Norwegians are not famous for being innovative, and there are not many well-known Norwegian inventions. But we are proud of the few we have got: The cheese slicer, the aerosol spray can, the paper clip and … no…

It turned out that the paper clip is not a Norwegian invention, although the vast majority still believes so. Norwegian Johan Vaaler has long been considered as the inventor of the paper clip, but in 1867 the first patent for a kind of paper clip was granted to American, Samuel B. Fay.

So that leaves us with the cheese slicer and the aerosol spray can (and a few other even lesser-known inventions).

The Cheese slicer is Norwegian and was invented and patented by master carpenter Thor Bjørklund from Lillehammer in 1925. The production started in 1927.

Bjørklund was annoyed with the difficulties of cutting cheese nicely when using a knife, so he invented the cheese slicer inspired by a common carpenter’s plane.

On February 27th 1925, Bjørklund patented the new tool. The prototype consisted of four parts: A blade with an edge, a spacer, a pin and a shaft. The cheese slicer can be used to cut hard cheeses, included the rock-hard Norwegian ‘brown cheese’. The tool can also cut potatoes into thin flakes when making potato chips or to peel asparagus and cucumber. A cheese slicer can also be used to cut green cucumbers into thin slices, etc.

Because the cheese slicer is difficult (impossible) to obtain outside Norway, ThorNews recommends readers to look into finn.no (Norwegian eBay) and buy a used one – alternatively use a regular knife.

All cheese slicer enthusiasts should watch these videos:

Text and photo by: Thor Lanesskog, ThorNews

Categories: Culture, Design