SWIZA D06

Is the king dead? Long live the king!

The owner of the young Swiss brand SWIZA is the watch company Helvetica Brands SA, whose head office and production facilities are located in Delemont (Jura Canton), where the famous Wenger knives were once produced. As you know, Victorinox and Wenger equally divided the supply of army knives, but “Bolivar could not stand two” and in 2014 Wenger ended more than a century of competition with fellow competitors, completely stopping the production of knives. Coincidentally, the first SWIZA knife was released in 2015, which is why this brand is considered the heir to the deceased grandee. Meanwhile, this is not entirely true, because the young manufacturer has found his own way, abandoning the old traditions of design and construction. It should be noted that not everyone likes the design features and construction of the company's knives, which is why the camp of their supporters and opponents is divided in two.

10 types of handle

The SWIZA D06 Swiss knife is closer in design and decoration to a civilian image than to an army one. Like all products of the brand, it is distinguished by a wide variety of bright colours of the handle. The colour palette includes 9 tones in models with a soft rubberized plastic handle Soft Touch and 1 separate modification SWIZA D06 WOOD with an olive tree handle, which will cost 40 francs more. The handle is made with a slight crescent bend and beveled cuts on the ends. When folded, the knife has a length of 95 mm, and when unfolded — 175 mm. The smooth blade, 2 mm thick and 75 mm long, is made of 440C stainless steel and has a hardness of 57 HRC. It is fixed in a fixed position with a Safety Lock, the activation button of which is hidden under the brand logo.

Good set of tools

The following tools add additional functionality to the knife: a 77 mm wood file, a can opener with a wide screwdriver at the end, a combined bottle opener with a narrow screwdriver and a stripper, an awl-sewing machine with an onboard bend-amplifier and a powerful Phillips screwdriver (54 HRC). An unexpected bonus was a small detachable tweezers 47 mm long, hidden at the end of the handle, with bevelled ends. If a corkscrew is fundamentally important to you, then it is better to look at a similar SWIZA D05 model, where it replaces a Phillips screwdriver. The entire tool, with the exception of a Phillips screwdriver and tweezers, is designed to be removed with two hands using through-shaped slots. The workmanship of all elements of the knife is beyond praise, and the manufacturer gives a lifetime warranty on it.