SAKC 1st Year Anniversary!

It's been a year since I started the Swiss Army Knives Collectors group in Facebook.  Oh boy! We have grown a lot! We now have over 2,400 members and a big number of active users.

Some fun statistics for our group for the period of 22 June - 28 July 2015 courtesy of www.grytics.com.

The last 30 days, we had over 330 active members who posts, comments and likes.  We still have lots of inactive members who are "silently" viewing our contents, I hope more members will be active! Come on, it's because of the members the groups like this survive and thrive!

Out of the 50 posts, 62% of the were photos, while 28% were status updates, 6% were links and 4% were videos.

Grytics uses "engagement" score to describe the amount of activity of the group and its members.  Engagement formula is the sum of the number of comments + 2* number of posts + number of likes.  Using this formula, the top 12 most Engaged members are featured above! I can see Irineo there, who's been one of the earliest members and most active at that! Also included this period are, John Center, Maarten Simons, Lito Perez, Torsten Pach, Sarp Dogan, Marko Marinkovic, George Kolovos, Marco Schouten, Benjamin Valdes and Rahadi. Thanks to all of you!

We're an international group and the chart above shows that our group is basically active the whole day!

The group is most active during the end of the week (Friday), through the weekend and until Monday!

"Top Members" chart, Top 10 Publishers, Top 10 Commenters and Top 10 Likers.

Another interesting metrics is the "Influencer".  Grytics define it as group members whose posts are the most liked and commented by others.  The influence ratio is based on  the number of likes + 2* number of comments.

Great stats!  This group is here for all of us to share our love of SAKs!  Head on to www.facebook.com/groups/SAKCollectors/ to join in on the fun.


Thanks to www.Grytics.com for the initial free statistics used in this post.

COLLECTION: Wenger EVO S557 85mm (2000s)

The Wenger EVO S557 is a five-layer 85mm Wenger.  The S557 is part of the Wenger's showpiece as it includes the most popular tools in the 85mm range like the locking main blade, slip joint pliers and my favorite, the wrench.

Victorinox has recently released the S557 as part of the Delemont Collection with the Victorinox shield logo.

References:

www.sakwiki.com
www.swissarmy.com

COLLECTION: Victorinox Soldier (1961 Model) 93mm "1995"

This one found a new home with a good friend.

COLLECTION: Victorinox Classic United States of America National Flag 58mm (1990s)

4th of July marks the Independence day of the United States of America.  I will not rehash here information on the independence day but will list some fun facts instead after the photos .

Fun facts from this article: 4th of July by the Numbers from history.com and 10 Interesting 4th of July Facts from todayifoundout.com

• 150 Million hotdogs are consumed during the celebrations enough to stretch from D.C. to L.A. more than five times
• On this day, 80% will attend a BBQ, picnic or cookout, 76% get together with family, 66% display an American flag, 63% will attend a fireworks display, 32% will attend a fourth of July parade and 26% will set-off their own fireworks.
• The 4th of July Parade in Bristol Rhode Island is the oldest continuous celebration dating back to 1785.
• According to Caesar Cardini's daughter, the Caesar salad was invented on July 4th. Yes! Caesar salad is not related to Julius Caesar from Roman times! hahaha!
• John Hancock was the first to sign the Declaration of Independence and penned the largest signature in the document.
• In 1781, Massachusetts became the first state to declare July 4th as a state holiday. 
• Independence day celebrations became more popular and widespread after the war of 1812.
• Congress declared July 4 Independence Day as a federal legal holiday in 1941.
• Three U.S. Presidents died on July 4th, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams both died on July 4, 1826 and James Monroe died five years later in 1831.
• John Calvin Coolidge, the 30th President of the USA was born on July 4th 1872.

References:

http://www.history.com/topics/holidays/july-4th/interactives/4th-of-july-by-the-numbers

http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2012/06/4th-of-july-facts/

COLLECTION: Wenger Delemont Standard Issue (Soldier) 93mm (1963)

This is the Wenger equivalent of the Victorinox Soldier. Models produced during 1962 to 1964 had Red Alox scales and brass liners. This practice was discontinued as the red finish usually fades or get scratched up during normal use.

Some more background information from www.sakwiki.com "These new knives were produced with red Alox scales from 1962 to 1964, after which they changed to silver Alox. Red Alox models for 1965-1975 are also known to exist with the exception of 1974. As part of the new design the wire stripper notch was added, and hollow rivets were introduced. This model was standard issue to the Swiss military and many others until 2008 (08 is the last tang stamp).

Since the knives were issued to soldiers in part to maintain their firearms they were under the supervision of the Waffenkontrolle, and early models contain their 'approved' stamp on the scales."

I got this from a fortunate ebay win! Got it cheap together with another Swiss knife (a Victorinox Super Tinker) and two other old pocket knives (a Nomad and a Repeat Needham Brothers - Sheffield).

After cleaning thoroughly, polishing out some of the deep scratches in the main blade and removing the oxidation in the brass liners, the end result was quite acceptable.

Here are the photos plus the before and after cleaning shots.

Original state of the knife when I received it from the ebay seller, not bad at all! Apart from some fading of the red anodized color, oxidized brass parts and a small chip on the main blade, it was actually in a very good condition considering it is more than 50 years old!!!

After a thorough cleaning and some touch ups.

More photos:

The scales were a bit faded specially on the edges (left). A quick touch up did the trick (right).

The brass liner has oxidized already (left) but cleaned up nicely after (right).

The Standard Issue was produced by Wenger in their Delemont plant and formed part of the contract to supply the Swiss Army together with Victorinox based in Ibach.

The "+ PAT" stamp on the can opener was still used in 1963.

The bottle opener/screw driver tool included a scraper too but without the wire stripper.

The money shot! 1963 tang stamp.

References: 

www.sakwiki.com

www.swissarmyknights.com

www.aloxworld.com

COLLECTION: Victorinox Champion Plus 91mm (2000s)

Here's my Victorinox Champion Plus. It's a seven-layer 91mm SAK which is one layer less than the SwissChamp.  This has all the SwissChamp's tools except the pliers.  It is one layer thicker than the original Champion and has additional magnifying glass and inline philips screwdriver on the extra layer.

PRINTS: Victorinox Classic Zodiac Sign Scorpio

This is part of the new series of Victorinox Zodiac Signs