Weird Safari Solo 108 clone - Help needed

[Aloha]

What we do know is the knife is made to mimic a real Victorinox.

Cody brings up a good point about the SwissMade.  When was that used on Victoronox?    This clone is a newer production since the Swiss Made stamp is there, yes?

My thought was also Wustof but also maybe Mexico?  Its a reach yes. 

This IMO cannot be the only one in the wild  .



     

[Ptisuisse]

What we do know is the knife is made to mimic a real Victorinox.

Cody brings up a good point about the SwissMade.  When was that used on Victoronox?    This clone is a newer production since the Swiss Made stamp is there, yes?

My thought was also Wustof but also maybe Mexico?  Its a reach yes. 

This IMO cannot be the only one in the wild  .



   

food for thought.
The fact that it says Swiss Made neither proves it was made there nor that it is of recent manufacture to mimic the newer Victorinox blades. "Swiss Made" has been on various items, watches, pens, water bottles, you name it, for ages. 
Sure glad I found this baby to renew interest in that line of knives.
Aloha you're right, if one has popped out, there has to be more out there. But so far nothing in the hands of an MTO member, and nothing on Google Yahoo whatever

[Ptisuisse]

Three more remarks to keep the post running :

- A fellow french collector makes an interesting point : at the time they came out, (early 80"), the Solos were CHEAP knives. Why copy them ? It would be more interesting to copy them NOW than it was THEN. But the former owner says he bought the knife 1988-1990. so ?

- I don't see a reputable firm like Wüsthof, in business since 1814, producing Victorinox clones and usurpating the "swiss made" logo. Forget it.

- The knife is very well made and does not say "cheapo".

[MiniChamp]

Cody brings up a good point about the SwissMade.  When was that used on Victoronox?

The use of "SWISS MADE" on Victorinox SAKs goes back at least to the 1930's. Check Ulli's table.

Three more remarks to keep the post running :

- A fellow french collector makes an interesting point : at the time they came out, (early 80"), the Solos were CHEAP knives. Why copy them ? It would be more interesting to copy them NOW than it was THEN. But the former owner says he bought the knife 1988-1990. so ?

- I don't see a reputable firm like Wüsthof, in business since 1814, producing Victorinox clones and usurpating the "swiss made" logo. Forget it.

- The knife is very well made and does not say "cheapo".

Is it possible that this knife was actually made by Victorinox and that Wustarimex is the name of a distributor? There is a long tradition of Victorinox producing SAKs under distributor brand names. The most notable example is probably Hoffritz in the US market. I can't help wondering if we don't have something similar here.

If the knife feels to you like it could have been made by Victorinox, maybe you can try asking them if they ever made SAKs with the Wustarimex brand name.

Either way it's a VERY interesting puzzle. I hope that it will get sorted out. 

[Mechanickal]

The uneven stamping of the blade tang would not be leaving the Vic factory. Even if it was a regular Solo with "Victorinox" stamped in the blade unevenly, it would be a rarity in it's own right.

Also keep in mind that something doesn't have to be expensive to be copied. It only needs to sell easy and make a profit.

Even Classics and Spartans are copied, even though they don't cost anything more than a Solo did back then. They are sold, however, at a tenth of the price of the original.
Often scale tools are made cheaply on those Classic copies, but since the Solo doesn't have those, it might have been even easier to make them?

All just brainstorming though. I'm afraid we won't get any further than that without someone with actual info on this piece...
It's starting to drive me bonkers and I don't even own this knife

[mikekoz]

Japan was once like China is today.

The "Swiss made" might be stamped but that doesn't make it true.
I have a "Rolex" that reads "Swiss Made" too... But I'm fairly certain it's not made there

Anyway, the info provided by the seller is a good start. Sadly, I think there are next to no Japanese members here who might be able to help out.

EDIT: Also keep in mind that the knife may have been in the store for a long time before someone bought it.

     That is true! I have a Spyderco Military knife that says "Spyderco", "Made in USA", and "S30" on the blade, but it is fake. This knife could just one this company made years ago and discontinued. 

[Ptisuisse]

Is it possible that this knife was actually made by Victorinox and that Wustarimex is the name of a distributor? There is a long tradition of Victorinox producing SAKs under distributor brand names. The most notable example is probably Hoffritz in the US market. I can't help wondering if we don't have something similar here.

If the knife feels to you like it could have been made by Victorinox, maybe you can try asking them if they ever made SAKs with the Wustarimex brand name.

Either way it's a VERY interesting puzzle. I hope that it will get sorted out. 

I'll answer that : no way it can have been made by Victorinox. It appears to me of good quality, but it looks really different from the original. The color and material of the scales are different. Weight differs too by a few grams.
The thickness of the liners is different. Best would be to pop the scales off and take it apart. I'll do that when I find a second one 
Case in point : when you put side by side a Victorinox GAK and an Adler, you can tell they are family. Not the case here. I'll try to make side-by-side pictures when I get some good light

[Ptisuisse]

All just brainstorming though. I'm afraid we won't get any further than that without someone with actual info on this piece...
It's starting to drive me bonkers and I don't even own this knife

Mech, may I suggest medicine for your ailment ? You wanna buy the damn thing ?
 

[Mechanickal]

I thought medicine is supposed to make you better?
Owning that one would make me go all Cookoo

[MiniChamp]

I'll answer that : no way it can have been made by Victorinox. It appears to me of good quality, but it looks really different from the original. The color and material of the scales are different. Weight differs too by a few grams.
The thickness of the liners is different. Best would be to pop the scales off and take it apart. I'll do that when I find a second one 
Case in point : when you put side by side a Victorinox GAK and an Adler, you can tell they are family. Not the case here. I'll try to make side-by-side pictures when I get some good light

Thanks for clarifying this. I'm out of ideas here. 

[Ptisuisse]

I thought medicine is supposed to make you better?
Owning that one would make me go all Cookoo

I think it's fantastic. Just when you thought you knew everything about the 108 series, a new, up to now unknown model pops up.
very exciting.

[Aloha]

Back to the Dojo for me as my googlefu is very weak.  I came up empty trying different searches.  Interesting piece and even more so that we cannot track its origins down.   

[Mechanickal]

Any news on this one?

I got issued a pocket knife at work today
(Stolen from equipment stock to be honest, but to use at work)
And to my surprise it's a Wüsthof Gladiator.
It's a cruder folding knife, retailing for only €6.5
The lockup is solid. No bladeplay at all!
Tight springs providing a confident snap.

So Wüsthof is capable of pushing out a quality knife in a 108mm setup (this knife is not 108mm, but it's a double bladed knife with hinges on the same side)

I also found out that Zwilling has produced Vic clones too, even though they're a quality brand that has it's own market.

Still, nothing confirmed, only speculations.

[cody6268]

Any news on this one?

I got issued a pocket knife at work today
(Stolen from equipment stock to be honest, but to use at work)
And to my surprise it's a Wüsthof Gladiator.
It's a cruder folding knife, retailing for only €6.5
The lockup is solid. No bladeplay at all!
Tight springs providing a confident snap.

So Wüsthof is capable of pushing out a quality knife in a 108mm setup (this knife is not 108mm, but it's a double bladed knife with hinges on the same side)

I also found out that Zwilling has produced Vic clones too, even though they're a quality brand that has it's own market.

Still, nothing confirmed, only speculations.

I looked it up--it looks like a really nice knife; with Wharncliffe blade and a spike/awl. I'm actually special ordering an Italian Antonini in the same blade setup from the American importer (while a regular production model, the importer doesn't normally stock it), but the Wustof actually looks better made. And 6.50 Euro is, even with inflation, about $10 less than I'm paying for the Antonini (about $20 counting shipping)

[Gath]

The Solo could perhaps be related to A GAK test run? I mean the specs were presumably sent to just about everyone in the business, and many probably made examples, and perhaps small runs of other kinds.

[Mactire404]

I like a good mystery and this tickled my interest.
Sadly I could not come up with any good search results.

But I think I've found something curious, the font used on 'Swiss Made'

The fonts used by Vic in and before the 70's was more rounded and this seems to be more current.
Like on the 2005- tang stamps. I'm not willing to doubt the story of the seller soley on this observation, but it's curious to say the least. But of course it could be a coincidence.

OR Victorinox copied Wustarimex! PLOT TWIST!

[Reinier]

But did he say late eighties/early seventies? That makes no sense

[Myron]

OR Victorinox copied Wustarimex! PLOT TWIST!

LOL! 

[Aloha]

 

[Aligator]

And ask Victorinox?
I know it sounds weird because maybe it's a fake.
But maybe they did it for a distributor.
Just tell victorinox what I was looking for only one and buy it thinking what was legitimate.
In the worst case, put Victorinox on the trail of fake sak

[GArBa]

Sorry to chime in... A thing in particolar strikes me of this IMHO knockoff. As it has been noted, the lettering of the "swiss made" and "stainless" parts of the  tang seems spot-on with genuine post-2005 Victorinox stamps.

On the other hand, apart from the irregular depth of the stamping, "Wustarimex" is a completely different font, probably a later addiction to the stamp. My theory is, that thing is newer than it seems, someone in the People's Republic may have been noticing 108 Vics prices rising and is setting up the tooling. "Wustarimex" is just a fake name to fill the space and avoid legal issues until the final product is ready with all the counterfeit markings. I mean, they basically do the same for watches...