The Hot stamp emblem is not always into the economy knives category. The Hot stamped emblem cross and shield that we know used on the economy made knives from 1994 was used before
on other categories. You can see knives from 1980s with this type of cross and shield embossed hot stamped type emblem. Lately I have been trying to find some more information on the pocket pal 84mm configuration with two blades. One large and one small blade
on it. Without a doubt you will find the name pocket pal used on alox, open riveted and hidden rivet cellidor knives.
My interest is on the hidden riveted 84mm Pocket
Pal Cellidor handled ones. The problem is finding knives to compare so I have to rely on what I have seen over the years. This knife you will find with and without the key ring as well. From before we know about
the Large V in Victorinox on the stamping on the tang and the shim on different knives changed from brass to nickel silver not far from each other in the second half of 1980s. That
said there are not always a common change that happened together on the different categories and knives. Some are earlier and some are later, this is important. I have noticed that some Pocket Pal knives from the 1980s got some warping on the ends on the handles.
This is sometimes because of abuse but also some came so from the factory. I can say that the Pocket pal is a bit special with the evolution and one cannot date this knife
from the tang stamp, shim and emblem only. In the evolution and history you can find it with inlay emblem, hot stamp and pad printed or colored in different emblem configurations.
It is my feel that most knives that got the hot stamp type emblems are more close to economy or the economy category. One cannot always call it economy made anyway. What
I can say to help date more early hot stamped Pocket Pal knives are how detailed the emblem is. On this you can see that because the lines forming the emblem are so narrow that it is not a very precise one on such a close image. On the normal distance it is detailed enough. I would believe it is more difficult to make this because of the narrow lines and that it is very shallow. I must always take into consideration that the handles
have been changed from other knives and that this would complicate everything. It does look original and this knife caused me to reconsider many times the age of it. It cannot be one day junger than 1994 and to me it feel much closer to the late 1980s.
One very important detail on the Pocket Pal is also the thickness of the handles. This I would believe is the key to some of my questions. I always look on the functions, springs, liners
and all possible details to date them as well. If you look on later made Pocket Pal knives you see more bulky handles.
Another factor is the small variations and design
on the cross and shield emblem that are hard to see at first! Good luck