The artist Anders Zorn is probably quite familiar to most Swedes but also known abroad as he became world-famous for his portrait paintings and made a fortune painting, among other things, several American presidents. That Anders Zorn also designed a knife may not be as well known. It was when he was to make the Gustav Vasa statue that he made a study in what type of knife a young noble man from Stockholm probably had in his belt around the 1520s. The knife he designed bears traces of inspiration from both near and far, including a chain and locking pin similar to Finnish and Sami knives.
We (Morakniv) today have one of the more than ten knives that were made according to Ander Zorn’s design, the so-called Mattson’s knife (the knife that Anders Zorn presented to Djos-Anders Mattson, the founder of the Mora company Anders Mattsons Mekaniska). The person who manufactured the beautiful knives has long been a mystery, but now we know that it was the mechanical genius Halvar-Anders Eriksson, better known as “the maker” who made them. More on that another time.