The Care and Feeding of the Swiss Army Knife

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If possible, visit a store where you can try the action of several knives. The effort required to open and close blades differs widely from one knife to the next, and you definitely do want a tool that opens easily. (The stainless steel in a Swiss army knife doesn't "wear in" very quickly. If it's stiff when new, it'll probably always be stiff!)

Caution: Beware of cheap (and not-so-cheap) imitations. The kind of knife you want?the one that lasts like a mother-in-law's curse—always bears the name Victorinox on the large knife blade near the bolster. Accept no substitutes!

SCREWDRIVER TIPS

Many S.A.K. models feature combination screwdriver/can opener attachments. As they come from the factory, these accessories are next to useless, however, because their rounded corners cause the screwdriver to ride up and out of screw slots, or ruin the screws, or both. The solution: Simply regrind the tip to a proper (i.e., squared off ) screwdriver shape, as shown in Photo 2. This can be done in a few minutes on any bench grinder.

I regard the can opener portion of the accessory, by the way, as an invention of the devil and prefer?instead?to open cans with the larger of the tool's two knife blades. (It's quicker and neater.)

KEEP THOSE BLADES SHARP

Any knife is useless unless it's kept sharp . . . and the S.A.K. is no exception.

You'll find that the stainless steel blades of a Victorinox?which are quite thin (as knife blades should be)?will take and hold a good edge, but do require more time to sharpen than the softer carbon steel blades of the average pocketknife. For this reason, you might want to do your honing on an emery wheel. The usual advice, of course, is never to sharpen cutlery on a wheel, since it's easy to overheat (and thereby take the temper out of) the steel . . . but, if you grind slowly and carefully—creating almost no sparks, and never letting the metal become too hot to touch—you can sharpen your S.A.K. this way without hurting it in the least.

Or, in a pinch, you can sometimes file the blades sharp. (Be warned in advance, though, that some files simply can't cope with the tough steel of a Swiss army knife. And anyway, the thin blades are difficult to hold in the average vise.) And if you rely on the old standby?a whetstone?for putting an edge on your Swiss army knife's blades, remember to hold the cutting edges at a flatter angle to the stone than you ordinarily hold the blades of a penknife.

When a whetstone isn't available (such as on a backpacking trip), you can substitute emery cloth . . . the sort that comes rolled up like hair ribbon. (A 180-grit cloth is best, though 120-grit will do in a pinch.) All you have to do is lay a short piece of the material on a hard, flat surface and then use it as you would a stone. Most garages and shops carry furlongs of this cloth, and quite often a shop will donate a couple feet of it for the good of the Order.

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