Commemorative Knives

[UnknownVT]

Anyone collect commemorative knives?

I accumulate SAKs, so I buy SAK commemoratives.

I have 3 Victorinox 100 year commenmoratives - for 1984, 1991 and 1997.
(they celebrated 100 years - 3 times? )

Here's an overview pic:

I've posted the detailed photos in the Gallery section, along with the explanation of the three 100 years celebrations:

100 Years Victorinox Commemoratives

 

[rev_jch]

1897 was the year that the officers model was patented by victorinox, which really was never issued, just their idea of what it would be (if it were). In fact the swiss rejected it when victorinox first submitted it. Anyway, if it were patented in 1897, then 1997 makes it hundred years!!! I have one of the commemorative spartans also.

The 1891 was the year of the soldier model, explains other one. 1984 is the year the company was founded.

 

[UnknownVT]

Originally posted by rev_jch
1897 was the year that the officers model was patented
<snip>
The 1891 was the year of the soldier model, explains other one. 1984 is the year the company was founded.

Oh, good someone else who's as
"retentive" as I am

Thanks Rev, that's exactly right -
didn't you go over to the Gallery to look at the detailed pics and explanation? - here's the link:

100 Years Victorinox Commemoratives

 

[Don Luis]

I don´t collect (then how come I have so many ???), but I regret not having bought the Vic SAK with the space shuttle in the handle, I believe the same model that they take in space missions.

 

[UnknownVT]

Originally posted by Don Luis
I don´t collect (then how come I have so many ???), but I regret not having bought the Vic SAK with the space shuttle in the handle, I believe the same model that they take in space missions.

Like you Don, I don't collect knives
I think it's a sure sign of mental illness -
to be in denial


Again like you I wish I picked up a Victorinox Space Shuttle knife - this is the only reference I have of it from a Forschner catalog/leaflet that I got circa 1987/88

By 1992 it was no longer in the catalogs.

 

[UnknownVT]

just to show it's not always SAK, SAK and SAKs -
I also somehow managed to get a couple of Buck commemoratives among my knives.......
(notice the avoidance of using the word about collec... -
I'm still in denial....... )

I was actually surprised to learn that Buck has been around for 100 years -
here's an overview picture:

I posted the detailed pictures over at the Gallery - linked:

100 year Buck Commemorative +

 

[UnknownVT]

This is an Opinel #8 commemorating the 100 years of the gift of the Statue of Liberty from France to the USA 1866-1966

I bought this as a closeout pretty cheap from SMKW - as with most of my other commemoratives -
the only one(s) I specifically bought were that Buck Ranger and the 1997 100 year Victorinox SAKs above -
even then I picked up a 1997 100year Vic Standard/Spartan at a closeout price too

 

[rev_jch]

Unknown,
I did take a look at the gallery pic. I collect sak's also. I was first exposed to them when I watched my dad in the early, mid 70's use his "wengerinox" (with old metal shield inlay, red fiber handles poinned on, old style can opener, ect)to do many things, mostly cut branches. I have that knife now and its probably close to fifty years (or more) old. I also enjoyed buying them when I was stationed in Germany in the early nineties (while in the AF).

 

[UnknownVT]

Originally posted by rev_jch
I collect sak's also.

Oh no! you used the "C" word!

Anyway here's another Commemorative from 1996 that I have managed to "accumulate"

The black and white card insert design may help date some of the Vic SAK boxes.

 

[rev_jch]

 

[Don Luis]

I just remember that I have a Camillus Boy Scout commemorative with lexan handles and the scout oath.

Years ago my aunt was going to the U.S. and asked if she could get me anything, I said a boy scout knife but didn´t expect anything fancy, maybe one of the Wenger SAKs with the scout symbol, but I got this Camillus and had to pay her some $50+ U.S., it´s cute but not as well made as I feel a commemorative should be, the leather punch is loose and the main blade hits it when closing, I have a much cheaper Camillus boy scout utility that´s much better.

It´s somewhere in the closet along with a whole bunch of other non-collecting items.

 

[FullerH]

The only "commemorative" that I own is a Brusletto Telemark knife from Norway, now sadly out of production. I had intended to buy one from James Mattis who had carried them, but I never seemed to get around to it until it was too late. I had written to him of the heroic story of the Norwegian underground and the Nordsk Hydroelectric Plant in Telemark Fjord, one of the two sources of heavy water for the NAZI nuclear weapon project. The other was in Austria and was very much smaller, making a very much more limited quantity of this essential substance. When the Norwegian undergound sent word out to the Allies of the German efforts to maximize production of heavy water at Telemark, it went straight to Churchill and then to a group of physicists in America, including Albert Einstein, who realized immediately the consequences of this. Einstein sent FDR an urgent message that the NAZIs were working on a atom bomb and included some idea of what it could be expected to do. FDR set the Manhattan Project in train and then he and Churchill ordered the destruction of the Nordsk Hydro plant at ALL COSTS. The RAF tried an air raid with Lancaster heavy bombers using the "Dambuster" bombs developed to take out the dams in the Ruhr Valley, but the plant was built under a protective overhang which prevented these monster bombs from doing any damage. The RAF next tried a raid by low flying Mosquito attack bombers, but none made it through the German flak to the plant. Then they tried a Command attack, but the German mountain troops rounded them all up before they could get off of the nearby glacier upon which they had landed and shot them all. Finally, the British exfiltrated a number of local Norwegians and trained them to do the job then reinfiltrated them into the Telemark area. They did accomplish the task of putting the plant out of commission for the rest of the war, but at a terrible price in reprisals on the local populace, a price of which all had been aware from the beginning.

Brusletto did not make that knife specifically as a commemorative of that wartime action, but I bought it as such and intend to keep it as such along with a book that I have that tells the story.