Which Swiss Army Knives Have A Pin? (And Which Come With A Pin Slot?)

Because of its small size, low cost, and the number of versatile tools it can hold, a Victorinox Swiss Army Knife, or SAK, is one of the most useful pocket tools one can buy. In addition to its main blade, implements including screwdrivers, can and bottle openers, awls, pins, and scissors can be found and used for many tasks at home, in the office, or outdoors. SAKs are made from a very durable metal called Martensitic steel, which makes the knife blades easy to sharpen and retain it's edge, and because it is made of stainless steel, the tools in a Swiss Army Knife do not rust and can last a very long time.

The pin in a Swiss Army Knife is its smallest tool; it is tucked in the pin slot of the plastic scale handle, and depending on what model of SAK, it is located near the base of either the corkscrew or Philips screw back tool. All 91mm Victorinox Swiss Army Knives from 2005 onwards have the pin slot as standard, and some 84mm models with cellidor rear scales that have a corkscrew or Phillips screw recess will also have a pin slot as well. For the pins itself, there are several SAK models where the straight pin is incorporated into the package. 

SAK's come in a variety of sizes, ranging from 58mm, 74mm, 84mm, 91mm, all the way to 111mm, and the number of tools or functions in mainstream Swiss Army Knives varies for each model. Starting with the smallest, the Victorinox Classic SD has the fewest with only seven functions, while the Victorinox Swiss Champ has the most, with a total of 33 functions. Because of the diversity and number of Swiss Army Knives in the market, the available tool combinations will vary, and not all of them will have the pin as a standard inclusion.

The Victorinox Swiss Army Knife 91mm models that come with the straight pin include the Compact, the Huntsman Lite, the Traveller, Traveller Lite, the CyberTool series S, M, L, Lite, and SwissChamp, and though not a Swiss army Knife in the strictest sense, another Victorinox product called the Swiss Card and its three variants, the Swiss Card Classic, the Swiss Card Lite, and the Swiss Card Nail Care features the pin as standard. Because of its small size, the SAK straight pins can be easily lost, but there are many replacement pins available for sale in many knife or outdoor shops, or for some SAK users, rather than buy, they have used other kinds of pins including dressmaker pins, or ball pins, as an alternative.

Among Swiss Army Knife users and communities, modifying or altering their SAK to maximize its use is popular, and one of these mods is to change what is placed in the scale slots for something else. Examples of these include replacing the standard toothpick with a ferro rod, or in the case of the straight pin,  substituting it with a correctly sized sewing needle that fits into the slot to add even more functionality to their SAK.

Victorinox started adding the pin slot to their models with the plus scales, meaning scales with an extra opening for the ballpoint pen, which is apart from the standard toothpick and tweezer slots in 1991, but later became common on their models by 1993. For older SAK models that do not have a pin slot, an easy solution to get this option is to replace the scale without the slot for a newer version that has it.