An old .... make that very old alox farmer :)

[Huntsman]

Now that would be a Holy Grail 😀

And thanks for the great theory and history lesson

Re: "all in all it was a pretty good compromise" .......
Don't you mean "awl in awl it was a pretty good compromise" ? 😀

For me - I love the old awl ....
However as an awesome (awlsome?) and effective multi purpose tool, the pressed new awl wins the contest. It's cutting edge and drilling capabilities are superb.

Cheers awl !

[detron]

Wow. I get excited when I find a knife from the 80's I couldn't imagine how cool finding something like that would be.

me too,  I am stoked to find just about any SAK at a flea market.

[BADSAK]

  I may never have seen one of these if Huntsman hadn't revived this thread. Just seeing the pics makes me dream of such a find!

Thanks Huntsman

[jazzbass]

However isn't it a SAK that should not really exist  In that the alox scales came in in '61 with the 'new' Soldier design, and the old awl was retired that same year?? - Or did the aloxcales come in a bit earlier??

Alox came before the 61 Soldier. All indications are that the Alox knives were introduced around 1957. There are enough large awl Pioneers around that they must have been in production for a couple years and these are not prototypes.
 

[Huntsman]

Ah Thanks JB - Makes sense.

And, interestingly, an exact parrallel  to the next SAK design switchover in 2008
- In that, the fundamental design for the knife that became the new Solidier, had been designed by Victorinox, and around for a few years, before it became the official new Swiss Army Soldier.
Nothing like a bit of road testing for an important bit of kit!!

@ BADSAK - Thanks - But credit here goes to our "MTo post database index' enki  - Who posted a link to this post, that I just followed and then updated.

The wealth of information here at MTo is amazing - I sometimes wish it could be formally catalogued, or indexed, in some way - However people's memories and 'search' are pretty good tools in the meantime!!