Wenger 85mm differences in rivets, liners and scales

[Sr.Multiherramienta]

Hi boys! I’m starting with some Wenger mods, and I found some information to share. I hope it’s useful for somebody.

Excuse my English, I know it’s not perfect at all, but I think it’s enough to be understood.

I want to show you some differences in Wenger 85mm models along the years.

The first surprise for me is the rivets. I like Wenger for mods because I find their rivets easier to mod, you don’t need a drill or preserve original parts of the axel. But I discovered that I never dismantled a recent Wenger. I always buy second hand models for that, so they are normally a bit old. Today I did it for first time with a couple of modern models, two Evo, and I discovered Victorinox style rivets.

You can see that in the picture.



First is a simple old Commander with the classic rivets, notice no stamp in the liners. The second is discontinued model than I can't identify, like a Evo s52 or a Master with corkscrew, with the classic rivets and stamp in the liners to give a bit more space for tools.



The third one is a some years old Evo S17 with new Victorinox style rivets, you can still see the unused holes in the liners to install the scales. The last one is a recent S17 with new liners only for new handles, no holes on it.



Macro picture of new and old rivets and liners.



The new handles are different to install in the knife. They use the rivets, like Victorinox, not the traditional protuberances of the aluminium liners.



So we should to have in mind in case of repair or mods that scales and liners are not fully interchangeable between 85mm Wengers. If you buy several for pieces, try to choose compatible models if you think this is important. I think the tools are the same and compatible, but I will update this thread in case I find any problem with this. It looks that we can take a modern Wenger and rivet it old style with no problem.

Even when these changes are a little handicap for mods, I really like to discover this change in the rivets and liners, I think is probably an improvement in the strength of the knife in the last models.

[papercut]

WOW, are the Vic style rivets the same locations and sizes as Vic pins?  That WOULD be cool and an early hint of what is to come with Wenger being phased out.  Hmmm... 

[Sr.Multiherramienta]

WOW, are the Vic style rivets the same locations and sizes as Vic pins?  That WOULD be cool and an early hint of what is to come with Wenger being phased out.  Hmmm...

Mmm... Yes, that could mean that they were sharing some patents before the fusion...

Rivets are not in the same locations, if you are thinking on install evo scales in a Vic (good idea! ), Wenger are still smaller knives.

[Ombudsman]

 Very interesting post !    Thnxs for the info !

[Ombudsman]

WOW, are the Vic style rivets the same locations and sizes as Vic pins?  That WOULD be cool and an early hint of what is to come with Wenger being phased out.  Hmmm...

I think the earliest hint was the Wenger "Premier" knife manufactured entirely by Victorinox...