Vintage climber small-and worn out backspring

[Don Pablo]

I was given this old climber small by a friend who found it.
It was in poor condition, cracks in scales, corkscrew had no tension and was slightly bent, rivets corroded, scissors had no spring, etc.
On the plus side, aside from slightly bent corkscrew(fixed) and broken scissor spring(replaceable?), non of the tools appeared to be damaged at the time. 

Backsprings, on the other hand...
The opener and scissors backsprings are fine, but the blade backspring is worn out where the corkscrew sits(the corkscrew tang appears to be slightly worn too).
Does this happen? And how? 

My attempt at dating says 70's, maybe someone can check?

I was thinking of restoring it, backspring/corkscrew issue aside, new scales and rivets(new liners maybe?) and its as good as new.   

[VICMAN]

I was given this old climber small by a friend who found it.
It was in poor condition, cracks in scales, corkscrew had no tension and was slightly bent, rivets corroded, scissors had no spring, etc.
On the plus side, aside from slightly bent corkscrew(fixed) and broken scissor spring(replaceable?), non of the tools appeared to be damaged at the time. 

Backsprings, on the other hand...
The opener and scissors backsprings are fine, but the blade backspring is worn out where the corkscrew sits(the corkscrew tang appears to be slightly worn too).
Does this happen? And how? 

My attempt at dating says 70's, maybe someone can check?

I was thinking of restoring it, backspring/corkscrew issue aside, new scales and rivets(new liners maybe?) and its as good as new.   

I would say 1968-1974

[Don Pablo]

Thank you!

Its curious how worn the blade backspring is at the corkscrew area. Is that unusual?


This question might be better suited to the mod section, but its not worth a full thread.
Will I run into compatibility problems swapping parts with modern 84mm?

[jazzbass]

c. 1968/9. Looks to be one of the first key ring (I.e instead of the bail/shackle) models.

Wear on the back spring is pretty common if the knife has been heavily used. From memory, using a modern blade backspring should be fine. 84mm knives of this era had 2.5mm backsprings where modern ones have 2.4mm backsprings (with 2.0mm blades and a divot in the liner). Not a perfect choice, but Victorinox themselves have used springs a lot thinner than that in production.

[Don Pablo]

c. 1968/9. Looks to be one of the first key ring (I.e instead of the bail/shackle) models.

Wear on the back spring is pretty common if the knife has been heavily used. From memory, using a modern blade backspring should be fine. 84mm knives of this era had 2.5mm backsprings where modern ones have 2.4mm backsprings (with 2.0mm blades and a divot in the liner). Not a perfect choice, but Victorinox themselves have used springs a lot thinner than that in production.

Coool. 

I'll replace the spring.
Thank you for your input!