Look Sharp!

One of the most quintessential items associated with Switzerland is the Swiss Army knife. Victorinox Swiss Army knives have a long and storied history dating back to 1884 with its founder, Karl Elsener. One interesting tidbit is that the name Victorinox is a combination of Elsener's mother's first name, Victoria, and "inox", the word for stainless steel.

Since the Victorinox company is based in Canton Schwyz, one canton over from Zug, we had to check it out.
There was a small museum that showed knives big:

About the size of my forearm...

...with a lot of capabilities.

And small:

It's SO tiny!

But the best part of our visit was the 'cutting edge' experience we had making our own knives!
OK, it was actually just assembling our own knives, but it was still very fun.

This is where the magic happens:

At the assembly table...

...with the instructions.

Luckily we were not left to our own devices, we had a lovely instructor named Melanie:

We diligently followed instructions:

Step...

...by step...

...by step.

And we were able to successfully assemble our own Spartan Swiss Army Knives!

Another perk to the assembly activity was that we got to engrave our knives any way we wanted! Melanie was impressed by our creative slogans:

Maureen's nod to the Victorinox knife spring.

My first Swiss Army knife!

With a note to myself.

This was his idea.

And we got a custom engraved large blade showing we assembled it ourselves! (Might have something to do with the warranty, but I am going to choose to believe it makes it special.)

When you come to visit, we will take you to the Victorinox center in Schwyz so you can make your own knife, too!

Today's poem barely made the 'cut':
sleek red case
tools tucked tight
watch the blades
they've got bite 

©2018, Bridget Magee. All Rights Reserved.