COLLECTION: Victorinox Small Tinker Hoffritz 84mm (1980s)

Another mini-version of a full-sized 91mm tool.  This is the 84mm Tinker or the Small Tinker.

This particular model still has the square philips screwdriver on the back layer.  It also has the Hoffritz stamp on the base of the main blade and front scale.

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.