No. 16
history
Victorinox has been producing model no. 16 since the beginning of the 20th century. It was therefore one of the first farmer's knives ever made by Victorinox and was the only four-piece farmer's knife at the time. Overall, it was probably the most popular peasant knife ever. Model No. 16 combined the essential tools that made up the farmer's knife: large cutting blade, pocket awl, saw and hooked blade.
The No.16 model changed little throughout history, except that the saw changed position from the foot to the head of the pocketknife. The model no. 16 was produced in all 4 sizes and in all possible variants until the production of the farmer's knife was completely stopped.
This combination of the 4 tools of the model No.16 was also very common among other pocket knife manufacturers. Many peasant knives from other manufacturers between 1900 and 1950 have exactly this combination of tools.
functional parts
Pocket knife No. 16 had a large cutting blade, a saw, an awl and a hooked blade. There was an optional hanger for this model. Model No.15 was a 3-layer pocket knife.
This model was one of the few peasant knives with the addition of a toothpick and tweezers.
material thickness
Big cutting blade: 2.5 mm – 2.8 mm; Awl: 2.0 – 2.2 mm; hooked blade: 2.0 – 2.2 mm; Saw: 2.0 – 2.2 mm
construction
Model No. 16 had the large cutting blade, saw and hook blade attached to the head rivet, only the very original version still had the saw attached to the foot rivet. The awl also moved around the foot rivet, which shared the upper layer with the hooked blade. A center rivet attached the back feathers.
scale material
Victorinox originally used black fiber scales as the material for this pocket knife, later also class I and II horn and red fiber instead of black fiber. This model was also available with staghorn scales.
liners/rivets
The rivets and liners were made of steel or brass, the jaws of steel or nickel silver, depending on the version. In the case of the high-quality, so-called "fine version", rivets and liners made of brass and jaws made of nickel silver were used, and rust-resistant steel was used for the tools, if this was already available.
