Early Vic Officers Knife

[petey.grizz]

I lucked into this 84mm in a large lot, a junk pile, frankly, but there was one that caught my eye. This will be the earliest knife in my collection to date and it needs some work, particularly the scales, but I’m excited to have it. A buddy tipped me off to it and I owe him big time now.

[m47mu74nt]

Nice catch!
What are the tang stamps on it?

[petey.grizz]

Took me a minute to take a closer look. Literally just bought it. It has the original +Armee Suisse on the blade and Victoria Inoxyd on the driver. Should date around 1925. There are a couple features that are unusual that I will have to determine once I get my hands on it, like the fact that it has four exposed rivets, but that’s been seen before on other knives from this period. Here’s the pic of the pile it came from. Don’t mind the circles those were for illustrative purposes with the seller.

[Rizio Il Ghiro]

Nice score - hope it arrives soon!

[Echotech]

Great find

[m47mu74nt]

Super nice find, I hope you took the whole lot and not only the circled parts, there might be other interesting things there?

[Aloha]

 

[Myron]

Nice find, Pete! 

[petey.grizz]

 

Thanks everybody. I’m really happy to have my first fiber scale officer’s knife with the solid screwdriver. This week was insane I actually have a bunch of other cool stuff coming including a Saphir from Rothlisberger(the other Swiss Army knife maker) and a German one from probably about 1915.

[Swisster]

that should clean up nice with some more Flitz on the liners. It looks like there are a few other decent things in that bunch of knives

[elsinox]

Thanks everybody. I’m really happy to have my first fiber scale officer’s knife with the solid screwdriver. This week was insane I actually have a bunch of other cool stuff coming including a Saphir from Rothlisberger(the other Swiss Army knife maker) and a German one from probably about 1915.

Saphir is not a Roethlisberger Brand - even if Mr. Roethlisberger thinks so :-) You should check the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cD4sMQLdmk&t=14s

[Aloha]

 
Thank you for the video. 

[pfrsantos]

Thank you for the video.

+1

Didn't knew X-Box was around since 1908.

 

 

[petey.grizz]

Saphir is not a Roethlisberger Brand - even if Mr. Roethlisberger thinks so :-) You should check the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cD4sMQLdmk&t=14s

So if Mr Dedelley was not a knife maker then who made the Saphir and Erinox knives?

[elsinox]

So if Mr Dedelley was not a knife maker then who made the Saphir and Erinox knives?

I guess they come from Solingen, Germany.

[petey.grizz]

The source for my info on the Saphir is the book “A Collectors Guide to Wenger Knives. Considering that Rothlisberger was making soldiers in 1956-57, and the name was registered in 1956 it seems to me that it’s completely possible that the knives were made by Rothlisberger and sold by Mr. Dedelley. Full disclosure I bought this knife from the author of the book. If it wasn’t made by Rothlisberger, that just makes it even more interesting to me.

[elsinox]

The source for my info on the Saphir is the book “A Collectors Guide to Wenger Knives. Considering that Rothlisberger was making soldiers in 1956-57, and the name was registered in 1956 it seems to me that it’s completely possible that the knives were made by Rothlisberger and sold by Mr. Dedelley. Full disclosure I bought this knife from the author of the book. If it wasn’t made by Rothlisberger, that just makes it even more interesting to me.

Dave Arnold has that info from Mr Schoder, who already passed away. It is said that Mr Roethlisberger has told Mr Schober that he or his father had produced those knives. I have no proof till today, that they really did. And I have also not seen any proof, that he officially produced soldier knives for the swiss army.

Why should Roethlisberger - a company that existed already for generations - produce for a "dealer" a knife under a different brand? Theoretical its possible - but very unlikely.

And one more thing: the quality of those "officer" knives is poor, compared to swiss made knives

[petey.grizz]

  Thanks for the help. I just shot a video talking about this knife and I included your input. I can’t judge their quality based on one knife but while they quality isn’t quite up to Victorinox standards, I wouldn’t say they were poorly made. I had to do some repair work to this one as it had lost its clip blade somewhere along the journey. Unfortunately the scales are cracked at the pins but I can’t just replace them or lose the “interesting take on the shield. For now I’ll just agree that the origin of the knife is unconfirmed. It doesn’t make sense to sell the knives under another brand name, unless the brand contracting them to make the knives is the only reason they were making them. It also doesn’t make sense to take credit for another companies work, but stranger things have happened. Regardless it’s a unique piece of SAK history and will take its place in my collection along with the “Original” and “Genuine” examples. If it ever comes to be confirmed that they did make the Saphir and Erinox knives, I move that they be called the authentic Swiss knife.