COLLECTION: Victorinox Ambassador Hoffritz 74mm (1970s)

My second 74mm Ambassador which is also from the early 1970s.  This time it is the co-branded, Hoffritz version.  

Hoffritz brand is the shortened version of its proper company name Hoffritz for Cutlery which was a specialty cutlery retail chain stores business in the metropolitan area of New York which started in the 1930s.  According to the CEO of one of its suppliers who started supplying them with Swiss Army Knives since the 1940's, "In the minds of many New Yorkers, Hoffritz was the first place people thought of when they wanted to buy a pocket knife".  Sadly, due to financial difficulties the company eventually filed for bankruptcy in 1994.  The Hoffritz brand was then acquired by its current owners the Lifetime Hoan Corporation.

References:
Hoffritz for Cutlery wikipedia, accessed 6 August 2014.
NY Times: Trying a Jump-Start at Hoffritz, accessed 6 August 2014.
NY Times: Company News; Lifetime Hoan Buys Hoffritz Cutlery Brand Name, accessed 6 August 2014.

COLLECTION: Victorinox Ambassador 74mm (1970s)

This SAK came as a nice surprise when I received a recent ebay lot.  The item was described as "7 Assorted Victorinox Swiss Army Knives Airport Confiscation Lot".  Looking at the photo I saw five Executives and two "classics"-looking bigger knives.  I did not mind it then as I was buying this lot to fill the weight for my package.  This purchase was only a "filler" to my main purchase which was also an "Airport confiscation lot" but I saw an 84mm Golfer.  But that's for another post.

Back to the "7 Assorted... lot", I inspected it immediately after I received it as I usually do for all of my eBay purchases.  Amid the Executives, there were two Ambassador models and one in particular had a different tweezer.  I remembered reading it from SAAM's website where he indicated that before 1978 Victorinox used Aluminum tipped tweezers. Bingo!  

It also had the old style crosscut nail file and brass spacers.  Another thing to note which will further date this SAK to about 1975 and earlier was the use of single spring and screw joint Scissors. Score!  Not bad for a $3.50 buy.   

I'm not sure if my dating process is correct as most of the reference websites use mainly 91mm models.  Please correct me if I'm wrong.

So I have my first 74mm SAK for collection... before storage, I cleaned the knife thoroughly.  I gently removed the scales as the tweezers will not come out.  It had a lot of gunk and a sticky-glue like substance underneath the scales that prevented the tweezers from being pulled out. I also polished the scales to a like-new shine finish.

Nickel-Silver Victorinox Shield 

"VICTORINOX SWITZERLAND STAINLESS ROSTFREI"

Aluminum-tipped tweezers

Single spring-screw joint Scissors

Crosscut Nail file