>> NARRATOR: They chop.
They dice. They slash.
They lop. They slay.
But wait. There's more. They're among man's earliest,
deadliest, yet most useful tools.
And thousands of years later, they're still razor-sharp.
It's a special TV offer. Now "Axes Swords & Knives"
on<i> Modern Marvels.</i> >> NARRATOR: This<i> is</i> the cutting
edge. After two million years of
blade-making, out of all sorts of materials and in all sorts of
ways, for purposes as mundane as spreading butter and as ghastly
as lopping off heads, the basics have really never changed.
This sharp edge<i> is</i> the whole point.
>> PAUL CHAMPAGNE: The edge is the technology, and everything
else is something that's wrapped around the edge to do a specific
job. >> JEFFREY FORGENG: A good
cutting edge that, that remains strong over time is, is really
quite treasured. And so there's a certain
emotional attachment that will often come about between a
person and the-the knives that they... they use.
>> NARRATOR: Improbable as it sounds, some of today's sharpest
knives-- like this one-- are made out of ceramic, just like
the pots for your mother's geraniums, only a lot more
high-tech. >> CECILIA AGUILLON: The fine
ceramics-- which is what we use to make our ceramic knives--
that is a purified, uh, dirt, if you will.
And, uh, it's processed, it's chemically altered to
obtain a certain level of hardness and virtual strength.
>> NARRATOR: Japan's Kyocera makes knives not of metal, but
of highly purified zirconium oxide and aluminum oxide.
Carefully mixed... molded... and fired, these ceramics give
the blade great durability, because the firing, or sintering
process, creates new, stronger chemical bonds between
molecules. >> AGUILLON: Ceramic is a much
harder material than metal. (<i> machine buzzing</i> )
And the best way to compare would be the diamond.
We claim that our ceramic knives are almost as hard as diamond.
>> NARRATOR: At prices between $75 and $300 each, Kyocera's
knives don't come cheap; not surprising when you consider
the exacting quality control measures the company imposes on
its blade-making process... which is both proprietary
and secret. >> AGUILLON: It's like baking
cookies or baking a cake. If you add too much salt, if you
add too much sugar, you will alter the whole cake,
the whole mix. So that is a very big challenge
for production because if one, a couple of particles are not
right, then you have to just throw everything out and then
start over again. >> NARRATOR: The end result is
an extremely sharp knife that won't dull as quickly as metal
knives. And ceramic knives won't corrode
like metal ones will. There are drawbacks: you can't
cut bones with them or frozen foods because the brittle blades
will chip. And if you hit them hard with a
hammer, they'll probably break. Kyocera has launched blade-
making into the future with a variation on an apparently
simple Stone Age technology like ceramics, underscoring
the elegance simplicity of the cutting tool.
The Stone Age: we define that period as the time when man
began using stone to make tools, like knives.
And clearly, knives were something we needed.
>> DR. HAROLD DIBBLE: Basically, it's the one thing that we have
no natural, uh, uh, part of our body that can serve that
purpose-- that is, to slice things up, to cut things.
>> NARRATOR: Archaeologists prize piles of flint, or
obsidian chips, in their search for early communities.
>> DIBBLE: Having a pile of flakes, the debris shows where
people were making implements. We start focusing more and more
nowadays on looking at how implements were made; not just
at the final tool that you have produced, but by analyzing the
flakes themselves, you get insights into the sequence of
events that took place to actually manufacture the tool.
>> NARRATOR: With so little surviving from the Paleolithic
period-- the early Stone Age from 750,000 to 15,000 years
ago-- the distribution of artifacts tells how a site was
used by its inhabitants. Further, the chips themselves
have a lot to tell. >> DIBBLE: The difference
between a chipped piece of flint and a knife is, uh, virtually
nothing. Uh, basically knives in the old
Stone Age were made from chips of flint.
(<i> sharp report</i> ) You would pick up a chip of
flint that came off. It was already, by itself,
razor-sharp. So one of the issues that we
face is, really, what kinds of pieces we find were used
as tools, uh, or were they just, uh, byproducts of manufacture.
>> NARRATOR: One way scientists better understand Stone Age
toolmaking is to recreate it by chipping, or knapping, their own
tools. In this case, very sharp blades
are made from obsidian, a naturally occurring glass made
from volcanic rock. >> DIBBLE: During the very
earliest stone-tool period, things were fairly simple.
They would just be, take a rock and knock off a flake which had
a sharp edge to it. But just because it's simple
doesn't mean it's not effective. In fact, experiments have shown,
you can just take one flake like that and butcher an entire
antelope, for example. >> NARRATOR: Later Stone Age
artifacts offer a clue to an even more significant
technological breakthrough. >> FORGENG: When you start to
get the standardization of the human tool kit, that may be some
kind of evidence that people are not simply watching what one
another are doing, but, actually, perhaps, beginning
to-to talk about it. >> NARRATOR: Stone Age man
clearly used these blades for hunting and dressing animals.
They were also used for cutting wood and hacking vegetation.
What is not so clear is when blade implements were first used
in combat. Toward the end of the last Ice
Age, over 11,000 years ago, evidence of flint and obsidian
mining operation surfaces. But there were better materials,
metals like iron and copper, that were much more malleable
and much stronger than stone. Bronze, an alloy of 90% copper
and ten percent tin, proved to be such a breakthrough that its
common use ushered in the Bronze Age some 5,500 years ago.
>> FORGENG: Throughout human history, metallurgy has been one
of the most sophisticated aspects of human technology,
and, in many ways, it's the production of, of arms and
armor, and particularly of bladed weapons that has been
at the forefront of metals technology.
>> NARRATOR: The origins of metalwork are lost in the
labyrinth of history and myth, but it appears that iron
extraction, or smelting, occurred in disparate locations
at roughly the same time. Cutting implements could be
heated, cast and worked into a great variety of shapes.
First, the copper and tin-- which melts at 2,000 degrees
Fahrenheit-- would be melted over a fire or forge oven.
Initially, these forges were often built on the side of a
hill, where a steady draft supplied oxygen that increased
the intensity, and therefore the heat, of the fire.
Eventually, metalsmiths adopted the bellows, which uses an
accordion-like bladder to provide an artificial airflow
directly into the fire, increasing the heat.
Ceramic or stone containers, resistant to heat, were used
to hold the liquefying metals. Molten bronze could then be
poured into a preformed mold, or hammered into a predetermined
shape. The biggest challenge for early
artisans was supplying sufficient wood to sustain the
fast-burning fire. Metalwork enabled artisans to
forge larger, longer, stronger blades than anything they had
been able to create out of stone.
Metals like bronze were a revelation, and the Bronze Age
ushered in the era of the most celebrated of all blade
implements and the only one that has no purpose beyond combat.
Next... the sword. (<i> men grunting</i> )
The elegant and powerful sword is the pinnacle of all blade
implements, the culmination of blade-making technology.
Though its construction is more complex, its role is far simpler
than the axe or knife, each only part-time weapons.
The sword is a killer, through and through.
>> JONES: Swords are actually relatively latecomers within the
panoply of weapons. The earliest swords are from
about 4,000 years ago. >> NARRATOR: Like axes and
knives, early swords were made out of copper, and later,
bronze. For millennia, they were very
rare and highly prized. >> JONES: Many of those earliest
swords are said to have been swords reserved pretty much for
chieftains. >> NARRATOR: Iron was also used
to make swords, but iron was not a desirable metal.
>> FORGENG: Now, iron in its pure state does not hold a very
good edge. It's a relatively soft metal.
But if you add carbon to the mix, you harden the iron and you
make steel, and that has proved over human history to be the
ideal material for making edged weapons.
>> NARRATOR: Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon, just as
bronze is an alloy of copper and tin.
While it is true that only in the mid-19th century was steel
successfully mass-produced, creating the era of the
skyscraper... man has been forging steel for as long as
he has been working iron. Charcoal fires used in
smelting and forging iron provide a source of carbon.
>> FORGENG: The technology that's used to produce iron from
iron ore really involves carbon in the process.
>> NARRATOR: A sword is really a very long knife.
It's hard to pinpoint exactly where a long knife becomes a
>> NARRATOR: One way to distinguish swords is that they
are far more complicated to produce than axes and knives.
Any blacksmith can make either, but only a swordsmith can make a
sword. >> CHAMPAGNE: There's a lot of
things that can go wrong in the manufacture of a blade.
In fact, there's more things that can go wrong than can
really go right. >> NARRATOR: Modern-day
swordsmith Paul Champagne makes his swords using ancient
techniques. >> CHAMPAGNE: The basic tools of
the swordsmith are, like most smiths, the hammer, an anvil, a
pair of tongs to hold the hot metal while you're hammering it
on the anvil, and a file. The other important thing is
fire-- the smith's forge. Without it, you can't make the
steel, you can't form things to shape, and you can't get the
steel hard or temper it back. >> NARRATOR: Paul harvests his
iron from the Adirondacks near his home in Upstate New York.
>> CHAMPAGNE: I end up starting with iron ore, in the form of
magnetite, which is just a black sand like you might find on the
beach. Combine that with charcoal from
hardwood, and you'll end up getting a-a chunk like this that
weighs about 60 pounds. >> NARRATOR: Paul uses up to 400
pounds of charcoal to create the hunk of metal.
>> CHAMPAGNE: Doesn't really look like a sword, so you have
to break that up into smaller pieces to get some steel to work
with. Part of this is some cast iron,
part is iron, and part is some usable steel.
Break that up again into smaller, workable pieces.
You flatten them out against the anvil and stack them up.
pounding, heating and folding of the metal separates out the
impurities from the steel and eliminates air pockets, creating
>> CHAMPAGNE: Stack them up again, gets heated up hot in the
fire, forge welded again. As you can see, they're starting
to stick together, and all the voids are starting to fill up.
What that gives you is a larger billet, and that'll be cut in
the center, folded over, kind of like a pastry.
This will get drawn out. end up with what basically looks
like a bar of steel. I put the edges on, draw the
edge bevels. Start with a larger shaping
hammer. And then finish with a finishing
hammer. So you can see how this is
actually pulling off of the edges here, down to an edge.
You do that along the whole length, and you'll end up with
something that looks like this. This is going to be a-a Viking
pattern sword, so it'll have a fuller, which is this recess
down the center of the blade. Now you're ready to clean this
up a bit and, uh, heat-treat it. >> NARRATOR: The blade is
brought to a separate furnace for hardening.
>> CHAMPAGNE: First part of that is actually austenizing it.
Then, we'll quench it and cool it down really quickly.
So what's now soft steel turns into very hard steel.
>> NARRATOR: Quenching or quick- cooling the steel makes it
especially hard because of a molecular change that occurs
when the sword is heated to its critical temperature.
At that point, the carbon atoms enter into the crystalline iron
molecules, which have expanded, due to the heating.
By quick-cooling the steel right at this point, the iron crystals
contract, trapping the carbon atoms inside.
The result is a very strong, hardened steel.
Further low heating called "tempering" will reduce the
brittleness of hardened steel. The final stage in swordmaking
involves the handle, or hilt, which often consists of a cross-
like guard to prevent the hand from sliding up the blade, the
handle for gripping the sword, and a pommel which keeps the
handle from slipping off the end of the sword and acts as a
counterbalance. >> CHAMPAGNE: Now, everything
again is usually done hot and then polished afterwards.
For example, this pommel is hot set in the centers, just to give
it a rough recess. You can put a square hole
through the steel by drilling a hole and then using a hot punch,
Swords have to fit tight. Everything has to go on and lock
into place so it can't come off. It'll be fastened on there, but
it has to be strong so it won't rattle, won't come apart.
After everything is stacked and put together, cleaned up, the
end of this would be peaned over so nothing's coming off of
this. And the handle might be wrapped
in cord and then leather, shaped to be comfortable for the hands,
depending upon the time period and the culture that it was
within. Now, after you've polished the
blade, fit up the hilt, made sure everything's tight and
peaned it all over, wrap the handle, everything's sharpened,
you end up with a finished blade... like this.
>> NARRATOR: The finished sword is more than just a weapon.
It is a work of art. >> CHAMPAGNE: Swordsmiths were
considered important. I mean, they had the technology,
usually closely guarded secrets, of how to make some of the most
devastating weapons of the day. swordsmiths were, they were only
half the story. The other half was the soldier--
a trained swordsman who knew how to use the weapon in battle.
Not in dandified demonstrations of technique, but in ruthless,
close-quarters combat in which only one warrior was likely to
survive. Next, hand-to-hand combat with
swords.more than any other combat weapon, have attained a
certain mystical aura, partly a result of the difficulty in
making them. >> FORGENG: It's probably one of
the reasons why named swords like "Excalibur" have entered
into our mythology. A really good sword was a
treasure that would be passed on from generation to generation.
At the same time, the sword has a practical dimension to it that
one doesn't see in a lot of other weapons.
So the sword takes on a kind of symbolism as a means of defense
and protection. >> NARRATOR: Swords felled
unfortunate soldiers as far back as the Mycenean Period, during
the Trojan War described by Homer.
The later Romans were also well- acquainted with swords.
>> FORGENG: The classic blade weapon of the Roman legionary
was called the<i> Gladius</i> <i>Hispaniansus--</i> the Spanish
sword-- and is, indeed, believed to have originated from Spain.
It's fairly short, mostly a stabbing weapon.
>> NARRATOR: Roman swordsmiths would have provided soldiers
with hundreds of thousands of these Spanish swords.
Other cultures besides the Greeks and Romans also
incorporated the sword into their militias, although the
shape of the sword often reflected different methods of
combat. >> FORGENG: In the Middle East,
typically, swords tend to be curved, and one also gets
typically curved swords in Japan, for example.
>> NARRATOR: Later swords, from the Middle Ages, were designed
to probe the weaknesses in plate armor.
They were longer and emphasized the thrust over the cut.
Sword fighting required specialized skills tailored to
the shape of the sword to be used.
>> JOHN CLEMENTS: A slender, tapering sword, rigid, would be
used to fight heavy armor. A wide, curved blade would be
ideal for cutting at soft cloth armor.
>> NARRATOR: John Clements and his associate, Jeff Basham,
study ancient combat texts in order to recreate classic
swordfighting techniques as part of their organization, the
Association of Renaissance Martial Arts, or ARMA.
>> CLEMENTS: In between, you have a range of different
weapons, from very, very slender, tapering blades that
are ideal for single combat in an urban environment, to
different types of cutting and thrusting blades that were
suitable for horseback or foot, for facing a variety of armor,
from chain-ring armor, or mail, to different types of heavy
leather armor. >> NARRATOR: Swords designed to
thrust, particularly into armor, have more weight at the hilt or
grip, which allows for greater point control.
>> CLEMENTS: It can't cut very well, because it doesn't have
the width or the mass, or the edge bevel to deliver a powerful
cut. So, there's a trade-off with
each type of sword design, and no one sword can do everything
perfectly well. >> NARRATOR: Swords designed to
cut have more weight toward the point, or in the blade.
>> CLEMENTS: A wide blade is going to give you a much more
powerful cut than a narrow blade.
If the blade is thick, however, it's not going to be able to cut
very well, because it would have to push too much material aside
when it actually penetrates-- when it bites into a target.
(<i> grunting</i> ) >> NARRATOR: Unlike the
formalized sport of fencing, real sword fighting isn't about
scoring points and keeping form. >> CLEMENTS: It doesn't matter
whether you cleave an opponent's body in half or you pierce it
through completely, it's still going to kill the opponent, and
that's the purpose of swords. Swords were designed to<i> kill</i>
people, and they did their job very well.
>> FORGENG: The characteristic hand-and-a-half sword, for
example, of the late Middle Ages, was used in a technique
that did not just simply slash with the edge of the sword, but
also thrusted with the point, thrusted with the pommel,
delivered attacks with the quillins.
Indeed, every surface of the sword might be used
aggressively, not to mention grappling and wrestling
techniques. You never knew from which part
of the sword the next attack was going to come.
>> NARRATOR: This is not the swashbuckling style we're used
to seeing in Hollywood costume dramas, but it's effective in
real combat. And it's dead accurate.
Despite their mythic stature, swords were probably never the
principle weapon in battle. >> DR. LEE JONES: That work has
been done by weapons that can act at a greater distance.
Probably the greatest burden has been on the spear, because the
spear can be at the end of a shaft that is many feet long.
The sword as a weapon is something that's used up close,
and therefore, I think, would be that weapon of last resort, used
for final dispatch. >> NARRATOR: Interestingly, an
invention gathering momentum during the later Middle Ages
would eventually relegate the sword to a largely ceremonial
function. >> JONES: Something better came
along, that something was firearms, and the sword fell by
the wayside. >> NARRATOR: Even as swords sank
slowly but inevitably into oblivion, there was the odd
cross-pollination. The bayonet was a bladed
extension to the gun. >> FORGENG: The technique of use
of the bayonet, and its function on the battlefield, is more like
the function of a spear. By this time, pikes,
essentially, have been used and developed as a means of holding
off cavalry. And the bayonet allows the
musketeer to become his own pikeman.
(<i> all grunting</i> ) >> NARRATOR: American soldiers
used short bayonets during World War II, so that the once-
majestic sword had essentially devolved back into a knife.
With the dominance of the repeating firearm, the sword was
almost totally relegated to a ceremonial position.
>> JONES: It became a piece of tacky costume jewelry.
These things are certainly past the importance of the sword as a
weapon. >> NARRATOR: Today there is a
small but devoted group of sword collectors who will pay high
prices for authentic antique swords.
There is even a smaller group of craftsman, swordsmiths like
Paul Champagne, who actually make blades to the demanding
specifications that ancient swordsmiths followed-- swords
that would be formidable in an ancient battle.
These swords range in price anywhere from $2,000 to $20,000.
The vast majority of manufactured ceremonial swords
have no combat value whatsoever. Their purpose is to hang
decoratively on a wall, or off a hip.
Today, the most familiar sword is probably the United States
Marine officer's sword, manufactured by Wilkinson
Sword of England, which also produces a number of British
military swords, not to mention razor blades.
It is not designed for combat. Like swords, axes have also
fallen out of favor as combat weapons.
But, unlike the sword, the axe has proven to be a highly useful
all-purpose blade. Next, the brutal power of the
axe. >> NARRATOR: Klondike Days in
Eagle River, Wisconsin. Temperature, 28 degrees
Fahrenheit. Forecast, flurries.
Today's attractions include dogsledding, chainsaw carving, a
horse pull, and pony rides. But the biggest crowds are
gathering for the lumberjack competition.
Scheduled events include two-man bucking, underhand chop,
pole climbing, and the springboard.
And always a crowd-pleaser is the axe throw.
>> GUS CARLSON: Well, you're 20 feet from the target.
The target is five feet high from the bull's-eye, and you
just got to get the right rotation on the axe to where the
axe sticks. >> CARSON BOSWORTH: The axe is
anywhere between two and three pounds.
I use an axe that's specially made in New Zealand.
Some of the competitors use that particular brand.
All the axes we use are all double-bladed axes...
specially made for axe throwing in competitions.
>> NARRATOR: These events will draw close to 12,000 spectators
over two days, with prize money totaling $7,500.
Many competitors use specially- made axes that would be
impractical for timber cutting. For one thing, they're double-
edged-- good for throwing, but dangerous for chopping.
For another, they're too small, and at around three pounds, too
light to be much use for a serious lumberjack.
>> CARLSON: This axe was, is, uh, made in Sweden, and they're
about $95 in this country, and that's all I use it for.
I don't use it for anything else.
>> BOSWORTH: You don't really need to have any, any muscles to
axe throw. Axe throwing's a lot like
shooting a free throw, you know? Some people can shoot free
throws well, some people can't, you know?
It's the same basic thing. >> NARRATOR: Yeah, except that
if you miss a free throw, nobody's in danger of having a
gaping basketball wound in his or her head.
Today's axe-throwing competitions feature an
exceptionally frivolous exercise for an utterly practical tool.
And axes are simple tools, designed to chop without much
finesse. Unlike a knife, which can
carefully slice or filet, an axe is like a sharp club.
It requires a big, forceful swing in order to launch its
heavy head. >> LEE JONES: The first axes
were made of stone, and these axes were used by the farmers to
clear the land. As they would chip and be broken
down, they would become smaller, and so this example has been
reground several times, and has ended up quite short.
>> NARRATOR: With the advent of metallurgy during the Bronze
Age, much stronger axes could be forged in kilns.
The axe was not only a notably useful tool, it was also a
formidable weapon. What it lacked in subtlety, it
made up for in raw power. >> FORGENG: The characteristic
feature of an axe is that the weight is entirely concentrated
in the head. Now, this means the axe delivers
a tremendously powerful blow. The disadvantage of an axe, of
course, is that because the weight is all in the head, it's
much slower. What this means in short terms
is that the axe is used chiefly in a pretty aggressive style.
>> NARRATOR: Some Bronze Age combat axes tried to mitigate
the weapon's slow delivery with a double edge, so that a return
swing could be just as deadly as an initial swing.
>> FORGENG: The axe actually has some substantial advantages over
the sword. It's technologically easier to
produce. It means the axe is cheap, and
so the axe is an excellent weapon to use if you are just an
ordinary foot soldier who doesn't have an awful lot of
money at his disposal. >> NARRATOR: An axe is capable
of delivering a more powerful blow than a sword.
This became strategically important in the later Middle
Ages after plate armor was introduced.
>> FORGENG: Basically, an ordinary sword is not going to
be able to chop through plate armor.
You've got to find some kind of an alternative.
>> NARRATOR: The battle-axe came off the field of combat to
become a weapon of justice, as the logical tool for beheadings.
Though beheadings were familiar to cultures all over the world,
they are particularly associated with England, thanks in part to
Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn. These big execution axes were
often curved, in order to make contact at a point, and thus
more easily penetrate the flesh and bone.
Axe manufacture was similar, though far less complicated,
than sword manufacture, and began with a forged brick, or
"billet," of metal. >> CHAMPAGNE: You start with
a billet, which is common to swords, knives, and axes.
You have to start making the hole for the handle to go
through, so you heat it up-- again, yellow hot-- simple tool,
simple punch-- and you drive it through to make a hole.
Now, the hole ends up being long and narrow, obviously too narrow
for a handle. Then use a couple simple tools,
very simple, to open it up, again driven through by
hand, and take another tool through the center to give it
some of the roundness. Then all you have to do is take
this part on the hammer, with strikers, and draw it out, and
shape it to an edge. Flatten out the rest of it, and
you have a primitive axe. >> NARRATOR: Even as axe
production entered the Industrial Revolution, the
simple methods used to make an axe changed little.
Hand craftsmanship continued as this early 20th century film,
taken at a Fiskars Brand manufacturing plant in Finland,
shows. These days, things have changed.
Unlike traditional hickory wood handles, those of fiberglass are
hard to break, and won't shrink or swell in changing
temperatures and humidity. The center of gravity is located
in the axe head, creating a more ergonomic axe.
Fiskars tests each of its axes for strength and durability.
Fiskars even makes axe accessories, like sharpeners,
for its many specialized axes. These Fiskars axes will be
shipped all over the world, and used to fell trees, not
opponents. As versatile a tool as the axe
is, modern warriors need something subtler, more
sophisticated. Something lethal enough to filet
an opponent, yet delicate enough to spread butter.
Next: the evolution and specialization of the knife.
he machine gun may have killed the sword, but they
didn't entirely eliminate blades for the soldier.
What remained was the stealthy knife.
One of the great advantages the knife has over the sword is that
it can be concealed. >> RONALD A. HARRIS: Knives come
in a variety of sizes and shapes, lengths.
Some are single-edged, some are double-edged.
Daggers are primarily used for killing, and daggers have two
edges, narrowed to a point. >> NARRATOR: Once, nearly
everyone, men and women, carried knives.
Exquisite examples survive, dating back through the late
Stone Age. Much like swords, the shape of
the knife determines how it will be used in combat, and this
hinges on whether the knife is a cutter or a thruster.
>> HARRIS: The slashing knives tend to be single-edged, whereas
the thrusting knives tend to be more double-edged.
>> NARRATOR: Ron Harris is an edged weapons expert, who, with
Paul Barrick, demonstrates some basic knife fighting techniques.
>> HARRIS: The problem with the lethality is a debatable issue.
When you slash someone, it might take them three to five minutes
to bleed out. When you thrust someone, you
disrupt the vital functions, the organs and so on.
They might stop instantly. They'll bleed inside.
The problem with slashing is that you might be in a fight for
a long time. Three to five minutes might mean
that you both end up in death grips.
>> NARRATOR: Knives were too valuable as a multipurpose tool
to go the way of the sword. Firearms merely removed them
from the realm of principle combat weapon.
In fact, the utility knife is still a vital component of any
soldier's battle gear. Not to mention weekend warriors
of all stripes. Nowhere is that made more
apparent than in the phenomenally successful Swiss
Army knives. >> CHARLES ELSENER: I have two
knives always in my pocket. One of them is the Midnight
Miniature. It has a small letter opener.
It has a small, very practical ball-point pen, and an LED
light. The next knife I always carry in
my pocket is the Voyager, because this has a larger blade
for harder work, and it also tells me the time and wakes me
up in the morning. >> NARRATOR: Charles Elsener
ought to have a couple of Swiss Army knives with him, he's
president of Victorinox, the company that makes Swiss Army
knives. In fact, his great-grandfather,
Karl Elsener, founded the company over 100 years ago in
Ibach, Switzerland. >> ELSENER: In 1890, the Swiss
Army had decided to buy soldier knives for all the soldiers of
the Swiss Army, and in the beginning, there was a company
in Soling, Germany, who started to supply these knives.
>> NARRATOR: Elsener thought those knives ought to be
supplied by Swiss bladesmiths, so he came up with a plan to
wrest the knife commission from the Germans.
>> ELSENER: Karl Elsener, himself, he was a little bit too
small for the order, and therefore he decided to found
the Swiss Knife Association with the goal to supply the Swiss
Army with the soldier knives. >> NARRATOR: Within a year, all
the other association members had quit, and Elsener nearly
went bankrupt. Although he was unable to
produce the volume of knives the Germans could, his knives were
better made and contained extras that endeared them to the
soldiers. >> ELSENER: In 1897, he
developed a newer and a lighter model for officers.
He called it sports and officers' knives.
Only because of these knives and the success of these knives he
really overcame the competition from Germany.
>> NARRATOR: The key to success was the innovative features
Elsener kept adding to his knives.
Even after Elsener's death in 1916, the family kept making
knives and kept adding features. In 1923, the company introduced
stainless steel knives, which didn't require constant
polishing. But the company's greatest
success would come out of World War II, when American soldiers
stationed in Europe bought the handy knives in their PXs.
The rest is history. >> ELSENER: Today we have about
100 different models of Swiss Army knives.
The most basic one is the standard model, with 12
different functions. The most complex one is the
Swiss Gem. It has 33 different functions
and features. >> NARRATOR: Although Victorinox
is still family-owned, it is now the largest cutlery manufacturer
in Europe, producing over 120,000 knives every day, or
more than 25 million a year. 950 people work in Ibach, where
the knives are made, and another 200 employees throughout the
world work in distribution. >> ELSENER: People always ask
us, how can you always come up with some new ideas, but I think
for our company, it's very important to watch carefully the
developments in the world. And these developments always
give us some new ideas. >> NARRATOR: Victorinox also has
a successful dining flatware line.
Flatware is the term used for all those utensils from soup
spoons to salad forks, steak knives to butter knives.
In a sense, the butter knife is the latest refinement of the
ancient flint-knapped blade. Today's flatware rarely inflicts
serious injury, except for the occasional bagel fiasco.
>> FORGENG: For a lot of human history, the knife was
something that you really carried by your side all the
time. You're using it for cutting
string, for eating at table, and sometimes for personal defense.
So it's a kind of all-purpose implement that really becomes a
part of your day-to-day life. >> NARRATOR: In early days,
knives were valuable, yet simple.
The dagger you used to dispatch your spouse's lover also worked
beautifully to spear potatoes out of the communal dinner pot.
But those uncomplicated times were not to last.
>> ROSS ANDERSON: The first fork was introduced, actually, in
Italy, in about 1100 A.D. And after that time, between
1500 and 1600 A.D., the fork and the knife were being used in
conjunction with each other. So that was really when people
first started to carve their own food and serve themselves.
>> NARRATOR: Throwing a medieval dinner party for 12 meant
welcoming 12 armed guests into your home.
There was the very real danger that gatherings could turn into
bloodbaths. In 1669, King Louis the 14th of
France ordered that all table knives have their points rounded
off. From that point on, all table
knives, shall we say, "lost their edge."
As flatware was refined, it became less menacing.
Guests didn't need to unsheathe their own knives.
They'd find harmless ones waiting for them at table.
Another innovation courtesy of the French king-- he kept the
sharp knives in the kitchen. >> ANDERSON: There are many
different types of knives that are manufactured today and many
years ago. Um, there are knives out for
paring, for example, or for deboning meat, or filleting
fish. Or what we call a cook's knife
today, which is used in chopping vegetables.
There are fine-edged knives which are what we manufacture.
It's a fine edge versus a serrated knife, which is almost
like a saw-like knife. A saw-like knife could be used
in cutting a hard-skinned vegetable, for example.
Something that you'd really need a sawing action for.
>> NARRATOR: During the 19th century in America, flatware
manufacturers flourished throughout Western Massachusetts
and upstate New York, where beautifully hand crafted
utensils were made. Company's like Oneida carry on
the tradition with mass-produced stainless steel flatware, which
is cut and pressed out of sheets of metal during the assembly
process. Oneida manufactures well over 10
million steak knives every year. Cutlery is big business.
Cutco Cutlery of New York reported sales of more than 150
million in the year 2000. >> (<i> yelling</i> )
>> NARRATOR: And who can forget the memorable and profitable
'70s uber-infomercial for Ginsu knives?
>> ANNOUNCER: It'll cut through a branch and still remain razor-
sharp. The more you use it, the better
it cuts. How's that for sharp?
>> NARRATOR: But the real innovation behind the Ginsu
knife was its direct marketing plan.
>> ANNOUNCER: But hold on, you even get 12 world-famous Ginsu
steak knives absolutely free. Not even a tin can can dull a
Ginsu. >> NARRATOR: Since 1976,
millions of Ginsu knives have been sold, with no sign of
letting up any time soon. Although it may seem like a fair
distance from the kitschy Ginsu to the noble sword, the history
of blade implements has always been the story of basic
technology. Whether it is a high-tech
ceramic or a low-tech obsidian, it all comes down to that
cutting edge. >> FORGENG: The ability to
produce knives and swords has been a force for innovation over
the whole course of human history.
>> CHAMPAGNE: The idea of an edge-- of making two planes of
material meet so closely that they can actually cut through
things-- whether they're knives or axes or swords, the way I
think of them is that the edge is the true technology.
