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| Select Comments and Feedback from those listed below. | ||
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Send us your Comments and
Feedback on the Victorinox SwissTool. | ||
| Roderick Romer | Milt Butterfield | Dennis Bible |
| Bryan Lee Sammis | Patrick Dean | John Tucci |
| David Rock | Donald Strader | Rolf Hatterscheid |
| Piet Henskens | ||
From: Roderick Romer
Date: 24-April-98
I agree with your article.
From: Milt Butterfield
Date: 28-April-98
I have been a Machinist/Toolmaker for over 20 years, and probably notice details that the average person would miss.
First of all,the so called "half-baked" needle nose pliers are well designed in my opinion. Being 3/8" shorter than those on the "Leatherman Super Tool," they have a slight leverage advantage when griping at the tip. Also, the little bit of extra width at the tip is better for grabbing the flats of small nuts, and are dressed fine enough to double as tweezers. (They worked as well as the ones in my medicine cabinet when extracting the finest hair from the back of my hand).
The serrated blade isn't very aggressive, but worked well cutting cardboard and even paper without hanging up. If deeper serrations are required, that's no problem using a small rat-tailed file with a little patience.
Your review was right about the flat screwdrivers being slightly rounded off, but this too is easily remedied with a fine file. That's a small price to pay for the exceptional finish on the implements that reduce friction and wear.
One tool that isn't there is scissors, but then again there's no hammer, wrench, or car jack either. Oh well, guess I will have to do without!
There are a couple of useful advantages to the design however,hat I would like to share. (1) When either one of the handles is opened to the 90 degree position, the springs hold the position well enough to be used as a fairly accurate outside square. (2) At the 170 degree (approximate) position,the spring tension holds the position for extended reach. This could be useful for cutting down that snagged fishing lure, or retrieving a dropped screw that's just out of reach.
One last observation is that of the plier springs. There is an extra extension with a hole, along with two recesses positioned just above a space on both sides of the case. This can mean only one thing,.....attachments such as a hex driver to be delivered in the future.
Conclusion:-)...I thank Mr.Leatherman and his Company for bringing in the "multitool" revolution, and the many fine products out there today, but the Swiss Tool is, in my opinion, simply the best available....hands down.
From: Dennis Bible
Date: 18-June-98
I agree wholeheartedly with your evaluation. While the Swisstool is well made, there are definitely some design flaws. The rounded off screwdrivers and the lack of a proper crimper, just to name a few. I also feel that the locking mechanism may be a potential weakness.
I find myself going back to my Supertool time and time again. It may have clumping and it may not be the most comfortable to use, but its features and simplistic design still make it the best.
Date: 23-July-98
I had previously commented on the Swisstool. When I first received it, I thought it was slightly inferior to the Supertool. Boy was I wrong. I now carry the Swisstool every day.
I think the pliers are superior to the Supertool's. They allow one to atain a better grip. It is hard to go back to the Supertool when you get used to no clumping. The snap on a pouch is more durable than velcro.
My only complaints about the Swisstool are:
Overall I would not hesitate to recommend the Swisstool to anyone.
From: Bryan Lee "Big-Target" Sammis
Date: 8-July-98
How many of you out there used to carry an SAK(swiss army knife) and a Leatherman tool at the same time? Well I too have done that same thing for a long time. Until NOW!!!!
Since my purchase of of the SAK's new Swiss Tool , I've enjoy both the versatility of the popular multi-tools,and the quality/durability that the SAK is famous for. Some of the tools have been lengthened (an improvement over existing SAK and multi-tools). But, in my personal opinion, the best improvement is the locking mechanism that prevents the tools and blades from accidentally closing on your FINGERS!!!!!!
All around it's the best multi-tool to date. Though it is pricy for a multi-tool (about $75.00), it's worth cashing a gold coin, or run up your credit card to add the Swiss-Tool to your survival kit!!!
From: Patrick Dean
Date: 23-July-98
Recently over the summer I took a trip to Switzerland where I saw the SwissTool. There seemed to be several variations to the product sold here in the us. For about 20 franks (about thirteen dollars) Victorinox is offering a SwissTool Plus. It is the same SwissTool except it comes with a wrench and about six bits. I could not tell exactly what they were, though I think that there are at least two hex bits. It comes packaged in an extra large SwissTool case. However, the bits do not connect with the SwissTool as they do with Gerbers and Leathermans. Secondly, the SwissTool I got came in a leather pouch with Velcro and there is about one inch of the tool prodruding which I find to be more than enough to grab the tool with. Oh, and as for the way a button looks, it has a steel Victorinox symbol, similar to that of a snap button. While walking down the street I also noticed a nylon sheath that is diffrent than the one sold here, though I could not tell if it was Velcro or not.
From: John Tucci
Date: 28-Aug-96
I gave the Swiss Tool to myself for Father's Day. Having used a Leatherman for a number of years, I do miss the needlenose pliers of the Leatherman. Howeve,r in every other respect the Swiss Tool wins hands down. I've had no trouble with the snap closure of its pouch. The curved wire cutter works well on QUAD and small gauge wire.
From: David Rock
Date: 7-August-98
Ahh, the SwissTool. I carry mine everywhere, every day, even to church on Sunday. Sure, it's a bit heavy, but I've solved that problem in two ways:
1) I carry the tool on the part of my belt near the buckle, so the end of my belt doesn't come loose and the tool fall off when I undo my pants.
2) I've learned to spread my legs when I take a leak to prevent the weight of the SwissTool dragging my pants down (also prevents me dribbling on my shoes :-)).
Yes, the screw driver tips need to be flattened. A couple of hours with an EZ-Lap diamond hone fixed mine nicely. I sqared off the tips, and made the smallest screwdriver thinner as well, and now it works great.
The can opener needed a modification as well. I found that the hook that goes under the lip of the can is too wide and too round, which caused it to slip frequently. I got out the trusty Dremel tool and sharpened the hook into a strong and nasty point. Now I can go around the top of a can almost as quickly as I can rummage through a drawer to find a real can opener. (Has anyone ever noticed that the Leatherman can opener works best if you go around the can backwards, i.e., towards you, while the Swiss style canopener works best if you cut in the other direction?) Now that I've customized my SwissTool can opener, it works better than the Leatherman.
About the lanyard attachment: If you look at either side of the closed tool you'll see a metal plate that serves as a spring to provide tension as you rotate the handles to get at the pliers. Those plate/springs have holes in them. That's your lanyard attachment. And it actually works fairly well, way better than that dinky little whatzit on the original Leatherman PST. I took a piece of round shoelace and ran an end through each of the holes and tied a knot in each end. (The knots fit inside, under the spring/plate. When the pliers are in the open position, the string should form a loop just long enough to reach about to the end of the handles.
From: Donald Strader
Date: 07-September-98
Your review of the Victornox Swiss Tool does not comment on scissors. You yourself indicate the importance of these in the Leatherman Wave review. It appears that a common and often used tool on the average Swiss Army knife has been omitted.
From: Rolf Hatterscheid
Date: 10-September-98
Have had a look at these in the shop and unfortunately the one I saw had been very amateurishly polished the h... out of! The screwdrivers were rounded and I would not have used them except in a real emergency. The Supertool (Leatherman) screw drivers were far superior!
From: Piet Henskens
Date: 25-Sept.- 98
I've been an avid reader/visitor of your very well designed website.
I've personally used a Leatherman Pocket Survival Tool (the original one) until one time the Philips screwdriver closed forcefully on my thumb and the sharp square edge cust me to the bone. Then I bought a Super Tool from Leatherman, only to discover that the hardening did probably not go to well for my example because the metal bist tended to break exposing very coarse metal particles. The wirecutter gave up on some wire a little harder then brass wire and this got repaired, but I lost my confidence in Leatherman.
Then came the SwissTool and, man, that's just a beautiful piece of "machinery" -- it works like clockwork, and when one just forgets about some rounded edges and fixes them on a diamond wheel one has a very sturdy functional and STRONG "survival tool"
I bought one in the USA as it was 50% cheaper then in the Netherlands. But, I also missed the Bitdriver piece like one can get from Leatherman etc. BUT, Victorinox solved this one even better then I expected, they didn't make some clumsy attachement for the Swisstool that can only be used in combination with the tool, rather they made a nice nifty small Bitholder wrench with a plastic clip that can hold 10 bits. They supply it with 6 bits and the wrench is basically just a piece of sturdy rustfree tube with bitholders on each side, one side is in a 90 degree bend. They sell it together with the SwissTool in a somewhat thicker beltsheath and it works perfectly. By the way I would have liked Vitorinox to fit a small scissor instead of the chisel with the 2 scraper/stripping notches. Those could have been fitted on the large screwdriverblade/bottlecap opener without problems.
DATE: 13-Oct-98
Hello Doug,
Thought you might want to know this. I wrote some comments about the SwissTool a couple of weeks ago and you included them somewhere in your incredible website. I also emailed Victorinox with some problems I had with their SwissTool (bit holder didn't solidly hold bit inserts so I lost a couple, plastic fabric sheath below Victorinox quality standard, and the missing of a scissor on the SwissTool.
I got a reply from Mr. Elsener Jr., "The Boss" himself. I get a new wrench with better fitting bit holder heads. They had some starting problems and chose not to put magnets in the bitholder heads because they could loose magnetism when dropped on hard surface. They know about substandard carrying pouch and offered me a leather one or I could wait until the new designed one came out. They will send the above wrench and pouch airmail f.o.c. -- TALK about service!!
Also Mr. Elsener confirmed that they are developping a SwissTool with scissors !!
Thought you wanted to know, best regards, keep up the good work,
Piet Henskens
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