SAKs in Military Museum

[duder]

A while ago I`ve been to Koblenz (Germany) to visit a military museum. I read somewhere that there are some Victorinox knives to be seen. And indeed they have a nice big dispay with mainly soldier knives in it.
In the picture you see the whole display with 3 sections. The section on the left shows the evolution of the swiss soldier knife. The middle section shows the evolution of the officers knife and in the section on the right side are some soldier knives for different countries shown.
Unfortunately the fotos I took are not very good, but I hope they give an impression. I`ll add some more fotos with closeups.

[duder]

Here is a closeup of the first section. As you can see they use the same dates as in official books and brochures. The silver alox soldier with the red shield came in 1977. But of course it was still made in 1980.

[duder]

And here is the middle section. Most of the knives are different versions of the Spartan (the very first Officers knife), but the first 2 versions are 3-layer knives. The first one has a shot-shell-pulling tool and the second one is an old Climber version (if I remember it correctly).

[duder]

This is the right section. I`m not sure why they call this section 1995, maybe just because the display was made in 1995. But not all of the displayed knives are actual knives of that time. The knives for Germany, the Netherlands and Danmark were indeed in use in 1995. But the two knives for Nigeria are not original. Nigeria received these red and blue Swisschamps in the late 70s; these had a small pruner blade instead of the small blade. But the knives in the display are later Swisschamps (you can also see the multipurpose hook), which were probably equipped with original scales.

[North Man]

Hi Duder

Very nice stuff

[rlocock]

Interesting thread Duder,many thanks.

[Lasse Eskildsen]

Cool pictures!
I didnt know we where issued saks 

Any idea why the first and twice soldier knife have spear point blades while the second has a clip point?
The third seems smaller and it also states it has a smaller weight so I would asume they remodelled it to lessen the weight, but why did they cance the spear point of number one to a clip point on number two and then back?

[jazzbass]

Great stuff - thanks.

[edap617]

Thanks for sharing with us those pics, duder.

[EZ822]

Awesome pics! 

[duder]

Here is a foto of a danish army knife from my collection. The danish army uses these 111mm Adventurers since 1994. HMAK stands for "Hærens Materielkommando" (Army Materiel Command). But nowadays they also use standard Adventurers with the normal shield instead of this print.

Unfortunately I cannot say why the swiss army changed from a spearpoint blade on the model 1891 to a clippoint blade (model 1908) and than again back to a spearpoint blade on the smaller model 1951. 

[J-sews]

Very interesting stuff, thank you for sharing!

[duder]

I`m glad you all like the thread, Thanks !

Here is a closer look on the 1897 knife. I`m not sure if this knife was really available in 1897. In a Victorinox brochure are some old catalog pages from 1903 shown. In this catalog the knife has the number 238.
In this foto the shot-shell-extractor can easier be seen...

[ICanFixThat]

Great!   Thanks for the virtual visit to the museum. 

[nuphoria]

That's very cool. Thank you for putting the pics up for us

[J-sews]

I`m glad you all like the thread, Thanks !

Here is a closer look on the 1897 knife. I`m not sure if this knife was really available in 1897. In a Victorinox brochure are some old catalog pages from 1903 shown. In this catalog the knife has the number 238.
In this foto the shot-shell-extractor can easier be seen...

(Image removed from quote.)

I'm not understanding what part the shot shell extractor is

[duder]

It`s the tool that`s not foldet out, behind the blade. I took a quick foto of the knife in the earlier mentioned catalog. In this picture the shell-extractor is folded out. These "claws" were used to grip the bottom of the shot-shells to pull them out of the chamber. I guess the "claws" had different sizes for different calibers. But I cannot say that for sure.

[J-sews]

Ahh, I understand now. Thanks!

[bren10man]

This is the right section. I`m not sure why they call this section 1995, maybe just because the display was made in 1995. But not all of the displayed knives are actual knives of that time. The knives for Germany, the Netherlands and Danmark were indeed in use in 1995. But the two knives for Nigeria are not original. Nigeria received these red and blue Swisschamps in the late 70s; these had a small pruner blade instead of the small blade. But the knives in the display are later Swisschamps (you can also see the multipurpose hook), which were probably equipped with original scales.

Swiss Champ did not come out until early 1987.   Around 1991, the hook was added.  Pliers did not come on SAKs until the Swiss Champ in early 1987.  Prior to that, the Champion was the biggest one.

These are probably Champions or Champion Plus models.   

[duder]

I guess you are right. Must have been a champion, it had no pliers. I used the name Swisschamp because a man from Victorinox once called the nigerian army knife "Swisschamp of that time".
In contrast to the knife in the display the originals had no hook or chisel. The small screwdriver on the back had the old wider form and instead of the normal small blade it had a pruner blade.

[Dunc]

Thanks for sharing its very interesting . Please feel free to share any other pics of the museum .If you would like to you can start a seperate thread in the shutter shop .

Dunc

[duder]

I took only fotos of the Victorinox display. But you can find more fotos or videos on google or youtube. If you search for "WTS Koblenz" or "Wehrtechnische Studiensammlung" or so, you may find several infos.

[Dunc]

I took only fotos of the Victorinox display. But you can find more fotos or videos on google or youtube. If you search for "WTS Koblenz" or "Wehrtechnische Studiensammlung" or so, you may find several infos.

Thanyou 

[Reinier]

Thanks for posting this!
I was in Cochem recently, if I had heard about this before I would have checked that museum out

[trailmaster]

wow, very interesting. I guess it is kinda embarrassing to say I have been in Koblenz two times in the past and never noticed this museum. I guess I was too busy eating Schnitzel with beer at a place close to the Deutsches Eck both times and then going on the cruise to the Rhine and Lorelei. I have also seen Kastorkirche and some other stuff. anyway, Koblenz is a nice place and I would like to visit again.

thanks for sharing those photos.

[bren10man]

I guess you are right. Must have been a champion, it had no pliers. I used the name Swisschamp because a man from Victorinox once called the nigerian army knife "Swisschamp of that time".
In contrast to the knife in the display the originals had no hook or chisel. The small screwdriver on the back had the old wider form and instead of the normal small blade it had a pruner blade.

....then those be 1973-1986 era Champions...I have several of those, 1 of which I EDC, rest are NIB old stock or nearly NIB.  The first true SAK I ever bought was at age 14 in DEC 1986 from SMKW....a Champion.   1 MONTH before the Swiss Champ came out.  I got sick, as I wanted the biggest.  I have several SC's as well.

[tim]

Slightly comical that the Nigerian army chooses the knife with everything, including a fish-scaler!

[Guardian]

Hi Duder, do you know if the Danish soldiers use a case to carry their Adventure SAK in or do they just keep them in their battle dress pockets?
Thanks

[duder]

Unfortunately I have no definite info about that, sorry. So far I have never seen a special case for the danish knives. I guess they just carry it in the pocket, but that`s just a guess...

[North Man]

Hi
Fantastic topic this is!

NM