Victorinox Battle series

From 1983 till 1991 Victorinox made this series of knives, each representing battles during the middle ages that formed the country Switzerland. They released 7 different knives with each a limitation of 9999 pieces worldwide.  Each knife comes in a nice wooden box with the title imprinted on top. The box contains a certificate with the knife's number and a folder with a brief history for each battle. This set can be bought individual, meaning each knife has a box with certificate, or the entire collection in a collectors box with a small slot behind for the folders and certificates. If you buy the collectors box, each knife will have the same number... I found the entire collection for sale, but since I didn't want to exaggerate, I only bought two... And now I feel bad I didn't bought the box... :) Sometimes you need to make choices in life... UPDATE : Last weekend I noticed a small box with a red interior in a Victorinox store. I couldn't believe my eyes... They had three of the seven knives new in box... I didn't hesitate and took the Battle of Näfels. Every single knife of this collection looks stunning. Back in the "golden years, Victorinox offered a nice certificate and box. I love the way they displayed the knives back then... 

List of releases :
Morgarten 1315
Laupen 1339
Sempach 1386
Nafels 1388
St. Jakob 1444
Murten 1476
Oath of Rutli 1291

Victorinox Knife assembling set

This set is intended as a gift coupon. Once you receive this set, you can choose between the stores in Dusseldorf, Heidelberg, Koln, Geneva, Brunnen or London to assemble your knife. this can only be done after making an appointment. The set costs 35 CHF and is a cool way to give a knife as a gift. The card, inserted in the box, allows you to write the recipients name and contains a lay-out of the knife. UPDATE: My guess is that these sets can be bought in the shops mentioned before.

Matterhorn / Edelweiss Spartan

These knives are made by Victorinox, but the scales by a third party Swiss company. I can't find any info about them, so if you know something more, please let me know. You can buy the knives in Luzern, near the Lion - monument. I was there a few days ago and must say that even there it becomes harder and harder to find them. I bought the Lion of Luzern - Spartan earlier this year, and I felt bad that I didn't buy more of them. This time I took two more, since the rest wasn't that great... I love the design, themes and craftsmanship, although I assume they're mass produced. They all cost around 50 CHF but are sometimes found on Ebay for over 100 Euro!

UPDATE : I finally found out where these scales are made.... Switzerland... ;) The company's called "Edisona" and makes pocket-watch casings and Victorinox scales for the touristic regions. You can still buy these knives, but according to a source on mutitool.org, there aren't many left, so if you want one, please hurry up!!! :)

EDISONA website

Victorinox Black ICE Classic limited edition

A few months ago Victorinox released three different models with a new kind of "blackened" tools. They used the same method for watches in the past and after a lot of good responses they tried it on their knives. This technique is called poly-spectral coating and gives a more chrome shine, compared to the black-oxide knives. The term "black-ice" is coming from the mountain-climbers and used when they reach a piece of extreme transparent ice with a dark surface beneath shining through. The Classic is limited to 2000 pieces worldwide and costed retail 55 CHF. All three knives were sold out in less then a week. Ebay shows right now prices up to 155 Euro for the Spartan Black ICE. Something tells me that I should hold on to this one... ;) The OHO Trekker was limited to 1000 pieces and costed 85 CHF and the Spartan was limited to 1700 pieces and costed 69 CHF. I'm not a big fan of the black tools, since they are often overpriced, but this set has a nice combination of modern colors and the shiny darkened tools... 

(T)raumschiff Surprise PERIODE 1 Spartan lite

This box was released in 2004 as extra advertising for the release of the movie (T)raumschiff Surprise PERIODE 1. The Spartan lite has lucite scales with the "Surprise" logo on one side and PERIODE 1 on the other. Nothing special about this knife, but I've seen it once or twice in private collections and since they're not easy to obtain, I bought one in Ibach as a liquidation item for 22 CHF instead of 51 CHF. The movie is, well, unknown to me, since its German spoken. It seems that this movie's a parodie of the early Star Trek series. Below is the trailer, should you be interested...