The Swiss Army knife is world famous for its durability, range of features and ease of use. Before its introduction, the Swiss Army was issued with a Basic pocket knife named the ‘Soldier’s knife’. Victorinox and Wenger have supplied the Swiss Army with the famous brand of knife since the late 19th century. To this day they still issue the Swiss Army with about 60,000 of these knives per year. In add-on to the Swiss armed forces using the Swiss Army knife, it gained massive popularity among adventurers, hikers, campers and even as a staple of many conventional households.
The Swiss knife is available in a variety of different sized models with unique tools. The most popular attachments are blades, tooth-picks, pair of tweezers, bottle openers, pair of scissors and screwdrivers. However, with the innovation of better technology a number of newer models have been released with hi-tech features including USB flash drives, digital clocks, music players and optical laser pointers. The Popular model is about 9 centimetres long and 2cm wide. Small models are normally just less than 6 centimetres and only 1.5cm wide. The largest model ever produced, Wenger’s ‘The Giant’ was upwards of 22cm thick and contained 85 various attachments.
The Swiss Army knife is reknowned for its supreme quality and craftsmanship. Its durabilty can be put down to a combination of being manufactured using the finest components and its unique design. Each spring within the knife is utilised by a number of blades at one time. Therefore, the largest blade has 12kg of force applied to it, while the smaller blades have 8-10kg of force applied to them. The blades are also expectionally hard and sharp, having been evaluated as 56 on the Rockwell C scale of hardness. This, coupled with its famous name, ensures Swiss Army knives are preferred by many across the globe.
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