At some point several years ago now, I think it may have been at bladeforums, a bunch of us were going on about asking Victorinox to dispense with the corkscrew.

I don't know from where in Europe the European opinions came, but they were quite insistent that if Swiss Army dispensed with the corkscrew, they would cease buying them.

Less vitriolic posts described mealtimes "over there," and some people drink wine the way Americans drink coffee and coke. Some have it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Certainly gave me pause. If I had that much wine in one day, let alone every day of the week, I'd fall asleep at my keyboard.

Differences between cultures certainly are fascinating. I mean, how does one drink wine with all meals and still function?

My hat's off to whoever can do that. If I drank wine the way I drink coke, I'd be dead drunk in no time.

I have used my SAK for opening wines and it gives great self-satisfaction.
But imagine this: you carry a SAK, got a bottle of the finest wine and you can’t open it! How embarrassing and anoying would that be?! Especially in company.

The other day I worked in a restaurant (permanent job) I needed to open a beer bottle but the only thing we had at the bar was some ^%$^%£* lousy bottle opener which didnt work. But as i was in uniform I coundn't carry my Vic. I was cheesed off!

I won't touch wine myself, but at least the corkscrew makes a good holder for the little eyeglasses screwdriver. What intrigues me more is the 'parcel hook' on my SAK. What's up with that? Do people actually still tie parcels together with string? <img src="images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

I stopped using SAKs long time ago after I was able to get my hands on decent multitool and locking folder. By all logic it has been a stupid move since I went from one small tool to two big ones. I almost tripled bulk and weight right there. But I gained two tools that are more adequate to do better job than SAK.

I think that SAKs are general all purpose multi situation tools. They look stylish in the restaurant, picnic, camp site, date, outing trip, gold course, etc, etc... Blade quality and number of tools assures you that you are somewhat prepared for everything that can come your way. They are not fully devoted tools that you would use if you had a choice but adequate enough to get you thru the task. SAKs are made to high quality standards, they make nice gifts and if I had to ditch my current setup my replacement choice would be a SAK. They will keep the corkscrew on it as long as cork is used for wines. For some of us it is pointless (beer/whiskey drinkers) but others seem to find use for it.

Also SAK has certain kind of image/status in the society. Imagine you pulling out Sebenza/Spyderco folder in the office to do a task and imagine the same scenario with the SAK. Latter would be more accepted. SAK is also associated with MacGyver who’s non violent image makes the knife somewhat a toy and yet a serious tool. Also I heard that SAKs are for old timers (oh I'm going to get blasted for that), they are considered blades of older generation. But to defend the SAK and corkscrew... My dog grabbed my wine/bottle opener and decided to roll it under the couch somewhere. Friend of mine who had a SAK on him was able to perfectly open wine for the ladies without old push the cork in the bottle method.

Matt

Thanks for the images. I was missing the point having never seen one of those before. Where did you get it?

Willie, I honestly don't remember, but it may have been here. But they're available from several internet dealers who carry Victorinox. It was about $3.00 when I purchased it and I included it in a larger knife order or the S&H would have made it fairly expensive. I see that they suggest using a SASE with your order to avoid that - good idea.

There's a Hunter Plus model available for a decent price (shop around) that includes, among other things, the screwdriver.

Tom

Matt - just for the record, I'm one geezer who does not like the spear-point blade shape on most SAKs. Very slice-the-cheese-and-summer-sausage shape, but not an ideal shape for many potential outdoors tasks. It does some things well and is a really poor choice of shapes for other things. <shrug> My solution has always been to carry at least one more knife.

I still would like a crack at designing my own "ideal" Victorinox - and blade shape is one of the key areas that I would go into <sigh>. Oh well - an excuse to carry another knife.

Tom

For a year or two, sometime back, I had an English gent for a Project Manager. Great guy, one of the best PMs I've worked with, and razor-sharp mind... one of the fastest learners I've known. Older than I was, he looked better, seemed to be in excellent shape, and played sports frequenly. Smoked like a chimney.

At one point he confided to me that he used to work for a brewery in the UK, and that he was in the habit of drinking 1-2 sixpacks of beer every night, sometimes more on the weekends. I never saw him hung over, or even looking tired... unlike the rest of us on the project.

I guess you can get used to anything. Though I think it would have made me unemployed in rather short order if I'd tried his routine, it obviously worked for him.

Our janitor hasn't been particularly eager to refill the paper towel dispensers for the past several days. It occurred to me that my SAK's nail file was about the same size and shape as the dispenser's key, so I decided to give it a try. Saved the day again! <img src="images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />