2 Swiss Tech folders and 1 fixed blade overview and demonstration. Surprised you will be!
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 1 ต.ค. 2024
- In this video I dare to explore the most budget mid-grade EDC knives on the market: Walmart’s own Swiss Tech. Made by the same factory that makes much more popular and expensive knife brands, will this trio measure up to the tasks they are intended to handle?
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#edc #knife #sharp #swisstech
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I bought a Swiss Tech Stahlern and I like it a lot. For 40 bucks there is insane quality there. Micarta handles, AUS 8 blade with a flat grind , and a nice little sheath with a firesteel. The knife is very easy to carry and deploy, and it's easy to EDC by slipping it into your front pocket if you wear cargo pants like I do. The clip on the back of the sheath is on a swivel which allows you to carry it many different ways.
With that said, I need to correct something you said. Survival experts never said that you need a carbon steel blade to strike a fero rod, they said that you need a carbon steel blade to get sparks off of a flint rock. Also, I disagree with you about the Gerber Strongarm having the worst sheath, in fact it has a very good sheath that allows you to carry it a million different ways. Difference of opinion.
I honestly think that between the two knives alone the Stahlern is honestly a better knife imo. Especially since the Strongarm has doubled in price.
I own both flippers and the fixed blade. All nice edges right out of the box! I really like all of them!
Good edge on my fixed blade as well. Very impressed
Würdig = worthy (first knive) ; gerundet = rounded (second)
@@CuttingBoardRx yeah close to it. steely , made of steel both work i would say
Swiss Tech isn’t a bad brand, Swiza on the other hand….run.
I bought all three before watching this video. Why? Well, huge SOG fan-boy. Love their older models. Not happy one bit with the fact that almost everything in their current line-up is either junk low-grade Chinese steel or horribly brittle D2. Not the D2 that was used by custom knife makers decades ago and was very expensive. Modern D2 that snaps in half and is ridiculously cheap! These three knives from Swiss tech and Wal-Mart (you can't find them outside of Wal-Mart, so the company definitely played a huge part bringing these to the Public) are all AUS-8 stainless steel. As much as the knife snobs love to make fun of it, AUS-8 is not some cheap piece of garbage steel. It's definitely a whole heck of a lot better than Cr MoV _whatever!_ Honestly, coming from a dedicated SOG fan-boy, SOG dropped the ball! Wal-Mart is putting out better quality knives than one of my absolute favorite brands!
I'm no fan of Wal-Mart. But always give credit where it's due. Actually, just remembered; I bought four of these! Both folding knives, the fixed blade, and the little 7- in -1 keychain multi-tool model modeled after a certain Victorinox model.
I have had some of swiss tech's products for years. They have really upped their game here. I have owned aus8 knives for years and find nothing wrong with the steel. I own some super steel knives, but keep going back to the utility steels because I use my knives extensively. I am a big fan of appendix carry and the stahlern gives you all options. Brilliant!
The d2 that custom knife makers used years ago is the same d2 that's being used today.... the reason that custom d2 was so good is because it was custom small batch heat treated and why a lot of the d2 of today Is crap is because it's large batch heat treated... nothing more and nothing less, d2 is d2 so Long as the composition is within specs and it typically is. D2 has a very tight heat range during heat treat and a temp difference as small as 20 degrees will make a variation in d2, 50 degrees will make a large difference... the difference between great D2 and decent D2 out of the same batch is one spot in the oven is 20 degrees cooler then target and one spot is dead on target not to mention different parts of the ovens reaching temp faster then other parts so soak times very. A custom maker heat treating 1 blade or 5 blades can get those heat treats perfect and that's why still to this day custom heat treat D2 is a fantastic and very high preformance steel... large commercial heat treating of 500/1000 blades at a time just can't give those results and d2 is a steel that is incredibly unfriendly to large batch/production heat treating. Prime example kubey and petrified fish are two knife companies that put out consistently pretty good D2/K110 knives, they have a pretty dang good protocol for large batch D2, is it going to be great? No it's not but is it pretty good? Yes absolutely, and will significantly out preform aus8 in edge retention and aus8 will be slightly tougher and of course more stainless.
Aus8 is basically just a brand version of 8cr14mov. Yes aus8 is a slightly better steel then 8cr because it's more accurately manufactured but both are low teir low cost stainless alloys that ones made in Japan and one China. In head to head controlled cut tests they will be so close to one another that you can't tell the difference so long as both are heat treated well and ran at a similar hrc. I have did detailed card board and rolled denim cut testing on about 10 knives in 8cr13mov/8cr14mov and about 8-10 in aus8 and they are consistently within 5% of each other and I consider anything 5% or less equal because of inconsistencies in my cutting, cut media, cutting board contact etc etc... the biggest variation I've seen between 8cr and aus8 was in between the AUS8 rat 1 and the spyderco Tenacious where there was a 13% advantage for the spyderco on card board and 8% on rolled denim and with all the other results of almost 20 knives between the 2 steels that was the largest range I got between them with 8cr winning and that all comes down to HEAT TREAT, not the steel it's self.. when steel compositions are so similar the only difference in performance will come from the quality of the heat treat and hardness temper that is used and not the steel it's self. Aus8 and 8cr is so close composition wise that then only performance difference that will exist will come from the quality of heat treat and the hardness the steel is tempered to.. aus8 and 8cr as so similar composition wise that they are basically analogs in performance.
Stalhern is a German word meaning steely👍
I just sharpened the fixed blade and I'm dumb founded by how soft they are running that aus8.. I'm truly curious is they are running the folding knives that soft as well? Or if they are just running the fixed blsde that soft for toughness/hard use reasons. By feel on the stones that knife has to be in the 52-54hrc range judging by the feel and sound on diamond stones. I have a machine shop I'm friends with the owner that has a commercial HRC testing machine and he's got the knife today and hardness testing it for me in the morning. I can't understand why they would run it that soft. Aus8 at that low of a hardness will have basically unserviceable edge retention, it may do OK on softer woods and food cutting but anything tough or abrasive is going to eat that edge up really quickly due to the ridiculous level of softness. Overall it's a pretty cool knife for 40 bucks but they really need to increase that hardness and if the folding knives are equally as soft they would literally be pointless as an edc knife. On the fixed blade the factory edge was at 24 degrees per side, I lowered it to 20 per side.. the factory edge was actually pretty decent! Not great but decent! The magnesium rod is of great quality and throws great sparks off of the knife and really throws great sparks off a sharp spined 1066 carbon steel knife lol. I really wish I know how yours felt hardness wise, mines so soft I'm curious if they are all that soft or if I got a bad one. It's so soft that I just feel that they aren't running them that soft because it's just to soft. If it's 56-58hrc then that's not to soft to think something is wrong... but when it feels softer then carbon steel I've sharpened that's at a known 53hrc I just don't think they are running them that soft intentionally. When I'm saying 52-54hrc I'm being generous it feels significantly softer then that 53hrc carbon steel that has been tested so we know the hardness number.
I’m curious to see how it tests at the shop.
Did yo find out the hardness? I’m getting 55-57 using test files
On your comment about carrying a knife (speaking about the Stahlern) attached to the outside of your pack, that you should put it in your pack.. Why do you say that? Shouldn't you generally have a decent blade at the ready, and maybe a backup in the pack? I think this is one of those weirdly positioned blades where it's a lot of knife for the dollars, but it's not perfect and you're still getting what you paid for in some respects. I like mine, but I wouldn't depend on it for my life.
I like the weight and shape, and the scales are nice enough, I just really hate the jimping and given they went through the trouble to make the sheath swivel on the clip it would have been really nice to have ambidextrous sheath insertion rather then the blade only fitting one way. Being right handed, It doesn't allow small of the back horizontal carry without an upside down draw which is disappointing.
you have a tang that is split in half with part steel and part aluminum...and the pins only go one pin in each part...that is a problem
“Split in half” lmao it’s like not even half an inch of aluminum 😂 either way there are torture tests of this knife here on TH-cam readily available. Hasn’t been an issue.
Some of my older knives I end up painting some stupid bright color I have in a paint can left over. I stopped buying "tactical colors" for the reason you stated. I've lost many nice blacked out gear in the dark. Camping with friends drinking a bit to much
Picked up the Würdig today, scales are sufficiently textured to aid in retention. Overall I am very pleased and impressed.
Saw these videos this morning and went to Walmart and bought the stahlern Very nice good knife! Good compact sheath. Love it!
I wasn't impressed with the Stahlern. The blade wouldn't even cut paper. I took it back.
Lol you should probably learn how to sharpen knives if you you plan on ever owning one for more than a week
@@keeperoftruth5951no shit lmao 😂 wonder what homie would have done when the factory edge wore down. Probably thinks knives are disposable products 😂
"If youre a swiss speaking person"
That is politically correct lol
Just got one yesterday. I too was pleasantly surprised with the factory edge. Great video, thanks for sharing.
I bought both as well and they were razor sharp out of the box. Good knives for the price.
Good reviews of these and thanks for actually using them! Its nice to see real usage and not just paper cuts.
Stahlern in Swedish means "steeling". German, the same word means "of steel". Internet dictionaries are awesome. And like you, I have no very expensive knives(the most being $48 for Condor Tool and Knife Hudson Bay and it came with a very nice heavy leather sheath) and yet they seem to get the job done.
Good to know that you are using good knives!
Gerundet is German for “rounded”
I bet there are at least twice as many words for “Rounded” in German language than in, say, French… :D
Awesome, will be checking out walmart for these
Now I want to test if broken glass will create a spark....
I recently bought a Gerundet. Great value for the money. I like the ceramic ball bearings.
Glad you got one!
What I find funny is every time I see something on TH-cam that they say is going to be at Walmart everywhere are Walmarts never get them
Went to my Walmart today and bought one. First I only saw the folding ones up top shelf in the glass case. Then I saw the fixed blade boxes down at bottom. Excellent knife!
They do not sale them anymore at our local Walmarts.
They come and go in stores. I see them on the app you can order online.
@@CuttingBoardRx I have tried that also they will not ship. Even went to Swiss web sight. They said go to Walmart lol
@@kenniegarner3848 you know, I bought an Effengrow on Amazon and it’s a decent knife in the same price range.
Do you think that i could easily drill a hole into the handle of the ferro rod? For cordage.
@@CuttingBoardRx Got yaz thank you for responding
Great review, I'm sad to see walmart take over the knife industry, but honestly unless you're willing to spend over $150 you won't even compare to these $29 dollar beauties.
It is sad. Walmart has destroyed a lot of companies with their business practices. They bring in a product and test it in a few stores. If it sells well, they up the orders and the maker increases production getting heavily leveraged in expansion to meet the production and then Walmart starts forcing them to reduce price. They have no choice but to comply when they expanded solely to provide product to Walmart. They've put a lot of companies under with this practice. This is also a huge part of why most of their goods are made in china.
@@Dolmdemonyes, we know. holy shit we know. We knew this decades ago. We know it now. Walmart bad. Yes. Very good
Funny how Walmart haters never mention Amazon! Do you know what’s the difference between Besos and a shark? One is a veracious blood-thirsty predator and the other one is just a fish!
@@peen2804 Did that make you feel better or is that more like a compulsion thing?
purchased one of the stahlern recently. it was very sharp from the box sliced thin paper similar to what you had with ease (single pages and stacked to 3/8"). its comfortable, easy to wield, and a decent size for edc fixed blade, while large enough for some outdoor use. the sheath is a great idea, though poorly made(fitted). that somewhat defeats the purpose as edc/hybrid, which is where i think the knifes niche is. there are nicely made folding knives and smaller fixed blades for dedicated edc, and similarly priced more robust and versatile fixed blades if using as a dedicated camp/field knife. i think its a nice compromise with the size and stainless steel. im somewhat hesitant whether to keep it or return it, mostly because of the sheath and the potential you mentioned of the grips loosening. perhaps gluing some silicone or o-rings in the sheath could give the desired retention?
a few other notes: i think they have confused the blade and handle lengths. as the measurements i took were 4.25" blade length and 4.625" handle length. the package and other literature reads 4.5" blade and 4.25" handle.
canvas and micarta give a pleasantly textured grip without the bulk of some molded handles. fitting is good although some texture remains on the edges.
considering prices of other knives available at purchase i think it is reasonably priced, perhaps a few dollars highly priced due to the premium branding, unique styling, and sheath/ferro combination.
if the sheath was redesigned, perhaps with a cordage cutout, a larger ferro, better retention for the knife and clip position i think it would be an excellent value and perhaps worth more than currently priced.