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Design Classics: The Swiss Army Knife

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I’ve always been a big fan of the Swiss Army Knife, ever since I was a youngster climbing trees and making ‘dens’ in the woods. Here’s why I think it’s a design classic.

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For those that don’t know, a Swiss Army Knife is a small pocket-sized, multi-function, folding knife. The knives usually have a bright red handle containing a number of folding stainless steel utensils. Basic models usually contain at least a large and small blade, can opener, bottle opener, flat screwdriver, corkscrew, toothpick and tweezers.

History
During the late 1880s, the Swiss Army decided to purchase a new folding pocket knife for their soldiers. This knife was to be suitable to help the army in opening canned food and disassembling the Schmidt-Rubin model 1889 service rifle. In January 1891 the knife received the official designation Modell 1890. The knife had a blade, reamer, can-opener, screwdriver and grips made out of dark oak wood that was later partly replaced with ebony wood. At that time no Swiss company had the necessary production capacity, so the initial order for 15,000 knives was placed at the German knife manufacturer Wester & Co. from Solingen.

In 1891 Karl Elsener, at the time an owner of a surgical equipment manufacturing company, discovered that the knives being supplied to the Swiss Army were in fact made in Germany. He took over the manufacture of the knives, and after five years developed a spring-lock mechanism which allowed blades and utensils to be placed on either side of the handle. His first multi-function knive included a large blade on one side and a smaller blade on corkscrew on the reverse. To identify his knives, Karl Elsener used the familiar cross in a shield logo. In 1909, to commemorate the death of his mother Victoria, Karl renamed his company Victorinox - Inox being another name for stainless steel.

In 1893 another company began production of folding, multi-function knives and in 1908 the Swiss government awarded 50% of the production of army-issued knives to this company, Wenger.

On April 26, 2005 Victorinox acquired Wenger, becoming once again the sole supplier of knives to the Swiss Army. Victorinox has stated that it intends to keep both consumer brands intact.

The Modell 1890 knife was revised a number of times but remained largely unchanged for over 60 years until the Soldier Knife model 1961 was introduced in 1961.

The Soldier Knife model 1961 and subsequent consumer models based on the 1961 are the Swiss Army Knives I consider to be design classics.

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Stuff.

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About the author

James Mattison is a British senior graphic designer based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE) with a special interest in all things nicely put together.