I’ve seen these things on eBay and Amazon for a while now, and I decided to take the plunge when the price dropped to $11 a couple weeks ago.
First impressions is that it’s not, strangely, a copy of a victorinox. Seems most knockoff knives are. This one is a knockoff of the Wenger knives. The scales and sizes are very close. Or maybe it’s a knockoff of the 84mm Vic, I don’t know as I don’t have any of those.
What I do know is that the blade tang and backspring are just a hair thicker than those on a Wenger knife. The blade is considerably shorter overall, but the sharpened length is only slightly shorter. Blade width is slightly thinner than Wenger. The opener tool is rather thin, but usable as an opener. It’s probably too thin to use for anything more than very light scewdriving. It does have a half stop though.
The scales are plastic and don’t feel particularly robust. However the usb housing is metal and pretty solidly attached. There is some kind of heat shield material under the sliding scale. The heating element works great for lighting a cigarette. Not particularly great for much of anything else. It struggles to light a candle. It will start things smoldering but they don’t readily catch fire. So good for a cigarette smoker, but not good for any kind of camping or emergency use.
Overall quality seems remarkably decent. It’s nowhwre near Vic or Wenger, but it’s pretty far above most of the knockoffs made today. The blades have good snap and there is no play. It feels pretty good in my hand. For $11, it’s really not bad at all.
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