Victorinox Factory - See How A Victorniox Swiss Knife Is Made

An army gadget into a global brand.

Discover how one of the biggest pocket knife manufacturers make one of the world's most popular multi tool, The Victorinox Swiss Army Knife. Every single model of the Victorinox Classic Swiss Army Knife is made in a quiet valley located in Switzerland. 

" We have a simple recipe, we look at every single detail, said Carl Elsener (Victorinox, CEO), the forth generation in this century old family business. 

Focusing on the quality and functionality of the products, Victorinox Swiss Knifes have users across all demographics and even American presidents own one of them too.

Today, more than 1000 workers produce more than 60,000 knifes each day. It takes 450 steps to make one single knife. The hardest part to produce is the legendary Swiss Army Knife Blade.

Here's a summary of the creation of 1 blade from beginning to end

1.Each blade starts off as raw steel

Every inch of the material is inspected before production and the metal content is analysed to ensure that all the specifications are correct. This helps to ensure durability and quality.

2. The steel heads to production

Step 1: Cutting out the shape

The factory has 50 stamping machines in which the tools are being made from. 

The machine are multi tasking so the factory can change the stamp to make any part. 

Step 2: The blades are cut out from the rolls of steel 

Step 3: To prevent wastage, the remaining steel parts are sent back to the supplier for recycling.

Step 4: Polishing the steel
The metal are polished with ceramic stones until they become very smooth. Water are used to lubricate the stones and washing away the residues from the cutting process.

More than 10000 parts are being treated each time and the whole process takes about 5 to 8 hours.

Step 5: Once ready. blades are extracted with magnets 

Step 6: An oven is used to solidify the steel
With a temperature of more than 1050 degrees, it changes the molecular structure of the steel.

Step 7: Grinding
Surface of the blades are grinded using the two dishes.

Step 8: Blade goes to sharpening

Step 9: Branding the blade
A machine helps to brands each blade.

Step 10: Randomly check parts before assembly

Step 11: Classic Red & other rainbow colour handles are made 
The handles are made from PVC granules fed into an injection moulding machine.

Inside the machine, the handles are cooled down and it comes out shiny and polished. 

Step 12: At the handle section, all the logos are made on every product using a hot stamping machine. When it is ready, the handles will join the other parts in assembly.

Step 13: The ingenious spring that helps make the tool compact is added. 
These springs help act as a safety mechanism to prevent one from getting cut.

Step 14: Drill bits are added fixing the spring between the blades

Step 15: Aluminium dividers are added to separate the layers of tools

Step 16: All the parts come together

A skilled worker can assemble a Swiss Army Knife in about 3 minutes. However, it takes lots of training and on job practice on smaller tools before one is qualified to assemble the Victorinox Classic Swiss Knife.

After being stamped, polished, hardened and assembled, the production of the Victorinox blade is finally completed.

Final inspection is made.

The rejected goods will be marked and not hit the shelves. 

Here's the final product!

Watch what goes behind the scenes of this 36000 square meters Victorinox Swiss Army Knife Factory and discover what it takes to make these world class pocket knifes from the link below: 

If you are travelling & would love to go on a tour to know more about Victorinox history, you can visit the Swiss Knife Valley Vistor Center in Brunnen. 

You can even make your very own Swiss Army Knife.

More information here: http://bit.ly/15b1olB &  http://bit.ly/15Z0t8X

You can also get your very own Victorinox Swiss Knives here: http://bit.ly/12IGUxC