Unusual SAKs

[firiki]

(Image removed from quote.)

Thank you for taking the time to make these posts.

That's one fascinating SAK, I was very pleasantly surprised at the sight of it. A fitting name is has too. The things one finds out reading about knives on the Internet!

A question to our Swiss members, are there still wrestling games and various other strenght and skill competitions being held up there? I understand such festivals were(?) customary once.

[ColoSwiss]

Anyone know about this Wenger ?
SKITOUR
Anyone have one for sale ?

Found that in a box for another model. So no name or number. Never seen another one like it. Carlo (basilio) may have some more info on it.

[Mr. Whippy]

I love this thread. 

[jazzbass]

Today's unusual knife - the Whitetail Deer.

The Whitetail Deer is a newer knife, made as a part of a series of custom models made for US knife retailer Smokey Mountain Knife Works in the late 2000s. All of these knives are pretty unusual, but this one is my favorite so I put here first. This knife is great because it breaks several unofficial Victorinox "rules" when it comes to putting together a knife:

• More than 3 layers but no scissors.
• Both inline and backside Phillips (only seen on this and a couple other SMKW customs)
• The fine screwdriver is substituted for the awl

To me, the last of these three is the most surprising. The fine screwdriver really doesn't fit well here. It doesn't sit all the way down in the backspring and the screwdriver is thinner than the awl so there is a bit of side to side play. Every time I look at this knife I picture some guy at SMKW arguing with some poor Victorinox engineer whose desperately trying to convince him in his very polite Swiss German manner that things like this simply aren't done.

Anyway, this is the Whitetail Deer. The tool selection speaks for itself.

[SAK Guy]

W W!

[enki_ck]

Always found that series interesting, especially the choice of translucent scales for print on the Bass Fishing and American Eagle. Most usually opt for solid scales on that amount of print, don't remember any other examples with translucent scales.

[Reinier]

Always found that series interesting, especially the choice of translucent scales for print on the Bass Fishing and American Eagle. Most usually opt for solid scales on that amount of print, don't remember any other examples with translucent scales.

Do you also mean SAKs with company logos? If Silvertech counts: I have a Silvertech Climber with Boeing logo.

[enki_ck]

Always found that series interesting, especially the choice of translucent scales for print on the Bass Fishing and American Eagle. Most usually opt for solid scales on that amount of print, don't remember any other examples with translucent scales.

Do you also mean SAKs with company logos? If Silvertech counts: I have a Silvertech Climber with Boeing logo.

Nope, print, as in Wenger Snifes or those German ones you got this week.

[Reinier]

Ah I see. I guess you're right.
Of course you're not counting the Souvenir knives and the brand store SAKs (city skyline on the back)

[enki_ck]

Forgot about the Souvenir ones.

[ToolJoe]

That Whitetail Deer model is very interesting.

[kosmo]

To me, the last of these three is the most surprising. The fine screwdriver really doesn't fit well here.

(Image removed from quote.)

The fine screwdriver doesn't fit any deer I'm aware of.  Maybe they meant "Deere".

It is nice knife.  I'm super cereal.

[LoneWolf2014]

May I know what is the grey plastic with a red button?

Thank you for sharing.

[jazzbass]

May I know what is the grey plastic with a red button?

Thank you for sharing.

LED light element like in the Spartan Lite.

[jazzbass]

Here's another from the "why the hell is this unusual?" file: the Mechanic CS.

For whatever reason, this is a pretty unusual knife. Unlike it's Phillips screwdriver toting twin, the corkscrew version of the Mechanic actually pretty hard to find in the wild. It's never been a regular catalog model to my knowledge, but it does show up with more variation than a custom order special run model would. Victorinox seems to have made sporadic runs of these over the past 20 years, but never consistently or in great numbers. Versions of this knife are known to have been made from the late 1980s to the late 1990s, so all four versions of the pliers tool can be found in this model.

Interestingly, the most commonly available version of this knife - by far - is the special 1991 Oath of Rutli knife from the Battle Series. I don't think this is because more of the Rutli knives were made necessarily, but rather that the Rutlis, being special collector's knives, never got used/abused/lost like their non-Battle Series counterparts.
 

[LeaF]

Very interesting, thanks!


From all "unusual" models, which you've listed in this thread (I've count 7 knives) - I own only this one model (Mechanic Corkscrew - my photos of this knife is here) 
Seems it'a a "mission impossible" to collect all them (I can only imagine how many new unknown models you have..)


Anyway, please continue, show must go on! 

[jazzbass]

Golfer Model 0.3102

Everyone loves 84mm scissors, and the 84mm LNF versions are the most drooled over (rightly so, they are pretty awesome). As a result, everyone assumes that the Golfer LNF (either the pen blade or combo tool version) is the rarest of the rare.

Actually, it's not. The original Golfer LNF (Model 244k) was actually a pretty common model for it's time. Likewise, combo tool Golfers were made in pretty large numbers so finding one of those isn't super difficult for the dedicated collector. So what do I consider an "unusual" Golfer? Behold the Model 0.3102.

In the timeline of Golfer production, Victorinox started off in the 1940s making the Model 244k. This is a LNF Golfer with a pen blade. This model was in production for 30 years into the early 1970s when they started phasing the LNF out of regular production. So the successor to the Model 244k Golfer LNF was the Model 0.3102 shown below - same knife, just no LNF. So, if this was a regular production replacement, why is it so unusual?

Well, in the late 1970s Victorinox introduces the 84mm combo tool and creates the Golfer variant that we all know and love - the Model 0.1602. From 1978 on the pen blade model is out of production and millions of combo tool Golfers are made until the 84mm scissors models are phased out in the late 1980s.

Standard model Golfer evolution:


Golfer Model 0.3102:


NB: There is a LNF version of the combo tool Golfer (Model 0.3422) that was made as special runs during the 1980s and into the early 1990s. Given their special run status these are, as you might imagine, very hard to find. However, the 0.3102 model discussed in this post is still slightly harder to find.

[Herman]

Very interesting Jazzbass, about those Golfers.  You made me put mine all together to compare and it seems I got one as well (picture top right) .  Not like yours, but like the one on the picture, with a 4-turn cork screw and t&t.
So, got to be looking now for the rare combo tool with LNF...

[microbe]

I have an alox with a machine error on the marlin spike.

Here it is next to a correct machined one

Top one is a Midshipman, bottom one is a Sailor

[ulli]

Do you mean this one?





I`m not sure about their special run status. I found some of them only about 2 years ago at the factory store in Ibach. I have many golfers, but it was more difficult to find some without the lnf or those with mop scales.

[Herman]

Sweet, Ulli! Did you buy one for me as well 
I was in Ibach last year, and the shop in Brunnen was open, but the factory shop was exceptionally closed because of carnival

[charlie fox]

Probably not unusual, but news to me; Vic's new Delemont series combines the best of Vic and Wenger - Vic's can opener with Wengers clip point small blade and scissors. Oh, and no hook! I'll be looking into these

[GigaHz]

I have two of these also.

[kosmo]

 

[jaydar]

Maybe not that unusual but pretty old and rare

Not cleaned it up yet so very much as found

A Wenger version of the Victorinox Accountant in 65mm in horn with the old Wenger Tahara tang stamp

[captain spaulding]

Maybe not that unusual but pretty old and rare

Not cleaned it up yet so very much as found

A Wenger version of the Victorinox Accountant in 65mm in horn with the old Wenger Tahara tang stamp

Excellent old knife!

[twiliter]

Here's an odd one. Got this with a few others in a lot, and the Camper is not my favorite pattern, BUT...

I was trying to determine the date of it ('90-'92) and discovered it has no tang stamp on either side. This is the only 91mm I have ever seen or heard of where the main blade escaped the tang stamper. Curious to know if any collectors here know of other 91's with this error?

It also has early white solid scales which are significantly less bright than the current ones, kind of like milk glass, so kind of unusual and definitely a keeper. 

[Reinier]

That's a cool one T! Nice to see a non-perfect Vic that went through QC unnoticed. Although I doubt they actually check the tang stamp at quality control.
Do you think the scales have always been like that or maybe it's discoloration caused by sunlight?

[twiliter]

That's a cool one T! Nice to see a non-perfect Vic that went through QC unnoticed. Although I doubt they actually check the tang stamp at quality control.
Do you think the scales have always been like that or maybe it's discoloration caused by sunlight?

Thanks R, it was NIB when I got it, so I think they are very close to original. Maybe just the thickness and early formula for white, but not sure. 

[twiliter]

Pic next to my new HBC Spartan (on right), maybe hard to see in the photo. I don't have any other early white examples to compare, but they may all be this way.