Sosakonline Archive

Please note that all content in this section has been imported from our old Sosakonline website and may contain broken links. We are revising it as we can, but these things take time, and it's a lot of content to get through!

    If you run a Swiss knife company in Switzerland, how many blades do you make with the year 85 stamped on the tang?   How many Alox scales do you need for the annual military contract?  The Swiss are very frugal and hate to waste anything. Not very much gets thrown out. They are also very conscious of their environment. I have seen one picture from a Swiss Army website that shows an aluminum pan underneath an army truck getting refueled.  What has this got to do with SAK’s?  I think you are now starting to get the idea of how many variations can be found out there. Everything gets used. I think we all own a Standard Soldier model. Let’s look at some exceptions.

Example number one-  A Standard Soldier model that had been sent to the Swiss Armed Forces.  The Alox scale is stamped with the WK acceptance stamp and the tang is stamped with the year 85.  


Example number two- A red Pioneer model with a surplus 85 blade installed. I think that was my first question to Grant, years ago. Why does my Pioneer have a date stamp?


Example number three-  The Lorenzi + Sohn Baden knife.  . This knife company bid on the surplus stock from the Swiss government.  These knives were never issued to the troops. The knives were engraved with their company name and resold in their Swiss stores. This company still sells knives and house wares under the new name “LORENZI BADEN”.


Example number four.  This knife was really hard to find out anything about it. It is a standard Swiss Army issued Soldiers knife. I found it being sold in France. Why would an “issued” Soldiers knife end up in Paris?  This is the short story for this knife. It came from the Commanding Officer of the 2nd Company of the 32nd Sapper Battalion. A Sapper Battalion is the brains of the Army; they fix broken things and know how to blow up things. The CO gave these knives to his retiring members of his Battalion.  You can see the shortened engraved name. (SAP Kp II/32).  Why in Paris? We think it was airport security. Never take your best Swiss Army knife into an airport.


Example number five-  The surplus military Alox scales that were not used on the government order could be put on a standard  Soldiers knife. They could add the bail and sell them as SI’s.


Example number six.  Add the Pioneer spacer with the key ring to a standard Soldiers knife.  These are fun knives to look for.

Just think--------We have a whole life time to collect these little gems.  Happy Collecting.