Victorinox help please!

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xrangerx

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Jul 31, 2012
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I picked this up for a few bucks and I would like to try and date this older SAK, I believe it is a Soldier? But I could very well be wrong. It has the regular knife blade, can opener, bottle opener, and awl, as well as a keyring. It has brass liners and red (but faded) alox scales. It also has the numbers "85" on one side of the blade and on the other "Victorinox Switzerland Stainless Rostfrei". Is there any way to date this?

Thanks and here are some pictures!



 
I have one that looks just like that (very pocket worn). Mine does not have the '85' or any number on the blade. I believe I bought this one in the mid-1990's.
 
Its only the spacer in the middle, I dont think it comes into contact with the alox scales at all
 
Is it a Pioneer model? Always thought the Soldier didn't come with a lanyard ring.
 
I read on the aloxworld website that there was a civilian soldier model that had a keyring
 
Good find, red alox ages very nicely I think. it is a pioneer, same tools as a soldier, but with the plain cross shield, sold commercially. The reason it has the soldier 85 stamp on the blade could be because they had some leftover blades from soldier production. This happened quite often, the vic people are fairly parsimonious with leftover stock. Though maybe it was also standard to stamp the blades from the pioneer...can't remember. From this you can logically say that it is not older than 85. For this model, it is sometimes possible to date it a bit closer from certain features: brass liners vs. nickel silver, keyring or not, bow and arrow on tang or not, or elinox stamped or not. Check out sakwiki if you want to go into these details, alternately you can give it a sharpen and put it into your pocket.
 
I bought one in in the early 1980s. Carried it constantly for 15 years. The scales are more silver than red now.
 
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