History of the Swiss Army Knife
The Swiss Army knife is not your ordinary pocket knife. A Swiss Army knife is a multifunctional knife that has several tools built into one handy little package.
The Swiss Army knife was invented by Karl Eisner in 1891. Eisner was inspired to create a tool for the Swiss Army that was not manufactured by Germans, so he set out to produce a Swiss knife for the Swiss Army.
The first knife he made was called the “Soldier’s Knife,” which featured a wooden handle and a variety of tools including a blade, a screwdriver and a can opener. Later Eisner created a revised version of this knife that featured two blades instead of just one. Eisner needed another spring for the second blade, which also made room for him to add more tools such a corkscrew.
Today several people, not just the Swiss Army, use Swiss Army knives. The traditional Swiss Army knife has an aluminum plated handle and includes several tools including blades, nail file, toothpick, tweezers, scissors, can opener, leather punch and a screwdriver. Some companies have made variations of the Swiss Army knife hand tool based on the basic idea of having multiple tools in one object.
Swiss Army knives are manufactured by two companies, Victorinox and Wenger, both of which supplied knifes to the Swiss Army. Today, the United States is the largest importer of Swiss Army knifes. Swiss Army knives are popular to use when camping or working in the outdoors because they are small, easy to carry and very useful.
Have you ever seen a Swiss Army knife? What do you think about this tool?
