If you wander the halls of the Fitzwilliam Museum at the University of Cambridge in the UK, you will see a fragment of a statue that is the Head of Amenemhat III, one of the most important monarchs of Egypt's Twelfth Dynasty. You'll see the Coffin Lid of Ramesses III, a portrait of novelist Thomas Hardy, and a Book of Hours, a compilation of prayers and readings popular among lay people in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. And you'll also see a strange utensil that has a spoon on a hinge at one end, a pick on a pivot at the other, and several other implements in between. Dating from 200-300 AD and found somewhere in the Mediterranean countries, you can' help but look at it and conclude that in spite of what those in Geneva might want you to believe, the Swiss Army Knife was invented by a Roman long ago.
But one tool does not an industry make. The Swiss army commissioned the first modern version for their soldiers in the late 1800's, an initial order of 15,000 pieces that was fulfilled by a German firm. That design included a blade, a can opener, as well as a screwdriver, necessary for maintenance of their service rifles. And with that it might have stayed strictly as a specialty item for the uniform services. But then Swiss surgical instrument maker Karl Elsener tweaked and perfected the design of the original Model 1890 by creating a special spring mechanism to hold all the implements in place. And while the army didn't care about the upgrade, that innovation enabled him to market the device internationally.
Elsener took his mother's name of Victoria as a brand, later marrying it to the French term for stainless steel (acier inoxydable) to become Victorinox, and adopted the slogan "The Original Swiss Army Knife." Meanwhile, a competitor sprang up selling a similar product, and the army split its order. Their general manger Théodore Wenger acquired the company, called his brand Wenger, and billed it as "The Genuine Swiss Army Knife." In 2005 Victorinox acquired Wenger, eventually retiring that name and christening a new brand "SwissGear" for its other products.
As to the knives themselves, there are currently multiple models with various tools in various combinations. You can get a nail file and a scissors, a saw and a fish scaler, a bottle opener and a corkscrew. One model includes a shackle opener, another a hoof cleaner and another a pharmaceutical spatula (the technical name for a cuticle pusher). In 2006, Wenger produced a knife called "The Giant" that included every implement the company ever made, with 87 tools and 141 different functions. It was recognized by Guinness World Records as the world's most multifunctional penknife.
They have become the template for countless other brands of multi-tools from brands like Buck, Gerber and Leatherman, and have made appearances in numerous movies and shows, not to mention being an indispensable part of MacGyver's everyday carry. The term itself has become a part of the lexicon, as a descriptor of anything that can serve more than one function. But it's called a Swiss Army Knife for a reason, as every model includes a blade of some type, some with multiple versions in one implement.
Until now.
For all their utility, blades can be viewed not as tools but as weapons. According to Victorinox CEO Carl Elsener Jr., "In England or certain Asian countries, you are sometimes only allowed to carry a knife if you need to have it to do your job or operate outdoors. In the city, however, when you go to school, to the cinema, or to go shopping, carrying pocketknives is severely restricted." And so the company is working on creating models that are aimed at specific functions but lack a blade. "I have a cool tool for cyclists in mind. We already have a tool specifically for golfers in our range," he said. "Cyclists probably need special tools, but not necessarily a blade." So on your next bike trip you may need to eat that apple whole vs quartering it.
It's the idea of safety without it actually being safe. After all, you can threaten someone or do serious damage with a corkscrew or a nail file just as easily as an actual blade. And it was the great George Carlin who pointed out you could probably kill someone by beating them with a rolled-up copy of The Sunday New York Times, and you don't see the authorities confiscating that.
Still it's a valiant effort by the Swiss to do what they did for banking, by making even weapons as neutral as possible. Will a security checkpoint let through a knife that looks like a knife but which you swear doesn't have an actual blade? Unlikely, but you can certainly give it a go. Or just leave your blades at home, and use your teeth to cut that thread hanging from your sweater like the rest of us.
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Marc Wollin of Bedford used to carry a penknife, a habit he got from his father. He gave it up long ago. His column appears weekly via email and online http://www.glancingaskance.blogspot.com/ and https://marcwollin.substack.com/, as well as via Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
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