Handymen (Handyman x2) with different skills

[J2000E]

Got both of these home within a week. And both of them flew under the radar at the local auction site.

The early 70ies one with five turn corkscrew, non pat can opener, clip point small blade, blunt tipped scissors with peened small head screw, alu tipped tweezer - and as a Handyman from this era it has a fish scaler.

The other one is close to modern specs with its pliers instead of the fish scaler. The reason I bought it was because it has to be one of the earliest ones - first version pliers, small V on tang, grooved corkscrew etc. And it is like new in condition. I believe this one is from around 1985.

None of them are cleaned yet - just as they came. None of them from a collector home.






First version pliers on the later one:



Five turn and clip point on the earlier one



"Variant 2" of blunt tipped, small screw, peened scissors




Nickel-silver shield on the older one

[Huntsman]

Great post and pics J

Two things here that I love about SAKs

Firstly the evolution of all the models and tools - This stuff is fascinating to me - And great comparison pics

Secondly - It is just amazing how SAKs maintain their usefulness and design and usability - To think that the older SAK is over 50 years old and would be instantly usable today - And for an untrained eye - Would look like you just bought it yesterday.

And even when you get an old beaten up SAK, once you clean it up and oil it etc etc it is as usable today as when it was made     

And congratulations - Two lovely old SAKs  in fine condition to add to your collection

[Myron]

Congratulations on these two beautiful additions to your collection.  They are gorgeous and as usual your pictures are stunning.  Thanks for posting!

[psyjohn]

Those are some nice SAKs! I love the older ones. Forgive my ignorance but what is the difference between a Handyman and a Champion? I have one I thought was a Champ, but now I wonder.

[J2000E]

Those are some nice SAKs! I love the older ones. Forgive my ignorance but what is the difference between a Handyman and a Champion? I have one I thought was a Champ, but now I wonder.

The simple anwer is - the main difference between a late 246fmaU (aka Champion A) and a post-1973ish Handyman is that the handyman does not have the long nailfile at the back. Sakwiki has this information.

But - I believe there is more to it than that. One has to consider layers, liners and springs too - and in what end the scissors are hinged.

Here is my late Champion A - take note of the layers, etcetera:




And the 1973ish Handyman:




I have not been here long enough to know what the consensus is about how to count layers. I have always thought it was the "between liners count". If so the Champion A is a six layer Vic and the 1973ish Handyman is a five layer. If counting springs it becomes a six layer. Anyhow - regardless of layer-count, the difference between them is bigger than just the long nailfile.

(What is the concensus on layer count?)

To make things more complicated the even earlier Handyman that was not called a Handyman but a 7236 was a five layer without a fish scaler but with an inline screwdriver... A dream-Vic for me.

[Huntsman]

In the Wiki it’s number of tools/springs
Even that gets confusing for the 58s - See notes on 2 58mm 2?layer page