Technical Description

A technical description of Victorinox Swiss Climber Army Knife

 

Henry D. Villa

Department of English, The City College of New York

ENGL 21007: Writing for Engineering

Professor Kristine Slentz

March 21, 2025

Table of contents

Definition + Overview ……………………………………………. 3

Components …………………………………………. 4-5

Explanation …………………………………………. 6

Visuals ………………………………………………. 7-8

Conclusion …………………………………………. 9

References …………………………………………. 10

Definition of a Victorinox Swiss Climber Army Knife

A Victorinox Climber Swiss Army Knife, swiss army knife for short, is a multitool  knife known for its versatility and unique design. Unlike a simple one blade pocket knife, a swiss army knife consists of several tools and blades compacted into one small unit. The Swiss army knife is produced in Switzerland by the Victorinox company who are known for their craftsmanship (Victorinox, 2025). The main purpose of the Swiss Army Knife is to provide the customer with a small, portable tool that can be used for various tasks. Seen more as a tool for out-door activities and convenience, the Swiss Army Knife can be used for opening bottles, screwing, cutting, and even has a reusable toothpick for when you’re done eating. This said, Swiss Army Knife being multiple tool compacted in one tool, makes it ideal to carry in your pocket or backpack instead of bring each item separately.

Overview of a Victorinox Swiss Climber Army Knife

The Swiss Army Knife is a multi-tool, designed for its versatility and portability. When closed,  the knife is around 3.58 inches in length, 0.7 inches in height, 1 inch in width, and weighs around 2.9 ounces(Victorinox, 2025), making it convenient to carry around. The knife handle is rectangular in shape, ensuring its comfortability in the person’s hand, and the material used to make the handle is Cellidor plastic, a durable yet lightweight material, coming in many designs, such as it’s iconic red color, black, white, green, and transparent red and blue. 

The handle is smooth, with the Victorinox logo imprinted on the front, but what makes the Swiss Army Knife unique is the folding mechanism, allowing the tools to be stored inside the  frame (the internal structure) in an organized fashion. When opened, it reveals all 14 tools: One large blade, one small blade, scissors, a hook, a screwdriver, a bottle opener, and tweezers to name a few (All tools can be used individually while the rest remain in the frame for safety).

Components of Victorinox Climber Knife

  • The Outer Shell (The Handle/scales)
  • The outer shell (rectangular in shape) is typically made from Cellidor plastic providing a comfortable grip, and is stamped with the Victorinox logo. 
  • The Main Body (The Frame)
    • Frame: The internal structure of the Swiss Army Knife is made of Stainless steel for its durability and strength. The frame securely holds all the tools and components in place, allowing them to fold and lock, ensuring the knife’s safety, and functionality. 
  • Subpart: Spring (Stainless steel)- The mechanism that allows tools, such as the scissors and corkscrew, to open and close, fluently. 
  • Subpart: Liner- A metal part inside the knife that locks tools in place when extended and separates each layer.
  • Subpart: Side plates- Two metal plates that sandwich the whole knife together, holding all the components. 
  • Subpart: The Key Ring- Connected to the frame and provides a way to attach the knife to your backpack or keys. 
  • The Stainless steel Blades
    • Main blade: Around 2.5 inches in length and straight-edged, the main blade is the biggest of the two blades, and used mainly for cutting and slicing.
  • Secondary Blade: Smaller than the main blade at around 1.5 inches in length is mainly used for precise cutting (Not food).
  • Subpart: The nail pull – Both blades have a small notch on the side that allows you to lift the blade with your fingernail, easily (longer fingernails preferred).

  • The Stainless steel Tools: The frame has many tools that are useful
  • Screwdrivers: Contained in the Frame is a two flathead screwdriver; One 6mm and 3mm. The flat head screwdrivers are for loosening and tightening traditional straight notch screws (3mm and 6mm).
  • Subpart: The nail pull – Small notch on the side of the screwdriver that allows you to open them with your fingernail
  • Can/bottle opener: The bottle opener is located in the same ‘tool’ as the 6mm screwdriver. Shaped like a hook that you press on a bottle cap and push down to open. The can opener is located in the same ‘tool’ as the 3mm screwdriver. Shaped like an acute angle, opens food cans.
  • Subpart: Wire Stripper – Built in with the 6mm screwdriver and bottle opener, the wire stripper can be used to remove insulation from electrical wires.
  • Scissors: Tiny folding scissors that can be used to cup paper, vines, and many more.
  • Tweezers: Small Tweezers built into the handle and can be used to pick up small objects and remove splinters.
  • Toothpick: Small, plastic toothpick built  into the handle. Great for cleaning teeth.
  • Hook: Small hook, designed to hold bags and equipment that is hard to grip on.
  • Corkscrew: Spiral-shaped tool that folds into the handle; Used to open wine bottles.
  • Reamer: Sharper tool used for punching or drilling holes in lighter material such as leather, canvas or wood.

Explanation of the Victorinox Swiss Climber Knife

The tools in the Swiss Army Knife work in harmony due to the careful interaction and organization of the components inside the frame. The frame holds all the components and tools securely in place, and uses a back-spring mechanism that provides stability to its structure. The Swiss Climber Knife, specifically, has three back-springs, each corresponding to its separate layer of tools (3). These springs separate and organize the tools, preventing them from interfering with one another and at the same time allowing for easy deployment of the tools. 

To add on, the back-springs are crucial to the knife function because they provide the necessary tension to push the tools out, allowing the tools to extend smoothly and stay in place when opened, as well as keeping them securely closed when folded. Without these spring-loaded mechanisms, tools such as the blades would fail to lock in place, increasing the likelihood of the blade falling back down and on your hand and cutting you. 

In addition to the back-springs (3), there are two liners that separate each layer and spring to keep specific tools separate from each other. The liner’s are thin metal sheets that contribute to the structure of the knife, ensuring the knife stays compact and prevents tools from moving out of place when closed. Essentially serving as a locking mechanism as well. 

Finally, the Side plates (2) sandwich every internal component between them (spring + tools). Each plate has certain modifications that correspond to their specific tool set, ensuring they fit in the correct order. Also, the plates are able to withstand the pressure when the tools are in use, preventing the knife from bending and breaking (helps with the knife’s longevity). Before connecting the side plates, liners, and springs together, the tools have to be attached to the spring. When that is done, Brass rivets connect these 3 parts together forming the frame of the knife, which is then topped off with Cellidor scales that protect the frames internal components.

Visuals of A Victorinox Swiss Climber Army Knife

Figure 1

 

     

The Swiss Climber Army Knife’s stainless steel tools, minus the toothpick, labeled 1-14, opened from the Frame (Swiss Knife Shop, n.d).

 

Figure 2

 

Climber Swiss Army Knife, red scales, closed. Every tool 1-14 closed inside the frame and the key-ring shown for portability (Swiss Knife Shop, n.d)

Figure 3

Side plates(2): Keeps the tools  

together. 

 

Spring (3): The tools are held open or

closed by the tension of the spring.

Liner: Separates the Layers

(The climber knife has 3 layers

but 2 liners).

*The Spring with the big head on the 

left is specifically the scissor spring*

 

Swiss Climber Knife dismantled, showing the insides of the frame and what activates the locking mechanism; the spring (*pins not shown*) (Multitool.org, April 05, 2019).

Conclusion of a Victorinox Swiss Climber Army Knife

Before the creation of the first official Swiss Army Knife, In the late 1880s, Swiss soldiers used simple pocket knives to open canned food, and for disassembling the M1889 Swiss service rifle which required a screwdriver for assembly (Alpenwild, 2016). Since production for these knives was low in Switzerland, they ordered 15,000 Modell 1890 from the German company Wester & Co.(Alpenwild, 2016). The Modell 1890, similar to the Swiss climber knife, today, featured a single blade, reamer, can opener, and screwdriver, and grips made of wood. Towards the end of 1891, Elsener took over production of the Modell 1890 knives in Switzerland. Unsatisfied with the design of the Modell 1890, Elsener created a design in which tools were attached on both sides of the handle using a spring mechanism. This ‘back spring’ mechanism allowed for all the tools to be held in place, thus allowing for the addition of new tools, such as, a second smaller cutting blade and a corkscrew (Alpenwild, 2016).

Thus, the first Swiss Army knife was created in 1897. It sold for 3.50 Swiss Francs, which is around 4 dollars usd. Today, the Swiss climber knife sells for 45 dollars on its (Victorinox, 2025) and comes in a set of colors. While not fully disclosed by the Victorinox company, it’s estimated that manufacturing cost of a swiss climber knife is around 10-20 dollars per unit. While the production of Climber knife’s not public, it’s safe to assume it’s a couple million considering Victorinox manufactures approximately 10 million Swiss Army Knives annually or roughly 45,000 knives each day (Business Insider, 2020). *Warning* This knife is not made for kids, its main audience are those who like being outdoors based on its versatility and portability, and can be used to protect yourself, but not as a tool for violence.

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