MANY WAYS TO CUT IT

       A century and a quarter after a master cutler set out to supply Swiss soldiers with a survival tool, the iconic Swiss Army knife still adjusts gun sights, cuts cheese and opens cans.
       But deep in Switzerland's Alpine heartland, Karl Elsener's descendants at Victorinox, the last firm that still makes the pocket knives, have been forced to adapt to the urban jungle.
       Apart from the hallmark blades, the corkscrew-originally sold to officers ony-tweezers and screwdrivers, the nowadays 100-strong range includes a "cyber tool" to fix computers, a USB key and a blunt-tiped children's knife.
       Former rival and now subsidiary Wenger added the folding nail clipper to the nail file, while London's Bond Street, New York's Soho and Tokyo's Ginza rival army barracks around the world as outlets.
       Victorinox president Carl Elsener Jr is eyeing a Bluetooth-equipped remote controller for businss presentations, and even finger-print ID to secure data.
       "We always try to be very close to the market and get new ideas," says Elsener, great-grandson of the company's founder.
       Although the modern discourse is imbued with marketign speak, Elsener says the family firm has poured "a lot of soul" into the red tool.
       "The Swiss Army knife became the relieable companion for many expeditions, to the North Pole, the South Pole, in the Amazon, to Mount Everest, even official equipment of the Space Shuttle crews," says Elsener proudly.
       "Presidents have been using the Swiss Army knife as a gift for their visitors to the White House," he adds, also recalling that it was once used to perform an in-flight emergency tracheoto-my high above the Philippines.
       An exhibition at the Swiss National Museum is Schwyz, near the firm's headquarters, retraces the evolution of pocktknives "from tool to icon", revealing the far more rural flavour of the early models.
       Apart from replacing daggers, the European ancestors of the multipurpose tool were designed to saw wood, castrate boar, pluck feathers or sew potato sacks.
       In Italy an ornate small folding blade was dubbed the coltello d'amore-the knife of love-an engagement gift to encourage the future husband to remain faithful.
       Ominously, it was hung above the couple's bed.
       The devout Karl Elsener was motivated by more earthy, practical values and the kind of business acument that seems to run in the family.
       After learnign hsi trade in Switzerland, Franc and Germany, he set up his cutlery and knife workshop in the village of Ibach in 1884.
       The Swiss army wanted to supply conscripts with a knife they could also use to maintain their new refle and open tinned food, somethig of a novelty for army rations at the time.
       Just as his great grandson is today trying to fnd off cheap imitations fromthe Far East, Victorinox's founder was irritated by the military's bid to turn to Germany's steel industry for mass production.
       So he convinced local cutlers to club together and make the knife in Switzerland by 1891.
       "The knife was a bit bulky and heavy so my grandfather decided to develop a lighter more elegant knif with additional functions. One of them, of course, was the corkscrew," Elsener explains.
       The evolved into the officer's knife, patented in 1897, with six functions, the rounded ends and the characteristic Swiss cross on the body. Wenger claims paternity for the flattened sides.
       "The history begins with the soldier's knife for the Swiss army," says exhibition organiser ia Schubiger. "But the cult cvame with the officer's knife."
       US soldiers were responsible for giving the pocket knife wider resonance after World War II. They eventually bought them at army PX stores in Europe and gave them to relatives or fiiends back home.
       "Pronouncing 'schweizer offiziersmesser' was too difficult so they just called ti the Swiss Army knife," says Elsener.
       But the growing diversity of the devce is also down to a battle for economic survival. "Swiss Army" is nowadays a commercial trademark.
       Sales dipped after knives were banned from airliner cabins in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks, adding to the pr3ssure from copetition and new multipurpose portable tools.
       "September 11 was our worst moment because practically from one day to the next our outut dropped 30 per cent," said Elsener.
       In 2005 Victorinox took over its last Swiss rival, Weger. The brands still trade independently.
       "We felt it was important because we wanted to prevent a foreign company taking over Wenger an dproducing the Swiss Army knife in the Far East or produce other products that could hurt our brand image," Elener explains.
       More recently the financial and economic crisis has taken its tool, leading to an unspecified drop in sales into the first two months of the year.
       About six million of the picket devices in their umpteen permutations are produced a year, according to Victorinox, on top of a similar number of other tools and kitchen knives, and even branded perfume.
       Nonetheless, some eartheir traditions die hard.
       In February, the Swiss army began to hand otu its new issue knife to soldiers.
       "Ony fro recurits who have just joined," emphasises army spokesman Christoph Brunner.
       Now military green and black, the handle is shaped and designed with a better grip to assist single-handed openig. It can also saw wood and uncap beer bottles.
       But there is still no corkscrew.