Don’t think this has been posted before (apologies if it has)
rather relaxing I thought as well as very interesting
As I’m unable to share the article being a subscription, text copied below
HOW IT’S DONE
The knife blades are stamped from a 3mm steel strip, then placed in a container with abrasive ceramic stones, which round and refine the blades’ edges. After embossing Victorinox’s seal of authenticity on the tang, we place the blades in an oven heated to 1,050°C (1,922°F). This hardens the material and strengthens the structure of the steel. Finally, we grind the blade for its final sharpening.—Urs Wyss, senior product marketing manager
CARL ELSENER, JR., 63, CEO OF VICTORINOX, SCHWYZ, SWITZERLAND
MY GREAT-GRANDFATHER founded Victorinox in 1884. He chose his mother’s name, Victoria, for the company, adding “inox,” the stainless steel from which our knives are made, after its invention. In 1897, we patented the little red knife, the Schweizer Offiziers-und Sportmesser, which American soldiers shortened to “Swiss Army Knife.”
Victorinox produces 45,000 Swiss Army Knives per day, with 100 percent recycled steel. The approximately 500 tons of grinding sludge that’s generated during manufacturing is recycled at the steel plant; the water in the sludge is absorbed; and the steel particles are pressed into briquettes.
It’s fantastic to hear people share their adventures with their little red knife, like Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield. In his book, An Astronaut’s Guide to Life, he describes breaking into the Mir space station. Russian astronauts had sealed the docking module hatch shut with tight straps—but Hadfield had a Swiss Army Knife and simply cut his way in. He wrote, “Never leave the planet without one.”
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