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

PRINTS: Wenger Esquire L.L. Bean

L.L.Bean, Inc., branded as L.L.Bean, is an American privately held mail-order, online, and retail company founded in 1912 by Leon Leonwood Bean and currently based in Freeport, Maine, United States.

Reference:
www.wikipedia.org
www.llbean.com

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