A Cut Above The Rest

The Swiss knifes most-imitated model, the Champion, with 24 blades and tools, is packed into a red carapace. Its inlaid logo is the official silver cross of Helvetia. The knife has spawned clones by the millions, some of them shamelessly cheek-by-jowl with the originals in Switzerlands own souvenir shops and museums. In its own way, the Swiss army knife is as central to virtually unbreakable survival kits as the Walkman was to the music hardware industry once upon a time.

The Swiss army knife may look and behave user-friendly, but beware, it bites. Like any classified weapon, you would have to hand over your knife to the pilot for safekeeping when you want to fly.

But other than that, it has a benign hail fellow well met relationship with European border guards. It is absolutely unlike the infamous American Bowie knife, nine inches of tempered steel so polished that American soldiers in Vietnam would use them as shaving mirrors. The Swiss army knife doesnt come close: as small arms, they are as non-partisan and muscularly pacifist as Switzerland itself.

Look what you get when you acquire the knifes Champion model, a compact gadget that fits snug in the palm of your hand and weighs 160 grammes, give or take 15 grammes: within that space, you can have a wide range of options, according to the nature of the job you want it for: can-opener, reamer, magnifying glass, wood saw, metal saw, fish scaler, hook hauler, fingernail file, cuticle cleaner, metal file, inch and metric ruler, bottle-opener, wire-stripper, scissors, toothpick, tweezers, key ring and cork screw