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Special Swiss made knives

I wanted to start a thread on some oddities from the Swiss manufacturers so we can all see what has been made before and what is coming in the future too. Wenger has been a prolific oddity knife maker so expect to see some of these here soon.

First I will start with some Bakers knives. Victorinox has been making these single bladed knives since the 1950's or even before. I have seen some very old examples. They are very thin and run about 90mm's in length folded up. They usually make these with Alox scales and the main blade is always curved. Mostly you will find the serrated blade versions as they are most common but there has been a plain edge blade model as well but are very hard to find. Many are marked with company names, usually suppliers or equipment manufacturers and even some bakeries too.

A baker uses this knife to score the dough on the top before they would bake it. This allows for steam escape and a way of manipulating the way the bread expands as it bakes. The scoring is also for decoration.

Here are mine. The blue one seems to be the oldest. I bought the red one new just last year and they can be had for around $20 US.

Tags: alox, baker, blade, blue, curved, green, knife, red, serrated, swiss, More…victorinox, wenger

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Carlos Rodríguez on February 8, 2010 at 15:51

Very nice pictures and knives, congrats!!!!

Permalink Reply by Peter Gobel on February 9, 2010 at 9:18

I guess I'm an oddity collector too. I have Swiss Bucks, the collaboration between Buck and Wenger. Are there any other collaborative lines out there that you know of?

Permalink Reply by Wayne Whitted on February 9, 2010 at 10:24

The SwissBuck line is indeed interesting. Personally I do not collect them but I have had a couple of them incidentally from lot buys. I like the clip blade. Wenger has made some strange knives over the years and a couple have been collaborations between them and another company.

One that I have yet to find examples for my collection would be the "Bernina" knives. Wenger made a couple of knives with a sewing theme in collaboration with "Bernina" a Swiss sewing machine manufacturer. The largest knife has 14 functions and is based on the standard Wenger 85mm size SAK. It has several specialized instruments that are made for sewing trades. Here is a link to the Wenger Swiss website and a photo. This knife costs a bundle and I am still looking to acquire one.n They also made a smaller 65mm sized one similar to the Wenger Esquire knife but with a couple special tools. It is probably the hardest to find since it is discontinued that I know.

http://www.wenger.ch/scripts/Modules/Products/listOne.aspx?idProduc...
http://www.wenger.ch/knife/News/Products/Bernina.html

Permalink Reply by Martin Desax on February 11, 2010 at 16:12

Very nice trio these bakers. Especially the green is very beautiful.

Permalink Reply by Wayne Whitted on February 14, 2010 at 14:28

Another unique knife that both Swiss knife manufacturers produce is a "Watch Case" knife. This knife is usually made with a unique blade called a "Watch case" opener blade. It is short with a slightly sharpened edge but not like a regular blade. It is used to pry off "snapback" style watch case backs to get inside for battery replacement. Most knives with this unique blade are small alox scaled 2 blade knives similar to the Victorinox Secretary. Wenger typically produces a more rounded type watch blade while the Victorinox product has a more narrow and pointed type blade.
Wenger has gone the extra mile and produced an entire line of full size SAK's with watch type tools and blades, called the "Minathor". These will include small tool sets and little cases to hold these special tool sets as well as the special watch case blade.
Both Wenger and Victorinox have been making the small 2 bladed models for many years dating back into the 1950's and 1960's. Most of these knives will be marked with Jewelery or Watch supply shops or famous Watch makers brand names. Most are scaled in alox but Victorinox does make an 84mm SAK version with cellidor(plastic) or nylon scales. Here are a few photos to peruse. I own some of these models but some are very expensive to acquire.

http://www.wenger.ch/knife/Products/Pocket_knives/Watchmaker.html

Permalink Reply by Wayne Whitted on March 2, 2010 at 17:38

Wenger makes a nail clipper knife called the Swiss Clipper. It is based on the Esquire sized SAK adding a folding finger nail clippers. They come in a variety of colors and scale styles. The colors are; plain EVO Red, Ice Blue, Lime Green, Watermelon Translucent Pink, Pastel Pink and Plum Ice Purple. There are also a Stainless Steel version as well as a Black Soft Touch and EVOGrip versions.

Permalink Reply by Martin Desax on April 10, 2010 at 9:50

The Wenger Pointer is also a knife which fits in this thread.

Permalink Reply by Wayne Whitted on May 17, 2010 at 17:33

Here is the Victorinox 84mm version of a watch case knife. It has black nylon scales and regular Toothpick and Tweezers inserts in the scales. The special blade is not sharp on the edge but it will fit underneath the lip of a watch case back to pop it off and replace the battery.

Permalink Reply by Wayne Whitted on July 13, 2011 at 15:15

Another strange tool that Victorinox makes is the Golf Tool. It is specifically designed for the Golfer to use during a game. It has the following tools;

Main Blade
Tee Punch/Bottle Opener/File
Scissors
Removable Ball Marker
Large Divot Repair Fork
Toothpick
Tweezers

The knife blade and scissors are the same size as found on a 74mm Victorinox Executive SAK. The inserts are the same too but the other 3 tools are specifically designed and only found on this tool. They used to come in several colors, Sapphire Blue, Ruby Red, plain Red and plain Black.

Permalink Reply by Wayne Whitted on October 27, 2011 at 14:07

Here is some of the Victorinox National Flag Classic series knives. Usually these knives will only be available for sale in their respective countries. I have been able to find these over the past 5 years watching eBay. There are about 55 countries total that participated in this series. One interesting thing is to notice the shield is always printed on instead of the metal inlay. Some countries have multiple colors made as well.