Old Cross Adventure - Dating a 93mm Sturdy Boy Pioneer

The 93mm Pioneer life began life in 1957 as the Sturdy Boy. The first of the Alox knives, they had red anodized aluminum scales adorned with a simple silver cross. 1961, the knife would be adopted as the New Swiss Soldier's Knife. In this episode I look at a few of the Swiss Army Knives sources to try and narrow down when this particular knife was produced.
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[@curtasmus938]

I got the farmer and farmer x and love it. I use it almost every day. I am also a farmer

[@alexishatjialexiou7509]

What a great video Tobias! The pioneer is my favorite carries! The History, simplicity, and durability of construction of this knife cannot be denied. Probably the most durable slipjoint of its size and class on the market in my opinion. Thanks much!🙂👍🏻

[@rmpruitt228]

Fantastic video. Thanks!

[@KnifeChatswithTobias]

Thanks. Glad you liked it.

[@Stans_Cutlery_Universe]

Interesting, like you said. They didn’t make it easy for the collectors to date them. Thanks for sharing and have a great blessed day.

[@bdh3949]

Great collection of some rare ones Tobias, very nice. Your final statement says it all. "Sometimes the best you can do is get it down to a decade." I have several knives just like that...down to a decade or two.

[@beaurex4756]

Your video is like spending time with an old friend. Thanks.

[@SubUrbanNinja-EDC]

Priceless knives.

[@Checkmate1954]

Way to date that knife! Thanks Tobias

[@KnifeChatswithTobias]

Thanks. Sometimes you can only get so close.

[@jedijimknives]

Thanks for the look at the knife, as well as, the great resource material and process you use to get your knife dated...always enjoy what you shar on youtube, buddy....Jim

[@magnussirius2273]

Great video as always Tobias! I love the patina on your “sturdy boy” 👍🏻 It’s been used and loved for sure.

[@hleeky]

i appreciate the knives represent the history of their production as well as their users. thanks!

[@Cooks-carvings]

That’s a great knife and using the books to get a manufacturing date is cool.

[@lowrangeoverland9013]

Outstanding ‼️💯 as always 👍👏🥇

[@simonh6371]

Really nice to see these knives, as you know they are pretty valuable collectors' items nowadays. I have modern Farmer and Farmer X knives but am very conscious of the fact that they have a lot of ''heritage'' for want of a better word, and that the old Soldier model was the one on issue to Swiss Army enlisted men for the longest - 1961 to 2008. Meaning that they are instantly recognisible to the vast majority of Swiss men born before 1990. I have the current Soldier (08) and that has a different shield embossed, the one with the rounded bottom rather than the points, and it also has the year of manufacture (18) marked on the tang.

[@ericstarr9399]

I really enjoyed this video! Thank you!

[@davidkurle5418]

I bet that knife has alot of good stories attached to it👍Glad you at least got the date down to the decade. I had a similar scenario this past summer with a Camillus camp knife I found in an antique store. Closest I could get from the tang stamp was 1960 to the late 1970's. Cheers, buddy!

[@miklospinter]

The first Pioneers really had a different reamer, but only for a few years. When the Alox Soldier was introduced, it already had this type of reamer. And I believe they immediately called them the Pioneer-line in 1957, but they also had the model number 2220 U (the version with bail) or 2220 (the version without bail). (They didn't even use key rings until 1968 I believe.) And even the very first ones with the old reamer were also available in gold and silver, not only red. And later they had a few other colors (black, green, red for sure) with old cross scales, especially as advertising knives.

[@richardmcginnis5344]

decades of production are great, especially when most new items today are costly throw away items, not necessarily knives but just about everything else, from totaling your car because a piece of plastic came off in a fender bender to your phone after a year... old knives are great old watches and cars are also great

[@miklospinter]

I believe the brass liners were used a bit longer than 1984. I have a Pioneer with an 86 stamped blade, and that still has a brass liner, but the key ring holder spacer is already nickel silver. So I believe there was a transition period in the mid 80s.

[@miklospinter]

93 mm alox knives always had a half stop on the cap lifter. The book probably refers to the 91 mm Cellidor models. 84 mm models (Alox and Cellidor) got the half stop much later, in 2011 if I'm not mistaken.

[@miklospinter]

The alox Soldier is called the "model 1961", but you are right, Elsener made the first ones with year stamp 62, Wenger with 63.

[@michaelmacneil269]

Sorry about my spelling

[@KnifeChatswithTobias]

No problem. I'm an expert at misspelling! And auto-correct doesn't help much.

[@michaelmacneil269]

Hi i have the red no loof for key ring brass liner i purchase d ln 1980. For ten dollars from my work place. Hope this helps the Philips end on can opener end works well Mike from ma.

[@KnifeChatswithTobias]

One of the reasons I don't care for the backside Phillips is that I always find myself using the Phillips tip on the can opener. It gets into more places and I don't hit my knuckles on things like I do with back side Phillips. And that small screwdriver made for the corkscrew really breathed new life into the corkscrew for me.

[@propblast82nd]

Fantastic video Tobias , is that gap in the cap lifter a wire stripper ? Thanks again for the video 👍

[@KnifeChatswithTobias]

Yep, the gap is for stripping wire.

[@Checkmate1954]

It's really a solid core wire bender. You would use it to bend wire to put them under screw terminals, etc. Part of the confusion comes from the fact that the inside edge of the caplifter used to be sharpened like an electrician's blade. This was the actual "wire stripper" and the notch was the bender. Unfortunately this very cool feature was stopped around 1973.

[@miklospinter]

Back side engraving plate in 1984? I don't think so. I believe they appeared at the same time when they switched from OC scales to the ones with the Vic logo.

[@The-Armed-Pacifist]

I would try carbon 14 dating on those baked beans on the can opener.😂

[@miklospinter]

I think they used Elinox tang stamp on these until 1974.

[@michaelmacneil269]

Mine is aalox i think ?mat time igot 3 one for me and one for each of my childern

[@KnifeChatswithTobias]

Sounds like a good plan. Nice knives for the kids!

[@grahamparr3933]

Hi, have you got a link to a channel, called warthog?

[@miklospinter]

The cap lifter is not a good tool to date Pioneers. The cap lifter's design changes were consistent on the Soldier model, but not on the civilian version.

[@1joshjosh1]

Is that book for Wenger or Victorianox ?

[@miklospinter]

I don't think you can narrow it down to less than a decade. In my opinion, comparing it to the dated Soldier knives is not going to help. The design changes on the Soldier were very consistent (due to military specifications, I assume), but the civilan models were changed back and forth as they wanted to, see the cap lifter's polishing, sharpened wire stripper vs notch vs both etc.).