I'm not sure if it qualifies as abuse or just hard use, but my EDC SwissTool's serrated blade got a real workout over the last two days. As an Audio Visual Technician at a small university here in North Carolina, my SwissTool is prized as part of my EDC. The other two guys carry Leatherman Kicks, so when it comes time for sawing, light prying, hammering and other rough chores, they call on me.
Yesterday and today we were installing multi-media lecturn systems. The project required removing the old systems. During the course of that we found nearly a dozen coils of cable that led to nowhere. I was assigned to clean it up. Due to the way it was set up, the only choice was to cut it out.
The only shortcoming I've found with the SwissTool is the relatively small wire cutters. Even with basic speaker wire or cable ties, I have to make two cuts to completely sever. So, I went with the serrated blade. I made countless cuts on multiple strands of wire and the blade kept cutting. This morning I touched it up with my diamond rod and found no nicks or damage.
Today I had to cut a bunch of cable ties and chose the serrated blade again. It worked flawlessly. Before we finished we found two more large cables that had to be removed. My boss reached for his Kick. Since the cables were aproximately the diameter of my index finger, I handed him my SwissTool with the serrated blade out. Once again, the blade sawed through the cable in short order.
While the serration pattern may not seem as aggressive as Spyderco or Leatherman, I've found the Victorinox pattern to be more worthwhile than both. In my experience the two-step serrations seem to hang up in material worse. They are also more difficult to sharpen.