What do you call a knife without a blade? That’s what the world has been waiting to find out since Victorinox, makers of the original Swiss Army Knife, recently announced that an upcoming model of their iconic tool will be knife-less.
The news raised eyebrows around the world, but it should come as no surprise to longtime fans of the Swiss Army Knife. Victorinox has long reconceptualized what the Swiss, and the world, thinks of as a knife. In 1891 Karl Elsener’s surgical equipment production company beat out German competitor Solingen to win the Swiss Army contract to produce its official Modell 1890 soldier’s knife. Even at that early date, the pocket tool was already much more than a knife, containing an awl (to punch holes), a can opener (to open military rations) and a screwdriver for assembling and disassembling the standard-issue Schmidt–Rubin Swiss Army rifle.
While they have since produced one of the world’s most famous Swiss exports, Victorinox’s approach to the needs of the market is all there in the origin story. The market called and Elsener answered, producing an item that was much more than a simple knife.
Over the last century, the Swiss Army Knife has become much, much more. Victorinox has produced Swiss Army Knives that include a magnifying glass, compass, LED flashlight, and a 32 GB USB stick storage. The Super Champ XXL boasts 73 functions; the 16999 Giant, made by Wegner, a historic Swiss rival purchased by Victorinox in 2006, boasts 140. While they may still win design awards as knives, calling the Wenger Giant a “penknife”, as the Guiness Book of World Records does, seems to be missing the bigger picture.
Victorinox produces tools for its times. Elsener’s first knives were made of iron, but when stainless steel became commercially available in 1921, it quickly became the essential ingredient. The company’s name itself is a portmanteau of Esener’s mother’s name, Victoria, and the French word for stainless steel: inox (acier inoxydable). The knife’s famous red scales, or sides, are made from Cellulose Acetate Butyrate (CAB), a durable polymer that became commercially available, thanks to Swiss brothers Camille and Henri Dreyfus, about the same time as stainless steel. Victorinox continues to evolve.
Times change – sometimes gradually, and sometimes all at once. My First Victorinox knives, made for 21st century families whose children have more experience with game consoles than farm implements, have a safer rounded tip. When, post-9/11, airports worldwide tightened security to the point that pocket knives could no longer be carried onto planes, Victorinox evolved their product portfolio into luggage, watches, and even fragrances. The company’s most recent announcement is proof of their continued evolution. In response to increased restrictions on knife carrying in many countries, Victorinox has decided to create a knifeless knife. To be sure, Victorinox will continue to produce many hundreds of thousands of pointy, sharp, Swiss tools with blades. But this special new knife without a blade will be, like kids’ knives and USB key knives and Victorinox watches, an additional arm in their product arsenal – whatever they end up calling it. With such a multifunctional, enduring icon, doing anything less would be missing the bigger the picture.