New model of Swiss Army Knife won’t include blade, maker says
The maker of the Swiss Army Knife is taking the knife out of the century-old pocket tool’s latest model because of weapons regulations around the world.
“We are in the early stages of developing pocket tools without blades,” a spokesperson for the Swiss firm Victorinox told CNN in a statement Tuesday.
“In some markets, the blade creates an image of a weapon,” Victorinox chief executive Carl Elsener told the Swiss newspaper Blick. “We’re concerned about the increasing regulation of knives due to the violence in the world.”
The Swiss Army Knife was created in the late 1800s for soldiers in the Swiss Army.
The knives were manufactured for the public in 1891 and will continue to be produced with blades more than 130 years later
as Victorinox offers its new model without a knife, adding tools for bicyclists instead.
“We already have a tool specifically for golfers in our range,” Elsener said. “Cyclists probably need special tools, but not necessarily a blade.”
Elsener said sales of the company’s Swiss Army Knife plummeted by more than 30% after the Sept. 11,
2001, terrorist attacks in the United States.
“In England and 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,” Elsener said. “In the city, however, when you go to school, to the cinema or to go shopping, carrying pocket knives is severely restricted.”