Motorist

Here is another Wenger with the icon of a vintage or veteran car. This is a very well-known knife called Motorist and I have been looking for when this was introduced first. So far I have put this from 1977 in the Personalized Series. Anyhow from the very late 1970s this knife can be seen and it is interesting because you can find that this knife follow the evolution of the tools. It got the old embossed icon and the pad printed type. The knives you can find information about on the internet too.

Wenger introduced the two new series in 1977 called Personalized and Sportsman Presentation. Most Wenger knives or Swiss Army Knives are sportsman or sportsmen knives but these two series are extra interesting. People can identify the knives with a sport or interest and these knives are extra interesting to me. These knives are decorative and the selections of tools follow the icon in the scale. The tools and icons are designated for the different sports and interests.

On the pictures are knives from +-1980-1990s.

We must also remember in history that icons in the scales was not a new invention at all and that from 1980 advertisings and more personal knives started to get a new boom with new production methods.

It is also important to have in mind that the car icon has been used on other knives by Wenger.

Swiss Army Knives🙂

Another SAK with a rolling tendency is the Cyclist model. This is a very cool Sportsmen Swiss Army Knife. It got the universal wrench and Phillips + many useful functions. You will find some evolution differences on these too.

The Cyclist icon got several aspects for people that are into bicycles, hobbies, antiques and so forth. It is a type of icon that got a very positive energy. This one is a special model with the small clip blade and not the nail file. It is the same thing here because according to Sakwiki and information I gathered myself before also indicates that this configuration was made for the Mustang icon. This is a type of horse that has inspired names for cars as you know.

Again it got the Cyclist icon so this is what I must go for and I do not know if it can be called cyclist yet. What is 100% sure is that it is the cyclist icon and it was typical for Wenger to have many variations. On the pictures you can see three with Cyclist icon and small clip blade. Two with embossed type icons and one with print icon in original box. The number is 1 35 11 which makes this complicated.

Believe me I have been into this model..

Wenger made a quality SAK and there are no changes on any part on them from storage for many years in original box. Same thing with the ones without box and the models without box typically got some small scratches on the scales. There is one interesting thing as well with the Wenger SAKs because they used polished parts in history and started early with a very modern production. The surface on the functions is polished but they got a different shine to them compared to the Victorinox knives. This is easy to see and especially during the winter time when I have to use some flash and light for the pictures it gives back a different shine. According to my info Wenger started early with the modern process of stamping out the blade blanks from rolls of metal.  They went from what I was told from the drop forged production to the mentioned process for a more modern production in the 1980s. To me it looks like the tumbling with ceramics and that process could influence the surface of the metal. One must also have in mind that oil can reflect some too.

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For the history searchers it can be worth knowing that the Stainless steel used back then was not the same. Wenger had a philosophy that blades should not be too hard and they had extra flexibility. They started early with very slim blades.