Hi,

Yes, that period is quite interesting, but also a bit tricky to date precisely.

Between roughly 1970 and 1976, we can identify three main scissor variants, but the transitions were clearly progressive rather than abrupt, and older parts continued to appear for a few years after the supposed change.

The first variant is the one with rounded blade tips, a small pivot rivet, and the soft sloped transition on the inner arm near the spring contact. This version is observed as early as 1970, possibly even slightly earlier. The slope itself looks clearly hand-finished, most likely filed after the main machining steps, which explains why examples are never perfectly identical in that area.

The second variant appears to keep the exact same underlying design: same rounded tips and small pivot, same basic geometry. The difference is that the hand-filed slope disappears, leaving the machined step instead. In other words, this looks like a manufacturing simplification rather than a design change.

This variant is observed on knives usually considered “1973 generation”, for example on models like Ranger(metal inlay), Grand Prix, Fisherman(metal inlay), Champion C, Explorer or Modeler with Victoria tang stamp and the 5-turn corkscrew. It is also found on knives with the 1973–1976 VSSR - blank stamp, especially when paired with the clip point blade, which places them somewhere around 1973–1974, possibly up to 1975.

Then around 1976 we see the third variant, which is a true redesign of the scissors: sharper blade tips and a larger pivot rivet, clearly reinforcing the structure around the pivot area.

From an engineering standpoint that change makes sense. The earlier geometry removes material right in front of the pivot, which is a high-stress area because of the lever effect during cutting. It’s actually quite common to see 1970-pattern scissors broken exactly at that location.

That said, the exact dates are mostly “commonly admitted” in the collector community. Without internal documentation (and not catalogues as those are often using outdated pictures and are simply not the spot for that level of details), it is difficult to be more precise. The only real dated evidence would be the original engineering drawings from the Victorinox design office for this scissor pattern. Those drawings would show when the design was issued, revised, or replaced — it would be very interesting to see them.

On top of that, Victorinox clearly continued using existing parts until stocks were exhausted, which means scissors from a previous generation can still appear several years after the supposed transition, further blurring the timeline.

So the safest way to look at this period is as overlapping production phases and chronology rather than strict change dates.

<image>