Model identification

[GigaHz]

Does this have a model name or just a number? 91 mm single layer.

[jazzbass]

Model 248. No real name. These were made from at least 1902 - 1950, but fell out production in favor of the 248k, the 84mm version of the same knife later called the Gourmet. Victorinox made one post 1951 run of them that I know of in the mid 1970s in the Elinox line - the ones with the bright red ABS scales and pot metal corkscrew.

[GigaHz]

Mine has the standard pin placement. Was this also made with the old style pin placement? Is the crab claw when the old pin placement was used?

[jazzbass]

Correction: 1902 - 1960, not 1950. Misinterpreted my own notes, embarrassingly. These dates are approx, BTW - this should almost always be assumed but I like to mention it anyway.

Mine has the standard pin placement. Was this also made with the old style pin placement? Is the crab claw when the old pin placement was used?

The majority of these that you see were made with the old style pin placement. That is the crab claw and the original style can opener time periods. In the crab claw time (what I call the Post Wartime period, 1946-1952) the 248 was still made but you really see a lot more of the 248k, especially towards the end of the PWAR period (those knives with the AS/VaSS stamps). You do see some of the 248 from the mid 1950s with the modern pin placement and some in the late 1950s with the hidden rivets (Chako has a picture of a hidden rivet version on this thread). I've yet to see a post-1960 248 until the mid 1970s Elinox run.

All that said, there is nothing very special about making one of these - all of the tools in them have been available since the introduction of the Officer's Knife in 1897. So while not common I wouldn't be surprised if versions from the 1960s, 80s, 90s or 2000s showed up in an auction some day due to someone having a special run made for them.