My BYSAK trilogy - three generations of knives (Badge request)

[Luke Walker]

Hi all,

I've collected a cool old knife the other day and I finally have my BYSAK trilogy together.  That's why I thought it's appropriate to apply now for the honorable BYSAK badge!

My dad was born in 1953, myself in 1988 and my son in 2023. Three generations with their own generation of Swiss Army knife. The 1953 model is a Wenger that was in pretty good condition when I got it. I removed some surface rust, cleaned the inside from all that gunk (old, dried up oils mixed with pocket lint) and finally put an edge back on it. I did not regrind the entire edge profile, I wanted to preserve the knife in its original condition. It just has to cut well, because that's what it is designed to do.

I've been looking for a 1988 model for a long time and found one on eBay with pretty bad and dark pictures. Luckily the knife was in very good shape when it arrived, but there was so much gunk that I could barely open the tools. After a good scrub all tools worked well with a good snap.

The 2023 model was easy - I just walked into the store and bought one 

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[old Lefty]

Spiffing story and cool knives!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[smiller43147]

Great collection.

[Luke Walker]

Thank you guys!   

[gustophersmob]

Nice! 

[Farmer X]

I know I ain't gonna look that good when I hit 71! And is the '88 a Wenger or a Victorinox?

A nice little collection, and congratulations on the badge!

[Rizio Il Ghiro]

Great story and congratulations on finding the early ones! 

[Huntsman]

Great work Luke on all counts - And good story

One thing I love about buying old mucky SAKs is that they usually clean up really well and work almost as new.
Sometimes even if they are 50-60 years old (or more!!)

I guess a consequence of a quality product and manufacturing which persists even if they have been abused!     

[Luke Walker]

Thank you! Yes, I'm also surprised how well SAKs can clean up. When I still was in the modern high end folder camp, I couldn't imagine going back to a pinned folding knife with multiple layers (where eventually crap will build up). But there is a reason why these things have been around for such a long time - they just work perfectly fine!

I know I ain't gonna look that good when I hit 71! And is the '88 a Wenger or a Victorinox?

That 1988 is a Wenger. I know that there must be Victorinox ones out there, because I've seen some (but only few) pictures online. But when you check eBay, Etsy, Ricardo.ch (Swiss Craigslist) etc, you'll only see Wenger. Seems to be a year where Wenger delivered the majority of knives.
If I find a 1988 Victorinox it will be in my collection for sure!

[smiller43147]

The Soldier (Standard Issue) was the only Alox model Wenger sold, so not that surprising that there are more of them out there than the Victorinox.

[Huntsman]

Not sure I agree Smiler      As we are talking about the military issued models here (year stamp on blade)

So wouldn't the number out there depend on how many were issued by each supplier to the military on that particular year?
We know that some years only Wenger issued the knives.

I think both vendors did sell the military models to the general public (just like today)
- But given Vic sales exceed Wenger's by many factors - I am not sure that would make a difference.
And I think these models would either not have the year stamp, or would be surplus military models 

[Luke Walker]

I don't think the year stamp says something about whether it was actually a military knife or not. As far as I know it was stamped on the blades only for the Soldier model. Some knives went to the military and some to the commercial market. I don't think they made special production batches for the military only.

[Huntsman]

^^^  That's exactly what the year stamp is for - To indicate that it is a military model - And is issued to soldiers commissioned in said year
...... At least according to SAKWiki

If you are a civilian you buy the Pioneer - With no year stamp!!

Also consider the Wenger SIs/Soldiers
After the Swiss military switched to the 2008 111mm Soldier - Wenger continued to make the alox 93mm SI/Soldier - But it had no year stamp after 2008

[Farmer X]

The Soldier (Standard Issue) was the only Alox model Wenger sold...

They also sold Patriots and Watchmakers with Alox scales.

[gustophersmob]

^^^  That's exactly what the year stamp is for - To indicate that it is a military model - And is issued to soldiers commissioned in said year
...... At least according to SAKWiki

If you are a civilian you buy the Pioneer - With no year stamp!!

Also consider the Wenger SIs/Soldiers
After the Swiss military switched to the 2008 111mm Soldier - Wenger continued to make the alox 93mm SI/Soldier - But it had no year stamp after 2008

I might be misunderstanding what you’re saying. Are you saying that soldier knives were not sold directly to civilians?

In the US at least, I know that’s not accurate. I’ve personally bought blister-packaged dated victorinox soldiers from Target in the mid aughts and blister packed dated wenger SIs from gander mountain in the same time frame.

Also factory dated blades on non military 93mm models muddies the waters as those obviously did not indicate a military model.

[Huntsman]

^^^^   Not quite - As we know that the general public can buy Soldiers

My understanding is that the Soldier models with the date stamp are made for the military
So if no military contract ....... there would be no Soldier models and no date stamp.
However Vic and Wenger choose (and maybe the military approved? ) to also sell the Soldiers to the general public.

What would be interesting to know is: Are the Soldiers sold to the general public just surplus? Or do they plan to sell x quantity each year to the public?

Make sense?    - I could be wrong - Happy to be corrected. 

[gustophersmob]

Gotcha, I see what you were saying.   

Since they were sold here in the states in retail stores blister packed, I’d assume they produced them specifically to sell in the civilian market too. If it was just extra or leftover, it doesn’t seem like they’d have a consistent enough supply for a major store.