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/

PRINTS: Victorinox Classic Zodiac Sign Scorpio

This is part of the new series of Victorinox Zodiac Signs

COLLECTION: Victorinox Classic Romania National Flag 58mm (1990s)

The national flag of Romania is a tricolour with an aspect ratio of 2:3 (width-to-length) and has equal vertical stripes of blue, yellow and red.

The colors represent the principalities of the two largest regions (Wallachia and Moldavia) in Romania which united along with Transylvania to form the Kingdom of Romania in 1881. Red and yellow represent the principalities of  Wallachia; and red and blue represent the principalities of Moldavia.  In 1821, for the first time a meaning was attributed to them: Liberty (sky blue), Justice (field yellow) and Fraternity (red)

The tricolour was first adopted in Wallachia in 1834 but the order of the colors were changed.  In June 1848, the revolutionaries that year adopted a flag with horizontal stripes of blue, yellow and red for Wallachia.  The following month, July 1848, a decree was passed changing the horizontal stripes to vertical stripes with the same order of colors.  Then in 1866, under Article 124 of the 1866 Constitution of Romania provided the current design of the national flag with the order and placement of the colors later decided by the Assembly of Deputies in 1867.  

Some odd facts about this tricoloured flag. The Romanian flag is very similar to the flags of two countries - Andorra (which is a sovereign landlocked microstate in Southwestern Europe, located in the eastern Pyrenees mountains and bordered by Spain and France) and Chad (which is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to the north, Sudan to the east, the Central African Republic to the south, Cameroon and Nigeria to the southwest and Niger to the west. It is the fifth largest country in Africa in terms of area).  The flag of Andorra has the same shades of color except it has a coat of arms in the middle.  The flag of Chad is very similar on a different shade of blue which is a bit darker.  This caused an international discussion in 2004 but neither countries changed their flags.

The official pantone colors of the flag of Romania are blue (280c), yellow (116c) and red (186c).

References:
http://www.cdep.ro/pls/dic/site.page?id=371
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3626821.stm
www.wikipedia.com

PRINTS: Victorinox Classic Scout

Boy Scout badge

PRINTS: Victorinox Classic TCA

The Tilt-Up Concrete Association (TCA) is the international nonprofit trade association for the global tilt-up concrete construction industry and was founded in 1986 by a dedicated group of contractors, professionals, and manufacturers with the interest of improving the quality and acceptance of tilt-up construction.  

Tilt-up concrete is a type of prefabricated section of a building and lifted/tilted and assembled on site to complete the building exterior.

Reference:
http://www.tilt-up.org/about/

COLLECTION: Victorinox Classic Ireland National Flag 58mm (1990s)

Republic of Ireland (or Ireland) is a sovereign state in western Europe occupying about five-sixths of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, located in the eastern part of the island, whose metropolitan area is home to around a third of the country's 4.6 million inhabitants.

The national flag of Ireland is also known as the Irish tricolour.  It is a rectangular flag with an aspect ratio of 1:2 (width-to-length) and has equal areas of three colors - green, white and orange.

The colors symbolizes aspects of Irish traditions.  The green represents the Gaelic tradition of Ireland (the Nationalists), the orange represents the followers of William of Orange in Ireland (the Unionist) and the white represents the aspiration for peace between them.

The flag was first used in 1916 during the Easter Rising when it was raised above the General Post Office building in Dublin.  It was subsequently adopted by the Irish Republic during the Irish War of Independence from 1919-1921.  It was later given constitutional status under the 1937 Constitution of Ireland.

Reference: all accessed 5 January 2015
http://www.taoiseach.gov.ie/eng/Historical_Information/The_National_Flag
http://www.taoiseach.gov.ie/attached_files/Pdf%20files/The%20National%20Flag.pdf
http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/images/symbols/flags.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Ireland

PRINTS: Victorinox Classic SD HP (Hewlett-Packard)

Hewlett-Packard Company or HP is an American multinational information technology corporation headquartered in Palo Alto, California, United States.

Reference:
www.wikipedia.com

PRINTS: Victorinox Classic SD Northrop Grumman

Northrop Grumman is an American global aerospace and defense technology company formed by Northrop's 1994 purchase of Grumman. The company was the fifth-largest defense contractor in the world as of 2015.

Reference:
www.wikipedia.org

COLLECTION: Victorinox Princess 58mm (1970s)

Victorinox had a lot more 58mm models before compared to what they're producing now.  Many models have been discontinued due to various reasons and one of them is the Victorinox Princess.

The Victorinox Princess is a 58mm, one-layer, two-tools model and no scale tools.  It consists of of a main blade and a nail file with a nail cleaner tip.  It is one of the thinnest and smallest model.  The only thinner option is the Victorinox Pocket Pal which is also a rare piece. Most of them were released with key ring attachment points but some where released without them which makes them rarer.

According to sakwiki.com, this model is a rare piece.  The current alternative model is the Victorinox Escort which is also a single layer SAK with two tools but with scale tools included.

This particular model is very old, from the tang stamp "Victoria" with crossbow, it was no released no later than 1970.  This tang stamp was used from 1943-1970.

References:

www.sakwiki.com

Victorinox 1970s Catalog
Victorinox Tang Stamps 1884-2014

COLLECTION: Victorinox Classic Greece National Flag 58mm (2000s)

Every year at the 25th of March, Greece celebrates the anniversary of the declaration of the start of Greek War of Independence from the Ottoman Empire, in 1821. The Greek War of Independence was waged between 1821 to 1832 and resulted to the successful independence of Greece from the Ottoman Empire.

The flag of Greece is officially recognized as a national symbol.  It is rectangular flag with an aspect ratio of 2:3 and has 9 equal horizontal stripes of alternating blue and white.  There is a blue square in the upper left corner which has a white cross in the center.  The white cross symbolizes the Eastern Orthodox Christianity which is the established religion for the Greek people of Greece and Cyprus.  It was officially adopted by the First National Assembly at Epidaurus on 13 January 1822.

You can buy this SAK from www.voyager-shop.gr.

REFERENCE: 58mm vs 65mm Classic, Esquire, Evo 81 Comparison

For those wondering what's the difference between the SAK key chain tools - this is a quick comparison of the key chain Swiss army knives - the Victorinox Classic, Wenger Esquire and Wenger Evo 81.

The Main blade:

The Nail file:

The Scissors:

All the tools are larger on the Wengers compared to the Victorinox Classic.

COLLECTION: Victorinox Classic South Korea National Flag 58mm (2000s) -March 1

The National Flag of South Korea is called Taegukgi or Taeguk flag. It has a 2:3 height to width proportion with white background, and red and blue Taeguk (red and blue Yin-Yang symbol) in the center and four black trigrams.

The black trigrams have several meanings depending on the classical elements.  Table below from the South Korea National Flag wikipedia page lists the various meanings:

Each trigram (hangul: kwae) represents one of the four classical elements.  Source: www.wikipedia.org

The idea of the National Flag was first brought up during the negotiations of the Japan-Korea Treaty of 1876, during this time, there was no official Korean flag to represent the country.  This is re-emerged again during the United States-Korea Treaty of 1882.  This time, Ma Jianzhong, a Chinese official and scholar in the late Qing Dynasty proposed the initial design of the Korean Flag with a red and black yin-yang (instead of the red and blue). On August, 1882, Park Yeong-hyo, a Korean politician, diplomat and activist during the Joseon Dynasty period became the first Korean to use the National flag internationally in Japan.  By January 27, 1883, the government official recognized the use of the flag.

Old Korean National Flag. Source: www.wikipedia.org

The current South Korea national flag was official declared by the South Korean government on 15 October 1959.

Today, 1st of March is a special day in South Korea which marks the March 1st Movement or Samil Movement when 33 Korean nationalists and students declared their country's independence in Seoul from the Japanese Occupation. This provided a catalytic momentum for the Korean Independence Movement which eventually led to the establishment of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea (April 13, 1919).

This particular Victorinox Classic has a product code of 0.6203.KR0 and was released in 2000s as part of the expanded Victorinox National Flag series collection.

References:
www.wikipedia.org.