Gardner ?

[K9medic]

I have just "adopted" a 100mm Gardner, I bought rather nice 108mm Solo (you can not have to many 108's) and the battered and bruised Gardner was looking lonely and I did not have the heart to leave it behind. 

I of course trying to  get a rough age for it, but so far can not place, though to be honest I do not know a great deal about the Gardner's.   

It has black nylon scales and brass liners (no key ring) so I assume its early on, but I have no idea when they first came out (I have seen one article that said early 2000's).

The only other distinguishing feature is a red shield on black scales.  All the pictures I have found so far the shield is the same colour as the scales.

 

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Can anyone point me in the right direction for this one?

[Enginears]

Maybe someone here will know the entire history, but these knives have been around for a while. In the 1984-85 dealer catalog there are red nylon versions with similar tang stamp, but interestingly no shield. I have 3 different versions of the black with brass liners. 

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The left one is the newest I think, as it shares the same tang stamp and raised shield as my newly purchased 100mm. The right two are older and neither have a raised shield, both have the same tang stamp which is “Victorinox Switzerland Stainless Rosterei” with the big V, which on 91mm indicates 1986-1991. The difference other than the red shield are a slightly different grind on the backside of the blade, and the red shield version is smoother than all the other nylon scaled versions. I am not sure if that means its not nylon or if at some point the nylon was smoother. 

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