Is the SAK Dead?

[BIG-TARGET]

And, according to my friends, who do alot of international traveling.  When the carry a multitool.  Custom/Border agents start freaking out.  When an SAK was carried, the agents' response was:"Welcome to my country"
Go figure!

[AimlessWanderer]

The SAK is perfectly fine. It might not have the right tools for every single person, and some peoples circumstances might lead them to not need certain tools, but just look at the diversity on the forum - there are oodles of people who between them use each and every tool on a regular basis.

Corkscrew for me is not a regular, and many (cheap) wine bottles come with a screw top, but I still get the odd proper cork that I need to deal with to get to the wholesome goodness inside.

Can opener, same deal. I have a dedicated can opener, but as most can openers these days are cheapo crap that couldn't wresttle their way out of a wet paper bag, a SAK can opener comes in handy for the more substantial cans ... or for whern you get one of those cans that seens to open fine apart from two or three places ... just enough to stop you getting the bugger open, and even running over it with the dedicated opener doesn't work as the can had distorted past where it should be cutting 

Bottle opener. Twist tops are something I encounter occasionally, but not until I've popped the top off with an opener do I notice there's a thread on the neck of the bottle. For all subsequent beers, I'll generally use the opener anyway out of habit 

Scissors. It startles me how many people on this forum say they don't need scissors  They just make stuff so much easier at times. Are these Luddite fools still knapping their blades to sharpen them too? 

Second blade? Nah, rarely use it - but then the Wenger Traveller doesn't have them 

I'd also add that the purpose of a SAK is not just to deal with stuff we encounter regularly, but also stuff we don't. There's been occasions where teetotal members of the forum have come to the rescue by opening wine bottles for their friends. I used the titanium spike on my tool cluster to untie an awkward knot at the weekend, despite it not being needed for quite some time prior. A corkscrew of Wenger awl would have done the job just as well, but they were in a bag in the boot of the car.

All is well, panic over, the SAK is in very good health. There's several people I know who carry them, and use them discretely when necessary, and guess what - they look and act just like the folk who don't carry them. There's lots of "silent" SAK carriers out there. Victorinox wouldn't be making millions of them every year if that wasn't the case 

[Sorel]

I think we're actually discussing two different things:
1) Whether pocketknives in general are obsolete in the modern, disposable, user-friendly world;
2a) Whether swiss army knives are obsolete compared to other pocketknives/multitools;
2b) The relative obsoleteness of the specific tools on a swiss army knife.

About 2b I'll say that there are so many models, with so many different toolsets/configurations, that surely anyone can find one that suits them (I'm aware that the original post was about the default, Spartan toolset).
About 1, my feeling is that people in the developed world can mostly get along just fine without a pocketknife/mt these days, but the cost/benefit analysis probably heavily favors carrying one even in the most blandly urban environments, if you find the right one for you. A person may not think they'd use one, but as probably most of us can attest, you learn to use one by carrying it - each time you use it, your mind will be that much quicker to think of it next time it might be useful. Pretty soon it becomes, as it was meant to be, the best tool for a given task mainly because it's the one you already have in your hand.
About 2, credit's due to everyone before me who pointed out that you can use all the tools on an SAK in ways they weren't intended for, and that's a wonderful thing to do; but I'd like to emphasize that part of the fun of SAK's, especially the larger/more complicated ones, is that there's a playfulness, an exploratory capacity to them--it's part of their legacy, part of their heritage--something about them just makes you want to figure out new things to do with them. And that's a good thing! Yes, anything you can do with the blade of an SAK you can probably do better with a more hardcore blade on a more hardcore knife; but can the same thing be said about the screwdriver? The toothpick? The magnifying lens? Do other knives even have magnifying lenses??
Still about 2, I'd also like to point out that SAK's don't compare disfavorably to other knives at all, at least in my opinion. They're rugged, tight, attractive, useful, inexpensive, and will last forever. That's a hard combination for any knife to beat, in my opinion.

[Humppa]

Someone mentioned the idea of a package opener. I think that would make a great addition to my SAK. How about also a long screwdriver/pry device?

I thought about this item some ago and, personally like that idea very much. I pulled out a standart climber and found out, that the only tool I actually never use it that strange parcel hook.

Why not add a package opener tool like the one that is added to Leatherman Wingman.

I would appreciate that!

[ironraven]

Someone mentioned the idea of a package opener. I think that would make a great addition to my SAK. How about also a long screwdriver/pry device?

It's called the pruner blade, and I would love to see it in more SAKs. I used to carry a folding kerambit and people would get freaked out until I pointed out to them the hawksbill is as safe as a blade can be and still have a point- really, really hard to stab yourself with it accidentally.

As for a long screwdriver, were you thinking something like the #1 phillips in the Hercules, that slips under the scissors? Or maybe is a #2 phillips that is almost full length, and then there is a long straight driver that gets partnered with it, and they lay over eachother when it is closed? Again, that would be a nice item in the catalog, but I wouldn't pry with them.

But there is only one thing in the catalog of possible Vic parts I would do away with- the fileless hook. The filed hook from the compact should be standard.

[jerseydevil]

All is well, panic over, the SAK is in very good health. There's several people I know who carry them, and use them discretely when necessary, and guess what - they look and act just like the folk who don't carry them. There's lots of "silent" SAK carriers out there. Victorinox wouldn't be making millions of them every year if that wasn't the case 

This.  You'd be surprised how many people you wouldn't think carry a knife have a Classic on their keys, an old Wenger in their pocket, or a Climber in their purse.  They are certainly out there.  I can think of ten or twelve people I know who regularly carry a SAK, and those don't include the ones who I gave one to. 

[Monrogue]

But there is only one thing in the catalog of possible Vic parts I would do away with- the fileless hook. The filed hook from the compact should be standard.

I completely agree with this statement, and have said this myself several times.  Why not just have the nail file hook standard?? 

[nate j]

...my feeling is that people in the developed world can mostly get along just fine without a pocketknife/mt these days, but the cost/benefit analysis probably heavily favors carrying one even in the most blandly urban environments...

Well said.  Welcome aboard!

[nate j]

But there is only one thing in the catalog of possible Vic parts I would do away with- the fileless hook. The filed hook from the compact should be standard.

Yes!!!  I can't imagine it would add much to the cost, especially once it became the standard.

[cbl51]

All is well, panic over, the SAK is in very good health. There's several people I know who carry them, and use them discretely when necessary, and guess what - they look and act just like the folk who don't carry them. There's lots of "silent" SAK carriers out there. Victorinox wouldn't be making millions of them every year if that wasn't the case 

This.  You'd be surprised how many people you wouldn't think carry a knife have a Classic on their keys, an old Wenger in their pocket, or a Climber in their purse.  They are certainly out there.  I can think of ten or twelve people I know who regularly carry a SAK, and those don't include the ones who I gave one to. 

This^^^

I see SAK's all over the place on key rings of all kinds of people. Especially the 58mm ones. Not that long ago I was in Walmart at the watch counter getting a new battery in my Timex expedition. A 30 something young lady was there getting a new watchband, and the young girl helping her was a bit incompetent to stay the least. Finally the woman takes the watch and band, and takes a 58mm SAK out and changes the band herself.

Another occasion, I saw a 60ish man down at the VA hospital where I get my medical care, sitting and waiting for his name to be called. He discovers a rough finger nail, and uses the file on a classic to smooth things out.

The Victorinox classic is the worlds most mass produced pocket knife, and as a result, the TSA's most sized knife. Vic makes about 10 million of these things a year, every year.

[comis]

Vic makes about 10 million of these things a year, every year.

I know they make around 25 million knives a year, but I didn't know 10 mil of those are Classics. 

[sawman]

Vic makes about 10 million of these things a year, every year.

I know they make around 25 million knives a year, but I didn't know 10 mil of those are Classics. 

I wonder how many be Ramblers