At least the deal extreme one for $2.90 doesn't waste space by adding the useless saw and fish scaler. I actually considered picking one of those up.

I'm telling you, if they had swapped the saw and fish scaler out for a French loaf and a Richardson's ground squirrel, they would probably have scored higher in my challenge.

[trey]

I just got mine, what a piece of garbage!  The blade is trash, the scissors barely cut paper the and bottle opener is worthless!  I know you told me, I know but I still thought it might be functional.  Save your money, anybody who might be considering this!!!!

[Lynn LeFey]

Imagine, that $3 would have gotten you a third of the way toward buying a used Tinker.
 

[trey]

Yeah, okay, I deserved that.  Still hard to believe how worthless it is.  Haven't tried the fish scaler yet.

[Grathr]

Yeah, okay, I deserved that.  Still hard to believe how worthless it is.  Haven't tried the fish scaler yet.

Maybe the fish scaler is fantastic! 

[Luna Knife]

Last time I used something like that was a corkscrew that broke off in the cork while camping.  I paid 8 dollars for it at a bait tackle shop.  These give the average person a bad impression of SAKs in general.

[Jothra]

Last time I used something like that was a corkscrew that broke off in the cork while camping.  I paid 8 dollars for it at a bait tackle shop.  These give the average person a bad impression of SAKs in general.

True, though the corkscrew on mine survived pulling nails somehow.

[Lynn LeFey]

Now, for the latest ... astounding... TALES of the PAWN SHOP!

So I walk into a pawn shop today, and they have a little plastic bucket full of used swiss-army-style knives. Most are the little Vic Classic knock-offs, but one is the knife we've been discussing in this thread.

I swear, it looks like every tool was used to try to pry open a bank vault, then it was sanded down on asphalt, and the blade was sharpened on a curb. It was for sale for $1.

Even >I< had the good sense to pass on that.

[Jothra]

Now, for the latest ... astounding... TALES of the PAWN SHOP!

So I walk into a pawn shop today, and they have a little plastic bucket full of used swiss-army-style knives. Most are the little Vic Classic knock-offs, but one is the knife we've been discussing in this thread.

I swear, it looks like every tool was used to try to pry open a bank vault, then it was sanded down on asphalt, and the blade was sharpened on a curb. It was for sale for $1.

Even >I< had the good sense to pass on that.

I'm not sure what anyone could do to make theirs look worse than mine. Didn't I use it to pry up ceramic tiles one time?

[Lynn LeFey]

Update on my sad devotion to this extraordinary POS knife.

I was wandering through Rural King near my house, and came across the Coghlan 7-function army knife. This is much like all the others I've described, except it doesn't have the Awl, Saw, Sewing Needle thingy, and Fish Scaler. In short, it has all the tools that sort of function, and none of the tools that absolutely DON'T function. And it was $2.

So I bought it.

And, ladies and gentlemen, a miracle happened.

I got it home to test it and the blade, with no assistance from me whatsoever, was paper cutting sharp. Holy SMURF! Seriously... a $2 knife that actually cuts. Maybe more amazing, the grind on it is pretty much perfect. Several passes through a sharpener, and it is now NICELY sharp.

Don't get me wrong, it's still a sub par tool overall. The scissors barely cut paper, and it has weak backsprings, but for the price, I am quite amazed. Compared to the $1 semi-serrated blade you can get at Walmart, which is dull, has a chisel grind (so it's insanely hard to sharpen), and is nothing BUT a knife, the $2 Coghlan tool seems pretty awesome.

I would definitely consider it as a contender for very inexpensive emergency kits.

[CanadianLMfan]

 

[Jothra]

How does this keep happening? The law of averages should be totally against us.

[Lynn LeFey]

I have to wonder if Coghlan is maybe putting out these knockoffs that are just a hair better than average?

For the price, the 7-function knife is actually decent. I say this with your (Jothra) real-world test in mind. I honestly think, if they were guaranteed sharp out of the package, or could be given a good edge with minimal effort, these things make reasonable additions to very inexpensive emergency kits.

And once you get rid of the superfluous layers, it's actually a very comfortable thickness.

[CanadianLMfan]

I have to wonder if Coghlan is maybe putting out these knockoffs that are just a hair better than average?

For the price, the 7-function knife is actually decent. I say this with your (Jothra) real-world test in mind. I honestly think, if they were guaranteed sharp out of the package, or could be given a good edge with minimal effort, these things make reasonable additions to very inexpensive emergency kits.

And once you get rid of the superfluous layers, it's actually a very comfortable thickness.

Coghlans put their logo on an Opinel and called it a camp knife.

[Jothra]

I get the impression that they take an Opinel blade, then make Coghlan's handles for them in-house or something. They won't do that table-knock opening thing. I know a guy who likes his "Coghlinel" quite a bit.

[CanadianLMfan]

I get the impression that they take an Opinel blade, then make Coghlan's handles for them in-house or something. They won't do that table-knock opening thing. I know a guy who likes his "Coghlinel" quite a bit.

They just stamp a logo on the handles, that's all. I think it's still from France.

[Lynn LeFey]

I thought I'd post this HILARIOUS video of maybe the worst, cheapest SAK knock-off i've ever seen.

None of mine are anywhere near this bad.

[Jothra]

If it doesn't say Coghlan's on the box, it's not Coghlan's in the box.

I pulled nails with the corkscrew on mine. You couldn't even imagine doing the same with this thing. This is the worst pocket tool I've ever seen that wasn't made out of actual cheese.

[jerseydevil]

Hey, the Phillips driver survived......

[hrvstmn31]

Wow lynn knives are supposed to cut through things like butter not be made of it.

[Lynn LeFey]

I thought I'd necro this thread to add.

I mentioned the Coghlan's Army Knife that I purchased for two dollars. Off and on, I grab it for some small chore, just to put it through some paces. I've opened 3 bottles of wine with it, opened maybe a dozen cans with the can opener, use it for small, miscellaneous cutting tasks, and have used the screw drivers for occasional light duties.

And as much as I want to hate it... the smurfing thing just keeps working. Oh, it's not as good as a Climber, but it has proven to be way more than $2 worth of useful.

Yes, i know i have a cheap tool problem. Shut up!

[Don Pablo]

I would like to add, there is a clothing store chain in this country that sells clothing, called TK-Max
Some of it is branded, like Ralph Lauren, etc, but its all cheap. Usually 50% of the market price(This a big sized shop too). I think they get their stock cheap by buying up surplus discontinued stock from elsewhere.
Stay with me, please.

I noticed around the same time I got interested in SAK's that they had some cheapo knockoffs for sale. (I still bought a Victorinox.  )
Anyway. These cheap knock offs are practically the same design as the ones here, just different brands and scales. I noticed Am-Tech and Draper versions.
These cheapos are everywhere! 
The worst part about these, is that they are being sold for about $10 dollars, in your money. 
These are harming Victorinox's reputation. 

[Lynn LeFey]

Well, I said in the first post that I'd seen them going for as much as $14. That was at a knife show. I saw one for about that on ebay the other day, NOT including shipping. I guess it's really a case of 'Buyer Beware'.

[Lynn LeFey]

And... another Necro.

I have been putting the knife shown above (the red Coghlan's) through it's paces on a 31-day challenge. I picked the tool because while it's cheap, it's not all that terrible. The short summary... like Jothra did before me, you're going to want to repeen these things before actually using them. After that, though... While not as good as an actual SAK, they're reasonably functional.

Here's a link to my thread on the 31-day challenge.
http://forum.multitool.org/index.php/topic,62289.0.html

EDIT: I pulled out the silver scaled tool pictured in the first post and repeened it as well. I might beat on it a bit and see how it hold up. Just about the first thing I tried with the tool was turning a philips screw, which popped the center pin. After I checked it, apparently it popped because it had never BEEN peened.