Rosewood-Handled Swiss Army Knife
Thursday, April 17th, 2008
I’ve always said Swiss Army knives should be red, and I’ve defended that position with vigor — until I got a look at the rosewood-handled Swisschamp, new for this year’s Victorinox lineup.

I’ve always said Swiss Army knives should be red, and I’ve defended that position with vigor — until I got a look at the rosewood-handled Swisschamp, new for this year’s Victorinox lineup.

Victorinox’s Victoria collection consists of Swiss Army knives — bascially just a regular Executive model — with a twist: they feature engraved blades and a freakin’ gold or platinum handle with 430 diamonds inlaid into each knife. At least they didn’t go overboard. I mean, 500 stones would have just been excessive, yeah?

In 1897 Karl Elsener created the Original Swiss Army knife in the small village of Ibach, Switzerland. Ever since then, two things have remained true of Swiss Army knives: they’re red and they contain multiple blades. The Pioneer is no exception to these rules, but it’s different than any other knife I’ve seen bearing the familiar silver cross — and it’s the only Swiss Army pattern I’ve ever carried daily.
Even so, I haven’t carried a Swiss Army knife since I was a Boy Scout. But this last week I was reunited with a childhood friend. Read on past the jump for the rest of the story.

Rick writes: “This is sort of along the lines of the Victorinox RescueTool. As a firefighter, I should probably look into that one, too, but I realized that I’ve been carrying around the SwissTool for about three or four years now. I don’t have a lot of experience with the Leatherman branded multi-tools, so I can’t draw a direct comparison, but I do know that after four years of wear – and two of those as a full time general contractor — it’s help up really well. It came with it’s own ballistic nylon sheeth with belt loop, and it’s never failed me yet. At this point it’s probably time to rehab it a bit – sharpen the blades up and clean up the phillips screw head as it’s beginning to cam out of screws. Still, that’s not bad for a 4-year-old bit.”
Read on for more from Rick about the SwissTool RS.

Donnie writes: “This is one of the coolest Swiss Army knives I’ve ever seen. It has the glass breaker and belt cutter you’d expect, but the knife can even be used to cut the windshield out. Watch the video for a demonstration of all the features.”
Always out in front of the field, Victorinox (better known as Swiss Army) has fashioned a usb key drive into one of their famous knives. The SwissMemory 1Gb is exactly what it sounds like: a pen knife cabable of storing 1 Gb worth of digital data and still providing:
Windows 98 Drivers for the unit are available on the SwissArmy site, but considering the SwissMemory 1 Gb rolls in at $197, you might be better off just buying a Windows 98 machine to keep wherever you’re going. At least at that price you’ll probably be the only person you know with one of these knives.
SwissMemory 1Gb [Swiss Army.com]
Update: Yeah, we know — two multi-knife articles in a row. We just saw this one and couldn’t pass up dropping it on the site. We promise we’re not becoming “Knifemonger.” Really.