1.43.05

I was lucky to find another Wenger with an icon on the scale. This is an 85mm with a sail ship “printed” and not embossed. The number on this knife is 1.43.05 and it is called Seafarer or Windjammer. Other names have been used as well.

I have this from before with the imprinted or embossed type icon from around 1980. This knife that I show today I would expect to be from the early to mid-1990s. It could be 1994 or so.

It is very difficult to be 100% on dating these knives because of many reasons.

 The one I have from 1980 does not have the patented locking on the flat screwdriver or phillips. I have a damaged one from the mid to late 1980s with the patented locking on the flat screwdriver and phillips.

I am not surprised that the 1.43.05 I show today with the printed icon got an enlarged sail ship.

What is the same on the 3 knives I have is that they all have tweezers in the icon scale. No toothpicks in the other.

If you look at the wood saw on the picture you can see that it got the old style or old cut teeth. I have seen the new cut saw on knives from the early 1990s but it is for very sure that the old style was used further for some time because this knife got the old type.

I have seen more early knives than 1980. There are variations from the late 1970s.

Here are two Windjammer knives from the early 1990s and late 1990s. There are some interesting differences between them. Both got the new large pad print type icons.

The top knife is from the early 1990s and got the old spring construction or design.

The early 1990s knife also got the old cut saw and from my research the change did start to happen in the early 1990s with the new cut saw.

Update on name

The Windjammer name is a bit special here because the sail ship Christian Radich became extra known after the American Movie “Windjammer” from 1958.

There is also an older film called Windjammer from 1937. If any of these movies have had any influence on the name for the Wenger knife I do not know.

I have found myself one more Wenger Windjammer with the pad print type icon in silver color. I am not 100% sure yet what print method used for this so I call it pad print type yet. What is 100% sure is that it is not embossed into the scale material. This on the picture today is one of the beautiful icons that are extra detailed. This knife is in very good condition without box. This knife is unused and luckily it is between the two described above in this article. It got the old spring construction and it got the push lock on both the Phillips and flat screwdriver. Old saw cut teeth but it got a few other interesting details on the SAK that I would believe place this between. It is an early 1990s SAK.

Picture update on the Windjammer icon...