New Soldier Markings Question

[jerseydevil]

I received my new Soldier today. Beautiful knife, I think it's pretty cool to have an issue SAK, even though I already have the same basic knife in the OHT. The blade is marked "VICTORINOX Swiss Made", and "10" for the year. The liner locks are both marked "PRESS" (being a lefty, love the locks  ). Here's the question: if this is a Swiss Army-issue knife, why is it marked in English  ? Am I missing something? Are civilian versions stamped in English and true issue knives not? Any ideas?

[Mattexian]

I'm just guessing here, but I think a lot of European companies that do international business, use English for their products.  Plus, Vic makes SAKs for more than just their Army contract, so the parts would be made for all their knives, and so any instructions stamped into those parts would be in English, and the instruction pages would have translations for any other languages.

I've had similar questions about the English stampings on my Swedish-made Mora knives; this is the best explanation I've come up with.

Matt in Tx

[jazzbass]

I've wondered this, too. Hopefully one of the Swiss members will chime in with some insight.

My guess is similar to Matt's, except I thought use of English had more to do with the different languages of Switzerland than international business. If they use German they make the French Swiss mad. French, Now the Swiss German are unhappy. And no one is even thinking about the Italian Swiss.

Realistically, it's probably a combo of both - different languages in Switzerland + international business, esp here the USA is a major market. This is 100% guesswork, made by an American who has never been to Switzerland (unfortunately).