Victorinox, the famous brand of Swiss Army knives and multifunction tools, is working on a bladeless version due to stricter gun regulations
Do you have a swiss army knife? Probably – it’s a super handy and multi-functional tool that does just about everything – cuts, opens, scrapes and whatnot.
For picnics, repairs, on trips and at home – the Swiss Army Knife is a great invention.
If you have one, and an original Victorinox one at that, keep it. Because the company is just starting to make pocket knives and without… a knife.
Or more precisely – without blades.
The reason is the increasingly strict regulations in some countries regarding the carrying of knives. “In England and countries in Asia, in some cases it is allowed to carry a knife only if your job requires it or to use it for outdoor activities,” explains Victorinox CEO Carl Elsener to the Swiss website Blick.
In these countries, however, carrying a knife in cities is strictly regulated.
This is a problem for the manufacturer, as the presence of a blade gives the pocket tool the image of a weapon in some markets and equates it with a knife.
Much of the function of a knife involves a blade.
In Britain, for example, a judge recently blamed a “plague of knife crime” in the Bristol area for the murder of a 16-year-old boy in 2023. The child was stabbed in the neck during a party.
Meanwhile, another teenager who stabbed a child in the heart in front of a group of students in November 2023 was convicted of murder.
According to the law in the UK, only a folding knife with a length of up to 7.6 cm can be carried in public.
For any other knives, this is prohibited, unless the knife is for work purposes, part of national costume or for religious reasons, including at school, in the market or at the cinema.
Manufacturers of the Swiss army knife are also trying to respond to these concerns and are looking for a way to escape the image of a weapon and emphasize that their product is a tool.
In places, carrying a knife is only allowed for outdoor activities.
Therefore, the company is in the early stages of developing pocket tools and without blades. For now, Victorinox is planning a tool for cyclists that will not have a blade.
However, it is not clear when the bladeless knife will appear on the market. It will be an addition to the existing versions.
Victorinox was founded in 1884 by the Elsener family. In addition to its cult army knives, it also makes kitchen and professional knives.
Their pocket knives are extremely popular all over the world – the company produces about 10 million annually in 400 different types, including a tool with 73 functions.
A Swiss army knife has even been part of the equipment of NASA astronauts in space.
But the common thing between all varieties of the tool is that it always had at least one blade.
The tool’s possible use as a weapon also posed a problem for Victorinox after the 9/11 attacks. Then, due to the increased security measures at the airports, their sales fell by 30%.
The Swiss army knife appeared in 1891. Then it was called an officer’s knife and was supplied to the army. It got its current name 6 years later.
