My Great Granfather's pocket knife

G

Groove

Joined
May 3, 2011
Messages
877
I remember wanting this knife, or one just like it ever since I was a Cub Scout. Once I asked "Papa" for a knife that I could use for scouting, hoping for a SAK like his, but he dug me out an old folding fishing knife that I never really liked much. This weekend my Mother dug it out of a box and gave it to me when I visited for Thanksgiving, you can imagine my excitement! I've never seen another SAK like it with exposed brass pins. Anyone know what year or model it is?

DSCN1793.jpg

DSCN1792.jpg
 
Hi Groove -

Neat! I always carry a Victorinox with a can opener, cap lifter and corkscrew.

I have never seen a version like that one - thanks for the pictures.

best regards -

mqqn
 
Man, what a great knife! I have no idea of its age but that looks like a very old knife. Heck, I didn't even know Wenger had been around that long! Looks like I've got some learning to do.

Perhaps someone in the SwissBianco subforum could help identify and date it.

What a wonderful keepsake!
 
That is really cool;) I've maybe seen one or two like it throughout the years but none had the great lineage that yours has, what a treasure:thumbup:

Paul
 
That must have been really great to receive.

You might want to take a look at SAK Wiki, you may find some information there, hope so!

atvb, John
 
That's a great one, for sure. Not a current design.
You might post on the Bernard Levine Forum and see if any of the fellas who hang out there can date it.
 
That is one very old sak!

Wenger is almost as old as Victorinox, late 1890's to early turn of the century 1900's. They supplied 50% of the sak's used by the Swiss Army. This one looks like just post WW2 when they went to the red plastic handle from brown fiber material. It also has the old style can opener. Your grandpa got a lot of miles out of this one, it deserves a place of honor in the knife collection.

Carl.
 
I can't believe the plastic held up so well. Look at how ground down the main blade is! And is that cork screw bent? Even so the plastic looks good. Makes me wonder why I avoid the plastic ones and only go with alox if it endured the many decades and all that hard use.
 
Ridge Walker said:
I can't believe the plastic held up so well. Look at how ground down the main blade is! And is that cork screw bent? Even so the plastic looks good. Makes me wonder why I avoid the plastic ones and only go with alox if it endured the many decades and all that hard use.
Click to expand...

Powerful point, Ridge Walker. Sure, those alox-scaled knives are tanks, but I definitely think the traditional plastic ones tend to get a bad rap around these parts. I mean, the alox scales might last forever, but the plastic ones will "only" last 20-30 years ;) and you get tweezers to boot.

-- Mark
 
What a great knife! I agree that it is a 1950's Wenger. If you want, go to www.sosakonline.com and ask the kind folks over there about it...they're the SAK experts!

Thanks for showing us this!

Ron
 
But are those scales really ' plastic" ?

The more I look at the pics, the more doubt I have creeping around the edges of my mind. There may have been a transition period between the stopping of the brown fiber material for scales and red plastic. At a knife show a long time ago, I saw an old sak with red fiber scales. I'm not sure of the date, but the one I saw at the knife show was 1940's vintage. If grandpa's knife has the red fiber, it could date back to the 40's as well. A real sakologist needs to look at it. Either way, it's a wonderful knife.

Carl.
 
It's interesting, I checked over on SOSAKONLINE a little while ago, and in the "Felinevet" online shop, there's one just like this one for sale! I may have to pick that one up!

Ron
 
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