Identifying Swiss Army Knives

The term "Swiss Army knife", the red color and the cross-and-shield symbol are all registered trademarks that may only be used by Victorinox and Wenger. However that has not stopped many other companies from producing "copycat" knives.

Here's how to tell real Swiss Army knives from junk:

Logos

The fastest way to identify real Swiss Army knives is to check the logo on the knife shells. This method is fast, but it requires some skill, since there are several different versions of the Victorinox and Wenger logos, and also many "look-alike" knives that attempt to duplicate them without quite running afoul of international copyright laws.

NOTE-- Some copycat knives don't have any logo at all on the shells-- which makes them hard to distinguish from older, legitimate Swiss Army knives which may have lost their logos. You'll need to use the tang marks and other clues for those.

Victorinox

Here are some Victorinox logos:


The basic logo found on most Victorinox knives.	Older knives may have the same logo in brass.

Some economy knives have a printed logo.	The same printed logo after a few years of "pocket wear"

Another variation on the economy printed logo.	The same printed logo after a few years of "pocket wear"

Wenger

Here are some Wenger logos:


The basic logo found on most Wenger knives.	The same logo after a few years of "pocket wear".

Some economy knives have a printed logo.	The printed logo after a few years of wear.

Wenger Standard Issue knives have a different logo.	Stainless Steel knives have a slightly different logo.

Fakes

Here are some logos from "copy-cat" knives:


This is the copycat that we see most often. It's poor quality even for a China knife.	This is the Royal Crest brand knife. Very poor quality.	Yet another copycat of inferior quality.

Another clever rip-off logo on a knife that bends and breaks quickly.	This one may be trying to rip off Mercedes Benz rather than Victorinox!	Close, but no cigar. This one was probably too close to the Wenger logo to be legal.

This German manufacturer makes an excellent knife, but it's still not Swiss Army.

Tang Marks

The surest way to check the identity of a Swiss Army knife is to look at the maker's mark at the base of the largest blade. We have never seen a counterfeit knife that faked the Wenger or Victorinox name on the tang. It's just too much work for the manufacturers, and the penalties are too huge.

Here are some examples of Victorinox tang marks:

Here are some examples of Wenger tang marks:

Here are some tang marks from "look-alike" knives.

Other Clues

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