Saturday, November 24, 2012

Old Tourist


A few months ago I found a Nice Vic Traveler with the lcd display on a Belgian second hand site. The seller was from Leuven and it didn't take me long to figure out that he had more then one Vic for sale. This particular guy, John H., was also a collector, and after a few sales he started to sell the older types. One of them was a beautiful old Elinox with advertising on the back scale. There was only one disadvantage.... The front scale was damaged. Some deep lines were carved in the cellidor scale. I did some efforts to cover them, but without any results. He made me a nice deal, and I started digging for it's age.... Here's wat I've found so far....




Age - marks :

* Cellidor scales : These scales were introduced in 1937. Before 1937 the scales were made from fibre, and had no mirror polish. This knife has celluloid scales!
* Can opener : This type can opener is the more recent one with only one difference. It has a PAT - marking on it wich stands for Patented. This one is introduced in 1951 and continued till 1970.
* REAMER : This older type reamer was used till 1961 and a very distinctive age-mark for any Victorinox.
* Small blade : The small blade has a clip point. These blades were used till 1973.
* Cap lifter : The cap lifter, here used, with sharpened curve, without the 90 degree lock, was manufactured from 1951 till 1972.
* Blade stamp : The main blade stamp says ELINOX with the crossbow in the middle. On the back it says Victorinox Switzerland Stainless Rostfrei. The back stamp was used from 1952 and the front one from 1957 till 1973



Conclusion :

This knife should be made before 1961 when we look at the older type reamer. The can opener, cap lifter and blade stamp make the time window some smaller (from 1957). Conclusion is that this knife should be made between 1957 and 1961. UPDATE : after some catalog searching for another Victorinox, I stumbled upon this knife in a 1958 catalog. This shows once more that these dating techniques are very acurate. Here's a snapshot of the catalog page. 



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