FISKARS 1649 – 360 years of Finnish industrial history

Fiskars 1649
Fiskars 1649
Fiskars produced its first orange-handled scissors
in 1967, drawing on a number of manufacturing
innovations that it had made. These new type of
scissors gradually became a profitable business that
won over consumers in markets worldwide. Over the
years, they have become a true design icon – to such an
extent, in fact, that probably the first image that people
identify with Fiskars today is an orange handle.
Orange was not an obvious choice at the time,
however, and was selected largely by accident.
Fiskars’ plastics plant had produced orange-colored
juicers, and the orange pigment left over from these
was used for the prototype handles. A vote was
taken at the sales office on the final color to be used,
and orange beat black by only a relatively narrow
margin, of 9-7.
Development work has continued over the years.
The manufacturing process back in the 1970s was
still based on forging the blades for the scissors,
which were then ground into their final shape. This
approach has since been replaced by stamping out
the blades from precisely dimensioned sheet steel.
An angle has been ground into the blades since 1975
to enhance their visual appearance and improve
their cutting performance; while other changes have
been introduced to improve product ergonomics
and enhance production processes.
1994
1980
1975
1972
1970
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