Product Review: Victorinox Swiss Army Soldier Knife

Victorinox has been producing knives in Switzerland for about a million years or so. Well, since 1884, at least, and the Swiss army’s first look at the tool and subsequently adopting it was in 1891 – a long time before most of us were even born.

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In any case, the Victorinox knives and tools have changed a lot since then – surprisingly enough – and there are enough variations of them out there to suit the needs of anyone – literally anyone. Anyone can have their choice from a humongous range of tools and knives, from the “Swisschamp” knife with about as many tools included in it as the company has been in business, to the humble tomato knives they’re probably also proud of.

There’s nothing wrong with that. We’re not going to get into all the other stuff that Victorinox produces (USB sticks, travel gear, whatnot else) – we’re going to focus on the Swiss Army’s favorite – the “Soldatenmesser 08”, meaning literally “Soldierknife 08”.

Having been tried and tested for many years by soldiers in the Swiss Army (how much combat they’ve seen might be a different issue) there’s almost no reason for us to even review the knife here.

That said, we’re still going to do it, of course. By the way, we’ll be calling it a knife, since that’s what Victorinox calls it – a soldier knife, not a tool. There are Swisstools, of course, but this knife isn’t one of them.

The knife is sturdy – let it be said that the feel of it is somewhat different from the polished red and white models that we’re all used to seeing – and feels more like an actual tool than some of the other models do. There’s nothing extra on this tool – it’s just exactly what you need. Something to open cans and bottles of food and / or drinks with, something to chop down a tree with (well, “chop”…it’s a saw) something to pick your toenails with (or whatever) and something to kill an enemy with. Or a bear. Or… slice some tires with. Whatever your liking might be.

tomatenmesser — Tomatenmesser! Tomato knife, that is...

There’s not much more to say about it. If you feel that a plastic magnifying glass, a tiny pair scissors and a toothpick isn’t absolutely essential in a multitool, this is the one for you. A little tip before we go over the specs (yes, we know we turned the layout upside down this time); you can also use the knife to make your own toothpicks. How, you say? Think about it – it’ll come to you.

All right… the impressive specs! Here they are:

– 4 3/4″L x 1 7/8″W x 1″D. 5 oz.

Aaand… that’s basically it. Everything else is in the picture. We just forgot to mention earlier… it’s got a screwdriver too. “Phillipshead” as it is known in certain parts of the world. The rest calls it a star-head. Go figure.