Xikar gem.........and teeny piece of American history

[Chui]

Bought this some while ago when in France with the missus. We were driving through a village and my knife-detector spotted something, I pulled over and parked and said I needed to grab something 'from the chemist...'

At the front of a quaint line of shops was a very small display of penknives, and I bought two. However this one in particular turns out to be rather nice...

I was very lucky also to get some information from the horses mouth...

 

[Esav Benyamin]

He's not kidding. They made some nice knives. I was sorry they had to let that part of the business go.

9-11 was serious problem for knives. Wenger, of Swiss Army Knife fame, went under, also. Fortunately, Victorinox bought them. At least thst saved jobs and kept them in Switzerland.

 

[19-3ben]

Now I'm curious. I had not heard of 9-11 having an impact on the knife world. Why did it make a difference? I mean obviously it would effect those who wanted to travel with knives. But why would the knife business be influenced by the attack?

 

[Esav Benyamin]

Because people used to be able to travel with knives. They even sold SAKs in airport shops. The more pressure governments put on knife carry, the more people just gave up on buying them.

It fed into the whole anti-knife mindset: "Why do you need to carry a weapon?"

 

[Franciscomv]

Now I'm curious. I had not heard of 9-11 having an impact on the knife world. Why did it make a difference? I mean obviously it would effect those who wanted to travel with knives. But why would the knife business be influenced by the attack?

Wenger lost a good percentage of their sales from knives being removed from airport shops. A few years ago I'd visit family in Switzerland once a year. Wenger and Victorinox knives, boxed sets of watches/pens and SAKs were on sale during SwissAir flights, I bought a bunch of them. Not being able to pack SAKs in carry on luggage is a pain in the behind, too. I used to do most of my flying without checking luggage, to save time.

Strict restrictions at airports and government buildings probably hurt sales, too. Especially amongst casual knife buyers who just didn't think it worth it to invest in something they couldn't carry everywhere.

 

[onojoe]

Nice score and cool story!