📘Victorinox History & Catalogue - 91 mm Models Evolution

A brief history of Victorinox

Founded in 1884 in Ibach, Switzerland, Victorinox began as a small cutlery workshop created by Karl Elsener. A decisive milestone was reached in 1891, when the company started supplying knives to the Swiss Army, followed in 1897 by the patent of the Officer’s and Sports Knife, the direct ancestor of the modern Swiss Army Knife.

In 1921, the name Victorinox was officially adopted, combining Victoria (the founder’s mother) and inox (stainless steel), symbolising both family heritage and material innovation. A major industrial breakthrough occurred in 1931, when Victorinox partnered with Brown, Boveri & Cie. to install the world’s first fully electric hardening plant at its Ibach factory, ensuring consistent heat treatment and industrial-scale quality control.

Over the decades, Victorinox progressively refined a modular construction logic, giving rise to a wide and historically layered range of 91 mm models, which this article aims to structure and contextualise.

For more details, refer to the official Victorinox history:
🔗 https://www.victorinox.com/en-CH/All-about-Victorinox/History/cms/history/

Purpose of this catalogue pillar

This page serves as the central historical reference for Victorinox Catalogues 91 mm knives on SAKnife.

All period / transition articles, individual model fiches will link back to this page. (Link 👉 to article when available)
Rather than reproducing catalogues year by year, the goal is to highlight architectural continuity, model transitions, and layer logic.

This page is designed as a historical counterpart to the Structure, Tools & Models catalogue pillar:
👉 🛠️ Victorinox Tools & Structure — 91 mm Swiss Army Knife Evolution

How to read the table

• ☀️ Model appearance during the period 
• 🗑 Model disappearance during the period 
• (no icon) Model continues
  

• 📝 Link to Model Sheet when available

Tools legend (icons used in the table)

Victorinox 91 mm Models — Structural evolution by period

How this table can be used

This table is a structural reading tool designed to:

• identify knives by layer architecture,
• understand when and why models appeared or disappeared,
• contextualise renamings and transitions,
• navigate efficiently between historical periods, transitions, and model fiches. (Link 📜 / 📝 to dedicated article when available)

Conclusion — Reading Victorinox through structure

The evolution of Victorinox 91 mm knives is not linear but architectural.
Tools migrate, layers expand or disappear, and model names evolve, while the underlying mechanical logic remains remarkably consistent.

Understanding this structure is essential for accurate identification and historical interpretation. This page is intended as the cornerstone of SAKnife’s Victorinox historical content.

This article is based on the cross-analysis of official Victorinox documentation, historical catalogues, and collector-grade reference material. Model continuity and layer counts are interpreted using a strict structural methodology consistent with Victorinox construction logic.

Explore how Victorinox 91 mm toolsets evolved over time and navigate the structural logic behind each model in the companion pillar below:
👉 🛠️ Victorinox Tools & Structure — 91 mm Swiss Army Knife Evolution

Explore the Victorinox metal inlays thematic:
👉Metal Inlays Thematic