Why do Vic 91's have two blades?

[Quartz]

I've never been able to figure out why Vic 91mm knives have two blades. I mean, I'd understand if the larger blade was serrated or sheepsfoot or whatever, but with both being different sizes of the same type I don't really get it. Not helping matters is that everyone I've personally met only ever uses one blade or the other.

For those of you out there that use both blades regularly, can you explain the where and why?

[crackout]

You could use the small blade as a worker for opening boxes and other dirty stuff while keeping the large one clean and nice for food preparation.

But to me, I'd rather have a serrated and a smooth blade instead of two plain ones.

[Quartz]

Eh, I dunno about that. The blades slide against each other with only a hair's breadth between them. Any gunk on one will rub off on the other in short order. I don't mix food and work knives anyway as I don't want grime and metal filings in something I'm eating.

[enki_ck]

I never use the small blade. I like to keep it scalpel sharp as a backup.

[ducttapetech]

I use both. The bigger blade for cutting bigger stuff and a scrapper blade. The small blade is nice for small task like carving, cutting stuff in tight places, scrapping battary terminals and reaming my tobacco pipes.

sent from Ducttapetech's mobile device

[hiljentaa]

I typically don't carry Vics that have the large and small blade. I don't like redundancy, and I like having the slimmest possible tools.

That being said, when I do carry a SAK with both blades, I use the smaller one for rougher stuff like cutting down boxes and whatnot.

[J Mackrel Jones]

The SAK Owner's Manual agrees with our ageless Croatian:
"A great advantage of having a second blade on a knife is that you can use the first blade rough and often and still have a sharp blade when you need one. With only one blade, you must always be more conservative -- no back-up. If one almost never uses the small blade, it stays razor sharp until needed. You will see some knives whose owner seemed to take the opposite tack, using only the small blade and leaving the big one sharp."

[Rich S]

I like having the two blades. I do keep the smaller one (which I reground to a clip
point) razor sharp and use the large blade for general usage.

Rich

[enki_ck]

I should really get that book some day. We agree quite often on tool uses.

[kkokkolis]

Everybody  should  get  that book. How many  books about SAKs are there?
Anyway, if a blade is  good, more blades are better. The small blade is more convenient for some purposes, such as carving. I like the  plain/serrated blade combo, in the manner my Surge implement them,  but a  small serrated blade is useless.  Serrations need real estate to be effective.  The small blades, such as the small drop point and the small pruner or all the 58mm blades are effective as plain razor sharp  blades. I don't know about  the Hunter's small serrated gutter  blade, but it looks small to my eyes. But a conventional 91-93mm with both large blades the XAVT has (paired with the magic inline awl) makes more sense. Or they could put the aforementioned awl there in the 91mm line, that  would  be a great improvement. Or they  could  revert to  the small clip point blade to add some penetrative ability. Since they don't  consider any of these options (really Mr Elsener -and please accept my most sincere condolences by the way- why?), I'll accept the small secondary blade as is.

[Grathr]

When I carry a two bladed SAK i usually use the small blade the most, and keeping the large one sharp for when I have to do some serious cutting.
At work when I EDC my Wenger SI, I usually  carry a folding knife too wich I use as a "dirty" blade (for scraping, cutting sand covered boxes, removing dirt from objects, cutting tape and so on) keeping the SI's blade sharp and clean for when I need it.

[Syph007]

I should really get that book some day. We agree quite often on tool uses.

Its good, I just finished reading through it.  I have 2 items of feedback about it.  One, is that there needs to be an actual photo of the book, the image used to sell it makes it look like its not even a real book, and hearing it is self published I had assumed it was going to be a spiral bound book or soemthing.  Its a proper nicely bound book which noone has mentioned before, but its nice.  There are some technical errors, but they are minor.  Stock alox scales are NOT 53 RC, more like 35.  The liners of cellidor SAKS are also not anodized as far as I can tell.

[Styerman]

I'm a big fan of the pen blade for delicate stuff , it stays "scary " sharp , I use the master blade for dirty jobs . Since I always carry a dedicated OHO locking folder , I wouldn't mind doing without the master blade .

Chris

[Syph007]

I like 2 blades as well, but I wish they werent both spearpoints.  Id love one to be a sheepsfoot instead.  Likely the small one would make sense.  Lots of traditional knives had more than 2 blades, but there were different blade types.

[PTRSAK]

One of the reasons I prefer a Wenger Traveler over a Vic' Climber (apart from the 85mm chassis) is that the small blade is a clip point.
Also the reason I like my few old pre-73 Vic's.

I also have a couple of "users" where I have ground the small blade into a profile like a bigger version of the 58mm emergency blade. Honed scalpel sharp it is great for everything from fine work to digging out splinters.

[thebullfrog]

For the longest time the 2 blade thing bugged the bejeezus out of me. It was just needlesly redundant. That was until I figured out that I could give them two different edge angles for different tasks. On my SwissChamp the large blade is at  about 30 deg, and I use it for general work/beater duties. The small one I gave a like 17 deg angle and preserve it for fine/precise cutting tasks. Worked out extremely well that way.

[theonew]

I like 2 blades as well, but I wish they werent both spearpoints.  Id love one to be a sheepsfoot instead.  Likely the small one would make sense.  Lots of traditional knives had more than 2 blades, but there were different blade types.

I agree with this completely, a small sheepsfoot would make a great utility blade

I was at a trade show in February and we had some finish work to do on some foam-core displays. For whatever reason, most likely some ridiculous laws, it was impossible for us to buy an exacto knife in any of the local stores. So the next morning I used the small blade on my SAK, holding the whole knife like a pen, and did some very precise cuts with it, some of which required cutting half way through the thickness. Doubt I could have pulled that off as nicely with the large blade.

[Singh]

I should really get that book some day. We agree quite often on tool uses.

Its good, I just finished reading through it.  I have 2 items of feedback about it.  One, is that there needs to be an actual photo of the book, the image used to sell it makes it look like its not even a real book, and hearing it is self published I had assumed it was going to be a spiral bound book or soemthing.  Its a proper nicely bound book which noone has mentioned before, but its nice.  There are some technical errors, but they are minor.  Stock alox scales are NOT 53 RC, more like 35.  The liners of cellidor SAKS are also not anodized as far as I can tell.

Regarding the SAK Owner's manual, here are my previous thoughts about it (back from 2011):

The book  did what it intended to do (see the table of contents). Lots of history and information, explanations for misc uses for each tool, etc.

Mild criticisms:

• The author swerves into bias and hyperbole. Sometimes the book reads like a love letter to SAKS.
• Sometimes the author goes into off-tangent musings that are really a bit... strange.
• A good editor good tighten things up; eliminate the off-tangent  and odd musings the author sometimes delves into, clean up sentence fragments, and focus the information presented into a cleaner format.

Overall, the book is worth the purchase. I'm not interested in a sterile field guide to SAKS. If you want that kind of book, you'll be disappointed. I'm more interested on a book that expands my knowledge and appreciation of SAKS, and this book does a decent job at that.

[Quartz]

I like 2 blades as well, but I wish they werent both spearpoints.  Id love one to be a sheepsfoot instead.  Likely the small one would make sense.

Yeah, for my mod I thought briefly about trying to get a hold of an "electrician's blade", but I ditched that when I realized how rare they were.

[Monrogue]

I like 2 blades as well, but I wish they werent both spearpoints.  Id love one to be a sheepsfoot instead.  Likely the small one would make sense.

Yeah, for my mod I thought briefly about trying to get a hold of an "electrician's blade", but I ditched that when I realized how rare they were.

I really like the Electrician's blade as a second blade.  It's the one I prefer for most cutting jobs so that the main blade doesn't get grimed up and stays sharp.  I am actually having one put into my Alox Pioneer mod

[Ross]

I like 2 blades as well, but I wish they werent both spearpoints.  Id love one to be a sheepsfoot instead.  Likely the small one would make sense.

Yeah, for my mod I thought briefly about trying to get a hold of an "electrician's blade", but I ditched that when I realized how rare they were.

I really like the Electrician's blade as a second blade.  It's the one I prefer for most cutting jobs so that the main blade doesn't get grimed up and stays sharp.  I am actually having one put into my Alox Pioneer mod

The pruner blade is also a good shout.

[Monrogue]

I like 2 blades as well, but I wish they werent both spearpoints.  Id love one to be a sheepsfoot instead.  Likely the small one would make sense.

Yeah, for my mod I thought briefly about trying to get a hold of an "electrician's blade", but I ditched that when I realized how rare they were.

I really like the Electrician's blade as a second blade.  It's the one I prefer for most cutting jobs so that the main blade doesn't get grimed up and stays sharp.  I am actually having one put into my Alox Pioneer mod

The pruner blade is also a good shout.

Yes indeed   I've used that one before as well, and I actually had a poll to aid me in deciding between the two.  The Electrician's blade won, and so that's what I went with.  I do like it a little more anyway as I just like the shape and usefulness, and it has that slight edge on the pruner blade imo.  Both are great blades though, and different from the standard SAK blades, so you can't go wrong with either one

[nuphoria]

For the longest time the 2 blade thing bugged the bejeezus out of me. It was just needlesly redundant. That was until I figured out that I could give them two different edge angles for different tasks. On my SwissChamp the large blade is at  about 30 deg, and I use it for general work/beater duties. The small one I gave a like 17 deg angle and preserve it for fine/precise cutting tasks. Worked out extremely well that way.

That's a really good idea
If I was any good at sharpening I would try it!

Mostly I think it's redundant and much prefer to have a pruner blade instead, or the layer with a combo tool.

[voi666]

I really like the Electrician's blade as a second blade.  It's the one I prefer for most cutting jobs so that the main blade doesn't get grimed up and stays sharp.  I am actually having one put into my Alox Pioneer mod

i 100% agree with this!

[Monrogue]

I really like the Electrician's blade as a second blade.  It's the one I prefer for most cutting jobs so that the main blade doesn't get grimed up and stays sharp.  I am actually having one put into my Alox Pioneer mod

i 100% agree with this!

(Image removed from quote.)

   Nice SAK too by the way, great setup

[396988]

I love the electrician blade but does anyone else have problems getting it out?

[Monrogue]

I love the electrician blade but does anyone else have problems getting it out?

I don't, but perhaps some are tighter than others?