We often get a lot of emails regarding Victorinox products, probably due to their large presence in retail chains. As a result, it made a lot of sense to pick up one of their most popular products, the Swiss Champ pocketknife, and give it a review.
For those not familiar with them, Victorinox is one of the OGs of knives, multi-tools, and watches with a focus on tactical purposes. The company was founded in 1884 and is based out of Ibach, Switzerland. Currently, Victorinox is the largest manufacturer of pocketknives in the world, and it also licenses its logo (and brand) for other apparel allowing the company to routinely rack up 500+ million dollars in revenue each year. Through focusing on high quality blends of steel for their products, and coming up with innovative twists, they continue to remain a major player in the market.
But enough about the company, let’s look at the Swiss Champ Swiss Army knife. This particular knife is certainly more like a multi-tool but due to it’s focus on being a knife first Victorinox markets it as a pocketknife with multiple functions. In fact, the company markets the Swiss Champ as the “ultimate pocketknife”. The full specifications for it are as follows:
Specifications
- Height: 33 mm
- Length: 91 mm
- Width: 26 mm
- Weight: 185 g
- Material: ABS/cellidor
- Blade lockable: No
- One hand blade: No
- No. of features: 33
- Color: Red
The other details
That’s right, the Swiss Champ has 33 functions to it which is fairly impressive. The functions are as follows: Fish scaler, Hook disgorger, Ruler (cm), Ruler (in), Magnifying glass, Bottle opener, Screwdriver 6 mm, Wire stripper, Toothpick, Pin, Wood saw, Phillips screwdriver ½, Multipurpose hook, Scissors, Tweezers, Key ring, Nail file, Nail cleaner, Metal saw, Metal file, Screwdriver 2.5 mm, Blade – large, Pressurized ballpoint pen, Reamer – punch and sewing awl, Chisel 4 mm, Combination pliers, Wire cutters, Wire crimper, Blade – small, Can opener, Screwdriver 3 mm, Mini screwdriver 1.5 mm, and Corkscrew.
While it does only come in a red, black, blue, or red stripe finish for the handle and silver/metal finish for the rest of the knife, you can definitely find tons of aftermarket scales for these and swap them out to anything you want really. I agree that the red doesn’t exactly scream “tactical”, but Victorinox isn’t trying to sell it as that either.
I think that the weight of 185 grams make the Swiss Champ feel perfect in your hands and the length and width allow you to operate with one as a pocketknife should allow. Obviously, for some of the tools, you’ll have to utilize your other hand to get them ready, but you’ll still be able to operate it with one hand. Due to the size and weight of the Swiss Champ, you can easily justify carrying it around every day and not feel like you have an entire toolbox in your pocket (even though with this thing you will have one!).
Build quality
Victorinox really pushes quality as a marketing strategy, and they certainly mean it. Seeing as Victorinox is a Swiss company, they have really pushed precision in their manufacturing strategy too which makes it easy to back their marketing strategy. From the moment I picked up the Swiss Champ I knew the build quality was solid on it because it literally feels like that in your hands. All the tools come out with the right amount of ease, and everything feels smooth to operate. If that doesn’t assure you then just know that Victorinox includes a lifetime warranty on all their products.
Usage
I have already mentioned the Victorinox really pushes to utilize German and French steel allowing them to source a higher quality of steel. This is great for the Swiss Champ because the blades on this thing are sharp and have excellent cutting edges right out of the box. Thanks to the higher quality of steel, you don’t have to worry about these notwithstanding use or requiring sharpening after each use. The best part is that when you have to sharpen it again, it’ll be easy to do as the steel requires very little work to get it back up to speed. This means that all the cutting tools, from the knife to the scissors, to the wood saw are truly on par and deliver great performance for a pocketknife.
To be fair, I found pretty much all the tools included to be excellent and functional with some minor exceptions. For example, all the screwdrivers are perfect for EDC use and it’s nice to have a 1.5mm, 2.5mm and 3mm all in one shot. However, having a fish scaler seems a bit useless and that’s coming from someone who would fish every weekend if I could. I’ve never needed a fish scaler on its own and the thought of one of these taking up tool space seems terrible. I feel like they could have added a different tool, and one could deploy the knife tool to do the scaling. Similarly, I thought the toothpick and magnifying glass were more of a gimmick than a valuable tool. The toothpick seems silly, and the magnifying glass was too small to be effective, at least for me.
The saving grace were the knife and the pliers which for me make the Swiss Champ worthwhile on its own. All the other tools are excellent and work as one should expect them to.
Conclusion
The Swiss Champ is no doubt a hybrid multi-tool that is marketed as a pocketknife, and we are ok with that. Victorinox doesn’t try to sell the Swiss Champ as something it is not and instead it nails everything else. While we wish they offered some other design options, the functionality of the Swiss Champ is excellent. It feels great in your hands, and it won’t let you down in a pinch thanks to the 33 different tools it carries. With its lifetime warranty, the Swiss Champ is an excellent buy. 8.5/10.
