I've had SAKs for years but have only just become a Swisschamp owner. As we all do with new toys, we have a good play & explore, which led to me wondering, when I'd opened it all out: why do all the layers have liners between them whereas the fish scaler & woodsaw lie together within the same layer? How come they don't get a liner between them...?

I don't know why but I what I do know is that's the crux of the debate whether our SwissChamp is 7 or 8 layers 

I can't see your pic (something to do with google permissions, perhaps?) but the Champion and Outdoorsman have the same 2 spring, no liner arrangement for the wood saw/fishscaler combo too.  Seems like a good arrangement, especially if the tools won't see much side load or torque.

Thanks for the reply! Seems to make sense, and it now begs the question:

Where could other liners be removed from...?

(Yes, Google was not my friend for picture hosting in this case; I'm trying Imgur now)

Is three layers with no liners (metal saw, wood saw and fishscaler) in the realm of durable practical possibility? 

The metal file is going to see a fair amount of side load, so I'd think it'd need a liner. 

Charles.

 
I forgot about that side load.
Thanks for correcting me. 

Forget the fishscaler then.
So does that mean I can’t put just the wood saw and metal file together with no liner?

You can try it. I mean, it should fit together. I'd be more confident of a 2-layer stack of a saw and file, vs a 3-layer stack. It'll probably be fine in all but the most extreme use cases.

Charles.