Any other Box enthusiasts?

[Aloha]

FB, do you have a space where you display your tools in boxes?  I dont know if I've missed you saying so  .  I love seeing all the boxes.  I get all my SAKs used so I never get a box however I do see some boxes at the flea market, never with tool in it tho .

[FolderBeholder]

FB, do you have a space where you display your tools in boxes? 

I'm in the process of doing some remodeling so they're all tucked in a cupboard at this time.  Not sure how to display them.
My grandmother left me a beautiful curio when she passed, but I gave it to my older brother because he had some very nice baseball memorabilia.  This was before I was into SAKs.
I may try and find something similar.

[Aloha]

I'm sure you'll find something to house your collection.  I've seen some neat curious at the flea market I frequent but so far nothing has made me want to buy it.  I hope one day I'll come across a small Victorinox display like I see on the forum at the flea market.  Not sure where I'd put it tho   

[Myron]

I just did a quick check, I'll do a more in depth look after coffee, but my initial finding was the darker burgundy did have embossed numbers, my Scientist had 12 and 82.
A couple of the older ones I did find price tags that I didn't know were underneath the tray.  I'll look further and report back.

Edit... according to SakWiki, "The Scientist was produced between 1986 and 1999 according to Victorinox."  So my box being stamped 82 doesn't work.  Maybe the box was made then.
The box is proper to the knife because it has the black stamp on the side saying "Scientist".

Yup, same here.  I am the original owner of two Scientists, which I don't have sales receipts for unfortunately.  One came in the burgundy box and the tray is embossed 12 and 82.  The other came in the silvery gray box with small "Swiss Army" logo and it is embossed XX2SB.  This leaves me wondering if these are date codes at all, and thinking maybe they are some kind of manufacturing code for the box itself, or possibly a QC inspection stamp from Vx.

Other knives of which I am the original owner that have burgundy boxes:

Model            Date Purchased         Tray Code        Cap lifter half-stop?          Big V or little v           Awl sewing eye?
Super Tinker            9/87                      “83”                     Yes                         Big V                           Yes
Tinker 84 mm            5/85                      “82”                      No                         Little v                    No (this knife also has a square phillips)
Fisherman       Bought NOS                  “84”                      Yes                         Little v                    Yes
Scientist          Late 80’s/early 90’s       “12” and “82”             Yes                         Little v                    NA


Other knives of which I am the original owner that have Silvery Gray boxes:

Model            Date Purchased         Tray Code        Cap lifter half-stop?          Big V or little v           Awl sewing eye?
Deluxe Tinker            1989-90                 "5" and “84”             Yes                         Big V                           Yes
Scientist                    1992-93                   “XX2SB”                     Yes                         Little v                    NA
Mechanic                Bought NOS           "3" and "84"                Yes                              Big V                          Yes

[ThundahBeagle]

I see your points Folder and Myron, however, I am not unconvinced that this is a date code. What sense is there in stamping a box for QA?

Perhaps I'm not seeing this chart formatted correctly,  but if I am not wrong, your purchase dates are all after what I presume are date codes. As I've mentioned in another post, it has to be that way. It can't be the reverse.

This is all before the days of Amazon. After manufacturing, the knife had to be shipped.  Then a stop at a warehouse. Then be distributed to a shop, where it could have sat 5 minutes or 5 years for all we know. I *just* bought a Buck 110 EcoLite Paper Stone at a local mom and pop hardware store. Buck date codes their tangs, and mine was made in 2011. It was new in the box, seven years old. Same store, a couple months ago, I bought a NIP Leatherman PSTII. I can't very well accept 2018 as its approx manufacture date...

Like I mentioned in my tang stamp posting, with this (1984?)Explorer box, I found a hand written note dated 1987, an uncle giving the knife to his nephew for high school graduation. Well...the knife has a grooved corkscrew. Theoretically,  the grooved corkscrew is not a 1987 feature. But it is an accepted feature of early 80's SAKs

This really makes me think that the number on the bottom of the box is a date, and the typical shelf time of a knife, including shipping and such, could have been years. In my case three. In some of your cases, more than three.

I haven't seen your grey boxes, but maybe when they changed the boxes they stopped the date codes? Neither of my recent grey boxes from my Pioneer and my Camper have any sort of date code...

[FolderBeholder]

I see your points Folder and Myron, however, I am not unconvinced that this is a date code. What sense is there in stamping a box for QA?

Thundah, I'm deep into some remodel and will get on this box deciphering soon.  Need a few days before I can do it justice.

[Myron]

Hey Thundah,

For sure; I see your points entirely.  I bought most of my VSAKs at Cutlery World stores back in the day.  And my original 91 mm Tinker I *think* came from my local army surplus store, which also sold knives, flashlights, and watches (yes, I hung out there quite a bit as a kid).  I could easily imagine a scenario where a knife sat in its box under the glass counter top for literally years before being bought. 

One other thing that I find curious.  As you have also noted, some of the boxes have what appears to be a month code stamped along with the year code.  I think it's a little strange that only some of the boxes had this additional information, and I also think it's a little weird that what appears to be the month code is stamped in a different location on the box and its axis rotated 90 degrees.  I just think if it were a date code these two pieces of information would have been stamped together, and in the same axis at least.   Perhaps we will never know. 

Hopefully other MTO members will check their burgundy boxes and chime in.  We need more data!  :-)

Kind regards,

Myron

[Mechanickal]

My burgundy box has the 5 stamped right underneath the 84.
No tilting or reversing.
Same font, same axis, same direction.

[ThundahBeagle]

FOLDER,

I'm not sure if this is true of all ages of the slide out boxes, but my darker burgundy one is embossed '84' on the underside of the white slide-out tray.

I just did a quick check, I'll do a more in depth look after coffee, but my initial finding was the darker burgundy did have embossed numbers, my Scientist had 12 and 82.
A couple of the older ones I did find price tags that I didn't know were underneath the tray.  I'll look further and report back.

Edit... according to SakWiki, "The Scientist was produced between 1986 and 1999 according to Victorinox."  So my box being stamped 82 doesn't work.  Maybe the box was made then.
The box is proper to the knife because it has the black stamp on the side saying "Scientist".

If we are finding more correct and detailed info about these knives today that could contradict or flesh out something in SAKwiki (and I have to imagine that happens from time to time), isnt it * possible * that SAKWIKI has an incorrect date for the start of Scientist production?

Not being a longtime member here...who was SAKwiki's source at Victorinox?

Do we have any members here who work or worked at Victorinox?

It just makes no sense to me to QA stamp a box. And all of these boxes we are finding embossed with numbers happen to coincidence with approximate year of purchase, give or take a few years.

Maybe the grey boxes are when they stopped putting a date on them?

[Myron]

Yes, I was thinking the same thing, Thundah (ie, that we need a retired Vx employee as an MTO member).   I also agree that the SAKWiki, while an excellent source of info overall, is certainly fallible, and more data points is the only way to confirm or disprove things that are generally accepted as fact. 

Here is a picture of my Scientist box with the "month" and "year" codes transverse to each other.

[FolderBeholder]

Yes, I was thinking the same thing, Thundah (ie, that we need a retired Vx employee as an MTO member).   I also agree that the SAKWiki, while an excellent source of info overall, is certainly fallible, and more data points is the only way to confirm or disprove things that are generally accepted as fact. 

Here is a picture of my Scientist box with the "month" and "year" codes transverse to each other.

(Image removed from quote.)

That's what my Scientist box looks like as well. 

[Mechanickal]

I was just reorganising my display case.

I grabbed my NIB Astronaut...


And thought about this thread...

And behold!


These must be date stamps...

Oh, and while I'm at it, here's the bottom side of my burgundy box mentioned before:

[Mechanickal]

This also means that they switched from bright red, lid boxes to burgundy slide boxes between 1982 and 1984...

[Borg]

My Burgundy tray box for Junior stamped 82, no other numbers, burgundy standard box has no stamp only print on the wing tabs the same as silver one for Spartan, 51n and P.F 1007, only it has an added 10 under the 51n . At first i thought the PF number was for the size of box but i have other boxes the same size with different numbers..so who knows   

[FolderBeholder]

This also means that they switched from bright red, lid boxes to burgundy slide boxes between 1982 and 1984...

So far my boxes go along with this analysis.  I have an 82 burgundy box Scientist, and an 84 burgundy SpaceShuttle and Huntsman.

[Myron]

I wonder if Victorinox made their own boxes or if they were made by one or more outside suppliers.  My hunch would be that they buy their boxes from an outside supplier, but that could be wrong of course.  If the boxes were made by one or more other companies the embossed codes could have nothing whatsoever to do with the knives inside.  This would explain the weird codes some of mine have, like XX2SB on one of my Scientists.

[FolderBeholder]

The burgundy box I received today with my wood knife has imprints of 84 14 on the box.

[Mechanickal]

That rules out the secondary number as a month mark...

[ThundahBeagle]

The burgundy box I received today with my wood knife has imprints of 84 14 on the box.
(Image removed from quote.)

May we see a photo of the bottom of that slider?

The first logical thought was that the second number was a month mark. Either this could have been misread, or, the mark could stand for something else, such as a series of manufacture, like when they have to break down a modular Explorer assembly line (for example) to manufacture something else (a Super Tinker?) for a while, then revert the line to its previous configuration for more Explorers,  they might call that second seris of Explorer manufacturing.

Would love to see a pic of this please FB

[FolderBeholder]

Would love to see a pic of this please FB

Kind of hard to see, but 84 on top, then 14 below:

[ThundahBeagle]

Would love to see a pic of this please FB

Kind of hard to see, but 84 on top, then 14 below:
(Image removed from quote.)

That does seem to rule out the second number being a month. My 84-marked Ecolored doesnt have a second number at all.

Next two logical thoughts for me are "series" number or "line" number, in case they had to check an assembly line after finding a quality control failure or something.

[FolderBeholder]

Would love to see a pic of this please FB

Kind of hard to see, but 84 on top, then 14 below:
(Image removed from quote.)

That does seem to rule out the second number being a month.

Next two logical thoughts for me are "series" number or "line" number, in case they had to check an assembly line after finding a quality control failure or something.

I hadn't seen a number larger than 12 until this one.  The knife housed in the box is a Huntsman Wood scaled knife, I guess a special run of them.  The side lip of the box doesn't say Huntsman, instead it has the numbers 1.3713.60

[ThundahBeagle]

1.3713 appears to be the code for a red Huntsman. Add the .60 for the wood handles

[Mechanickal]

Week no?

But that would mean Vic only builed SAKs in the first 14 weeks of the year

[ThundahBeagle]

Hard to imagine that we have no ex Victorinox employee as a member here who would be willing to shed some light on topics such as this.

[FolderBeholder]

Another box, it's definitely well used, but apparently protected the knife inside:


Other side of box:

[VICMAN]

Another box, it's definitely well used, but apparently protected the knife inside:


Other side of box:

Cool SAK and box FB!

[CeHo]

[CeHo]

Something rare - Wenger Porsche black with paperwork:

[FolderBeholder]

Cool SAK and box FB!

Thank you Vicman! 

Something rare - Wenger Porsche black with paperwork:

(Image removed from quote.)

Nice additions CeHo, thank you!