Best known for the Swiss Army Knife, Victorinox also manufactures a full line of kitchen cutlery, watches and travel-alarms, and more. The company that started with one pocket multi-tool now produces over a hundred versions of that product alone, including one with a USB flash drive.
In 1884 Karl Elsener opened his first cutlery business in Ibach-Schwyz, applying skills acquired in the factories of Paris, France, and Tuttlingen, Germany, to his own designs. The first knife produced in what we now know as the Swiss Army pattern left the shop in 1891, when Elsener won the contract for a Swiss infantryman’s knife. The knife’s blades were designed for harness work as well as maintenance on military rifles.
In 1909 Elsener changed his company’s name to Victorinox to honor his mother, Victoria, who died that same year. He also adopted the cross and shield as a registered trademark, setting his products apart from the many copies hitting the market. The Swiss Officer’s Knife became popular with American troops during WWII. R.H. Forschner later teamed with Victorinox to market the company cutlery in the United States. Victorinox expanded its American marketing to include watches in 1989. Victorinox and its sister company, Wenger, produced nearly identical pocket knives in competition with one another. Both companies supplied knives to the Swiss military and both could claim to produce genuine Swiss Army knives. Victorinox purchased Wenger in 2005, placing all Swiss Army knife manufacturing under one corporate roof.
Victorinox Swiss Army knives provide specialized tool sets for craftsmen, outdoorsmen, and a variety of other avocations and professions. The original Swiss Officer’s knife included two knife blades, a screwdriver bit, can opener, awl and corkscrew — all fairly standard on Swiss Army knives today but backed up with modern tools designed for today’s needs. Many models include one-hand opening of the main knife blade and a secure lockback. R.H. Forschner cutlery, a Victorinox brand, offers laser-cut stainless steel knives in an efficient economical build; as well as forged knives built in a classic style with riveted handle slabs of tropical hardwood.
See all of our Victorinox knife reviews below
Until now, I hadn't seen a Swiss Army Knife with a laser pointer, but the Signature Laser neatly solves the classic problem of pointing things out. You'll no longer have to explain where something is -- just paint it with the laser beam. This would have been extremely handy ...
Any scout should be both proud and prepared when equipped with this fine, multi-blade Swiss Army Adventurer Pocket Knife. To make your favorite Boy Scout even happier, this Victorinox knife sports the emblem of the Boy Scouts of America.
Four-and-3/8 inches long when folded, this is a full-sized and full-featured ...
While the Silver Alox versions of Victorinox Swiss Army knives do have advantages compared to the classic red polymer and stainless steel builds, the Swiss Army Electrician manages to make a good pocket knife fall short of its name.
In the Swiss Army Electrician, you'll find several handy tools. The ...
With over twenty usable tools in a 3-1/2 inch handle, this knife will seem heavy to most users. Although it's still a manageable size for pocket carry, the red-handled Craftsman from Victorinox Swiss Army Knives contains over six ounces of high carbon stainless steel.
Everything in this good knife works. ...
Anywhere you travel, you stand a good chance of needing a pocket knife, a flashlight, or both. The Classic set from Victorinox Swiss Army provides both, plus several other good tools most of us would otherwise leave behind.
Swiss Army's Classic knife may be only 2-1/4 inches long when ...
Swiss Army knives are great knives to carry, but when you're traveling on foot, saving weight sometimes means choosing to leave the monster pocket tool kit at home. The Swiss Army Centurion offers just what you need with two good features you might not expect.
The Swiss Army Centurion -- 4-3/8 ...
Only a little more than half as thick as the same knife built with stainless steel liners and cellidor handle slabs, the Silver Alox version of the Swiss Army Cadet carries the same set of useful blades. If you need a knife that's practical for the office or for ...
Only 3-1/2 inches long, the Swiss Army Bantam Alox Pocket Knife packs five useful functions into a pocket folder with only two blades. With size and weight equivalent to an American gentleman's knife with nothing more than cutting blades, the Bantam Alox still manages to be a toolkit.
The main blade ...
With such a varied array of sizes and combinations available, any knife user could find a Swiss Army knife to fit their personal needs. Narrowing down that choice is tough, but for many who focus on everyday chores and an occasional trip to the woods, the Nomad covers your ...
As part of the company's 125th Anniversary celebration, Victorinox reissued this classic version of its first Soldier knife. Manufactured for the Swiss Army beginning in 1891, the Soldier knife was the first multi-purpose pocket knife developed in Switzerland. Its assortment of practical blades outfitted the modern infantryman of the day with ...
The Boy Scout version of the Victorinox Swiss Army Explorer features the same versatile set of blades and tools and includes the emblem of the Boy Scouts of America on the red Cellidor handle.
The Explorer's tools will interest solitary travelers as well as troop members. Only 3-1/2 ...
Victorinox makes the classic Swiss Army Knife in a multitude of forms--on their website you can even design your own, choosing the features you want from a list of tools and blades. Nearly any combination is now a named product. The Hercules (4 3/8" closed length) is a pocket tool set ...
Most of us who hike today carry quite a bit of gear with us. The necessary modern philosophy of "pack it in, pack it out" requires that. Instead of building shelters on the spot, for example, we carry tents, and those as well as the many other essential pieces of our ...
Victorinox's 5.1" folded length Ranger, with a main knife blade almost 4" long and forged from high carbon stainless steel, ranks as an all around camp knife as well as the usual pocket tool kit. The clip point blade locks in place when fully extended. The 7 tool, ...
Usually with Swiss Army Knives you get excellent quality, multiple functions, and somewhere among them a stainless steel knife blade that's missing something. The Parachutist corrects some of that with a blade that's stouter than most in this line of pocket tool kits, and going one step farther, includes a locking ...
The multi-tool of the future is going to be focused more and more on technological repairs. Mending fences and tinkering with an old engine are becoming, in a word, passé. This is just another sign of our drastically changing times. For many people who carry a multi-tool, ...
A sunny day. A large, comfy blanket. Some eating utensils, paper plates, napkins, and a wicker basket filled with sandwiches, fruit, cheeses, wine, and something for dessert. This, and your Victorinox Picnicker, is all you will need to pull off a wonderful afternoon outing.
The Picnicker has everything that you ...
This Swiss Army Rambler is grouped under Victorinox's line of small, elegant pocket-tools. At only 2 1/4-inch long, the classic red handle will fit comfortably out of the way in a pants pocket or, with the key chain attachment, on a key ring - whatever allows you to keep it ...
One single stainless steel blade. You may think this is a rare defect of Swiss precision craftsmanship - surely they forgot to attach the small blade and the can opener and the multi-purpose hook. Where's the toothpick and tweezers? No saw, no reamer, no scissors nor pliers nor ...
This Swiss Army Rambler is grouped under Victorinox's line of small, elegant pocket-tools. At only 2 1/4-inch long, the classic red handle will fit comfortably out of the way in a pants pocket or, with the key chain attachment, on a key ring - whatever allows you to keep it ...
Victorinox understands that instilling safe knife practices at an early age will equal future customers down the road. The philosophy is: get 'em early, make sure they don't kill themselves, and you've taught another generation of knife lovers the value of a Swiss Army knife.
I remember my first ...
Victorinox knives have been to outer space - did you know that? They have been to the heart of jungles, across the desert sands, over the arctic tundra, and circumnavigated the globe on boats, planes, and hot air balloons. I know at least six people personally who have a Swiss ...
The Victorinox Tinker is appropriately named. Imagine tinkering around with a broken flashlight or an old portable radio - imagine the tools you would most likely need - and you could complete the job with everything found on this Swiss Army pocket knife.
There are half a dozen implements with a ...
There isn't anything new or strange or different about this Victorinox Swiss Army Secretary Pocket knife, and therefore not much to say -- but, what there is to be said, should be more than enough to rush out and purchase this knife. Just make sure it's the Victorinox that you're ...
As far as Swiss Army knives go, this Victorinox model embodies the word "classy." It's the Victorinox Cigar Knife, and is a great choice for any cigar aficionado that wouldn't mind carrying a few extra tools along with a cigar knife in one sleek little package.
Obviously the main feature ...
The last thing anyone thinks of, when heading off for the first tee, is the quality of their golf tool. But consider that golf is a game of focus, and it's the little things that can affect your round's score. Being unable to find a ball marker could ...
It's all in the name. This Victorinox Swiss Army pocket knife is designed to manage the various situations which arise at midnight, or any time and place with less than lackluster lighting. A very handy red LED light offers pretty good illumination when you need it most. A ...
Turns out computers are a big deal these days. Who would have figured? Well, in this technological day and age, pocket knives are changing to fit the needs of the new consumer. Surviving in the wild is not so important anymore, but surviving if your computer crashes ...
Whenever someone asks me which three things I would want if stranded on a desert island, I always answer: 1) A desalinator 2) SAS Survival Handbook by John "Lofty" Wiseman 3) the Victorinox Swiss Champ SOS Set.
This Swiss Army knife with the included accessories is going to appear ...
It's my personal opinion that no one should go anywhere without a pocket knife. Victorinox certainly shares my philosophy, and they have come out with a line of knives designed to fit an overlooked niche: the corporate workplace.
The Victorinox Executive -- aimed at those working the daily grind in office ...
As yet there's no laser pointer but this newer model pocket knife / toolkit from Victorinox does have an LED light and a ballpoint pen. Anything this versatile really does go past the definition of knife. The worst thing you might do with this in the woods is lose ...
The year is full of gift-giving occasions, and if you have an outdoorsman that needs shopping for, look no further than the Victorinox line of pocket knives. This package set Camper with Microlight is an ultimate stocking-stuffer, birthday present, or Valentine surprise.
At only 3.5 inches in length, the Camper holds ...
A few quick things about Victorinox, Swiss Army knives, and the Soldier pocket knife:
Every Victorinox comes with a manufacturer warranty against defects of workmanship or material for the lifetime of the pocket knife.
Ex-Secretary of the US Department of Homeland Security, Tom Ridge, exclusively recommends the Swiss Army pocket knife for use ...
As fond as we are of Leatherman products, here's a multitool from Victorinox that dares to raise the bar. It's the SwissTool X, and it might just cause you to rethink some things like it did for us.
At first glance, the SwissTool X seems to have many (if not all) ...
Any knife that receives the prestigious "Knife Of the Year" award from the IWA exhibition should be more than worthy of an honorable mention here at OnlyKnives. This Victorinox Rescue Tool is the 2007 award recipient, and is widely used by many safety patrol officers and firemen across the ...
If you don't mind keeping up with a little digital maintenance every now and then, you'd probably love to have the Swiss Army Expedition knife in your pocket the next time you go on a hike.
This Victorinox set comes with ten standard Swiss Army accessories, but it's the other stuff that ...
Before reading this review, you may want to check out the SwissTool Spirit. The "Plus" version has a ruler and the bit driver for adding screwdrivers, corkscrews, etc. That bit driver is an awesome feature, but it does add some bulk to your pouch and adds some cost to the tool.
The Spirit ...
Here's the Work Champ pocket sized knife from Victorinox, a secure tool that merges all the most commonly-used accessories together in one little package without making it too bulky.
The Work Champ comes with a total of 13 different accessories. Its most notable feature is a plain-edge locking blade, not ...
Much of what I know about knives is cultural. I grew up in a part of the country where weapons were normal and people were expected to have them. Knives were a big deal for us, and we expected them to be simple and dependable. None of ...
It's rare to find a Swiss Army knife with locking blades. In fact, only three of Victorinox's pocketknives feature locking mechanisms... and the Trekker is one of them.
Only two of the Trekker's twelve accessories lock into place, but they're the most important to contain this feature: a large screwdriver, and ...
The trouble with most Victorinox products is that at first glance they all look so dang similar! And we've said this before. You've got to know what you need in a pocketknife before even attempting to peruse the Swiss Army Knife listings here.
Fortunately, the Classic pocketknife pictured here takes ...
It's all about the tools, and this one's got a bundle of 'em.
The Swiss Army Swiss Champ XLT is very similar to Victorinox's extremely popular, age-old Swiss Champ Knife. In fact, it includes all of the tools that one's got and adds in a few new ones.
You might want to check ...
This knife comes with 749 tools, weighs 112 pounds and measures 3 feet in diameter.
Okay, it's not quite that bad. But wow, does this baby pack a lot of tools in. I'd like to be able to say that it packs a lot of tools in to a very small ...
Sometimes, Victorinox's names make a lot of sense. Take this Midnite Minichamp, for example. It's a scaled-down version of the Champion knife, both in terms of number of features and in size. Hence the term "Minichamp". Why "Midnite?" Well, it's got an LED light on it, so I guess you can ...
I guess Victorinox finally took the hint from Leatherman and started making folding tools that were more accessible and modern looking. They've always made great pocket knives, so I was anxious to see how this one turned out.
The SwissTool is more compact and lightweight than the full-sized Leatherman multi-tools. If ...
This Super Tinker Swiss Army Knife features a squeegee, a large bucket and a small stick of TNT.
Oh, no wait, that must be another model.
This fifteen-tool model features two blades, three screwdrivers, a scissors, a can and bottle opener, a hook, a leather punch, a tweezers, a toothpick, a sewing eye ...
Gotta hand it to Victorinox. They swap out one tool for another and they've got a brand new model.
Confusing as heck? Sure, but that's what we're here for.
The Huntsman includes two blades, can and bottle opener, two screwdrivers, leather punch, sewing eye, toothpick, tweezers, corkscrew, scissors, hook, and wood saw.
Compare it ...
The trick with Swiss Army knives, of course, is the find the right trade-off between having more tools and having more bulk. And the price has to be right too.
The Climber is a very popular knife because it's compact and yet packs in a set of essential tools.
Those tools include two ...
Not that many Swiss Army knives are available in black as well as red. The Swiss Champ is one of Victorinox's most popular models and is also one of the most sought-after black ones.
No surprise, really, since it does a great job packing a ton of tools into a small, lightweight ...
Victorinox makes a number of different Swiss Army Knife models, so the trick is picking the right one.
You'll want to inspect the tools it includes as well as the size and weight. Several of their "medium-sized" models are aimed at fitting a large number of tools into a light-weight package.
The Ranger ...
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