Obsession - Swiss Army Knives + info on EDC community....................
Buzz Sawyer
 Swiss Army knivesNovember 04, 2019 |
A company as versatile as its product
Lyndon B. Johnson carried one. MacGyver never leaves home without his. A Swiss Army knife can scale a fish, remove a splinter, help start a fire, or sew a ripped seam shut. Now available in impressively specific varieties such as the Equestrian and the Presentation Master, including some models that feature USB flash drives, the 500 millionth tool rolled off the line in 2017.
In this age of never-ending technology upgrades and improvements, the “Original Swiss Army knife” is still a best-seller. Does this 128-year-old tool still cut it?
45,000: Swiss Army knives produced daily in Ibach, Switzerland
5 minutes: Average assembly time depending on the model
$425: Price of the 83-function “Swiss Champ,” the most expensive Swiss Army knife currently sold
2,400: Metric tons of steel imported to the Swiss Army knife factory every year
400: Models of Swiss Army knife
25%: Share of Swiss Army knives that are sold in the US
2,000: Swiss Army knives ordered as gifts by US president Ronald Reagan, in royal blue with the presidential seal
35 Swiss francs: Cost to assemble your own 27-piece knife, including custom engraving, at the Swiss Knife Valley visitor center
$4.2 million: Box office take of the 2016 Daniel Radcliffe movie Swiss Army Man
>160: Confiscated and unclaimed Swiss Army-style knives auctioned by the Perth airport in Australia in October of 2019
The German Swiss Army knife
It’s not just a clever name: Swiss Army knives were originally made for the Swiss military beginning in the 1880s. But they were made in Solingen, Germany—at least until Karl Elsener came along in the early 1890s. The owner of a company that produced surgical equipment, Elsener figured making precision knives wouldn’t be too much of a departure from his expertise, and sought to bring the contract home to Switzerland.
Members of the Swiss military received the first Elsener-designed knife, complete with a blade, reamer, screwdriver, and can opener, in 1891. In 1897, he introduced the Officer’s Knife, which included a corkscrew. He named his company after his mother, Victoria, in 1909, then added the suffix “inox” (stainless steel was also called “inox steel” from the French “inoxydable”) in 1921 as a nod to the tough components.
The SAK’s sterling reputation went global in 1945, when US soldiers stationed in Europe during World War II delivered rave reviews for the superior function and quality of the Swiss multi-tool. They had a hard time saying “Schweizer Offiziersmesser,” the tool’s official name, and dubbed it the “Swiss Army knife” instead.
When Tim Leatherman traveled in a beat-up Fiat in the 1970s, often fixing it with a Swiss Army knife in hand, he found himself wishing for pliers. When he returned to the US, he created the Leatherman multi-tool—pliers included.
The 9/11 effect
US SAK sales declined sharply after 9/11. Once a popular item at airport duty-free stores, the knives were suddenly banned from air travel. “The period after the 9/11 attacks in the US was the toughest time for Victorinox because sales of the Swiss Army knife dropped by almost 30%,” CEO Carl Elsener (great-grandson of inventor Karl Elsener) told the BBC. Victorinox refused to lay off employees, instead coming up with an unorthodox solution: It leased workers to other companies, but continued to pay their wages. “We have never made a worker redundant for financial reasons,” Elsener said. The company has since adapted some of their products to be flight-friendly, including versions that contain all of the original tools minus any blades. .
Does the Swiss army actually use Swiss Army knives?
Absolutely. Although there have been more than 100 models issued since Swiss Army knives were invented, the Swiss army itself has used just eight of them. According to Matt Soniak at Mental Floss, the Swiss army generally only issues updates when other equipment or weapon upgrades necessitate new gadgets in the multi-tool. The army also has an implement not found on civilian models that can open ammunition cans and scrape carbon from firearms. Another major difference is that instead of the iconic red handle, military-grade knives are trimmed in dark aluminum. rward link to a friend
“The Swiss have an interesting army. Ever seen that little Swiss Army knife they have to fight with? Not much of a weapon there. Corkscrews. Bottle openers. ‘Come on, buddy, let’s go. You get past me, the guy in the back of me, he’s got a spoon. Back off, I’ve got the toe clippers right here.’”
Victorinox versus Wenger
Karl Elsener didn’t have a corner on the multi-tool market for long. Just two years after he landed the contract with the Swiss government, Wenger, a knife factory founded in Delémont in the Swiss Jura region, emerged as a competitor. Not wanting to alienate either company, the government decided to slice their knife order down the middle, with half going to Wenger and half going to Victorinox. The two produced nearly identical knives; Wenger was known as “The Genuine Swiss Army Knife,” while Victorinox opted for “The Original Swiss Army Knife.”
The arrangement remained as such for decades, until the post-9/11 sales decline threatened to drive Wenger, the smaller company, out of business. Concerned that Wenger would be sold to foreign investors, Victorinox stepped in and purchased their competitor. “Keeping the Swiss cross in Swiss hands is the best way to move forward,” Carl Elsener said, adding that the purchase would put the firms on a better footing to compete with cheap copies.
Victorinox and Wenger now make cutlery, luggage, perfume, kitchen gadgets, and watches.
The Giant: The largest Swiss Army knife ever made
Wenger once made The Giant, a nine-inch-wide, seven-pound tool with 87 implements that could perform 141 functions. Originally retailing or $1,300, it’s not currently for sale by Victorinox/Wenger—but you may be able to snag one from a third-party retailer on Amazon. Be sure to read the reviews—the tongue-in-cheek comments on the seemingly endless array of implements are just as inventive as the tool itself. (“So far I’ve only opened about half of the things on it and taped it to a Roomba, it’s been making small repairs around my home while [I’m] at work.”)
Here’s a list of some of the more unique tools you’ll find somewhere in The Giant:
- Double-cut wood saw with ruler
- Chain rivet setter
- Shoe spike wrench
- Divot repair tool
- Fine metal file with precision screwdriver
- Double-cut wood saw with ruler
- Cupped cigar cutter
- Watch-case back-opening tool
- Snap shackle
- Mineral crystal magnifier
- Compass
- Straight edge, ruler (in./cm)
- Telescopic pointer
- Fish scaler
- Hook dis-gorger
- Shortix laboratory key
- Laser pointer
- Metal saw
- Flashlight
- Micro-tool holder
- Tire tread gauge
- Fiber-optic tool holder
- Cap lifter
- Reamer
- Awl
Props
A Swiss Army knife, duct tape, bobby pins, and a paperclip—those are the items in MacGyver’s core arsenal, says Kate Guanci, the show’s current prop master. Or watch a vintage clip of television’s most creative problem solver using a Swiss Army knife and “a plant from the Urtica family” to create a poison blow gun.
The original EDC
Carrying a Swiss Army knife is one way of being prepared for whatever life might throw your way. It’s just the beginning, and even a little basic, for the “everyday carry” or “EDC” community. Vox looks at the online preoccupation with preparing for every possible contingency—and the urge to document what’s in your pockets.
POLL Do you carry a Swiss Army knife? |
In Friday’s poll about Watchmen, 53% of you said you don’t support real-life vigilantism, 33% of you said to keep reality out of your escapist viewing, and 14% of you welcomed masked, superhero justice. 📩 Glenn told us that “I’m not watching the TV show, because compared with real-world 1985, the world today is already a much darker place, filled with the specters of even worse times to come. I don’t want dystopian entertainment, I want to escape this world.” David wrote in to comment on Alan Moore, one of the creators of Watchmen. “DC Comics, of course, has a lot more money (and by extension lawyers) than Moore and Moore thus feels, not unreasonably, that he has been treated unfairly by the publisher while the publisher pushes a narrative that Moore is unreasonable about the exploitation of his work.”
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Today’s email was written by Stacy Conradt, edited by Annaliese Griffin, and produced by Tori Smith.