Swiss Army Knives Celebrates Its 125th Anniversary
February 9th, 2010With its renowned durability, extensive variety of instruments and quality made components, the Swiss Army knife is the world’s premier pocket knife. The Swiss Army was originally issued with the ‘Soldier’s Knife’. Victorinox and Wenger have supplied the Swiss Army with the well-known brand of knife since 1897. The Swiss Army is still supplied with about 60,000 of these knives annually. As well as the Swiss Army using the Swiss Army knife, it achieved huge popularity amongst adventurers, hikers, campers and even as a staple of many traditional households.
Karl Elsener was the first person to produce the Swiss Army knife in its current form. When he found out that the Swiss Army were supplied with knives made in Germany, K. Elsener took it upon himself to make locally made knives. He was not satisfied with his initial knife so took over 5 years to complete the design. As a special touch, he contributed the cross and shield that is still utilised by Victorinox nowadays.
originally manufactured as only 1 model, today’s Swiss Army knives are produced in some 100 models with different combinations of instruments for different tasks. These range from a knife with only only one blade to models featuring an additional blade, tooth-pick, tweezers, corkscrew, flat-head and Phillips-head screwdriver, ballpoint pen, bottle and can opener, nail file, scissors, saw, file, magnifying glass, fish scaler, wrench, pliers, USB flash drive, digital clock, altimeter, optical laser pointer and a MP3 player.
The best feature of the Swiss Army knife, and the key reason for its durability, is that it makes multiple use of each spring. One knife featuring up to six blades can use as little as two springs. The Rockwell scale of hardness measures the blades on Swiss Army knives as level 56. The big blade is held within the knife with 12kg of force, and the smaller blade is pressed into place with a force of 8kg, which ensures the knives can be utilised for a variety of tough applications.
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