Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Victorinox Model nr. 248

This vintage pocket knife was another buy from a Swiss seller on Ebay. I was surprised to see a pocket knife with two blades and a corkscrew. This setup isn't made since... well... 1950 I believe. The one most comparable is the waiter, but this one has no second blade and a caplifter instead. It looked pretty good for a knife with an age of over 70 years old. It has a "+GF+" engraving on the main blade and after some research I found out that this stands for a Swiss pipeline company. The cool thing is that it still exists... There aren't many age markings on this one, since the tools are limited to three pieces, of which the small blade (clip point - before 1973) and the corkscrew (five loops fluted - before 1983) aren't much help... The main help on this one must be the blade stamping... Tis one shows Armee Suisse on one side and INOXYD with the crossbow in the middle on the other. This particular stamping was only used around 1943. So if this information, affirmed by Urs Wyss, is correct, this should be an easy one... Bam...1943-ish..... ;) The name's another...well...thingy... Before a certain date, Victorinox didn't use names for their knives, and used numbers instead. Fairly easy if you only have a few dozen models in your assortment, but these days, with a few hundred models a name becomes easier for sales and more attractive for the customer. "For me number 542 please..." orrrrrr.... "Give me a Huntsman, baby" ;) You get the point... I found this model, with advertising in the Elsener 1943 catalog under the number 248. Another proof that the date must be correct.





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