Thor Bjorklund was a Norwegian inventor. He is best known as the inventor of a popular cheese slicer which developed into an important Norwegian export product.
Thor Bjorklund (1889-1975) from Lillehammer invented the cheese slicer in 1925. Bjorklund was carpenter of profession. He constructed the cheese slicer because of the irritation based on the problems with cutting nice slices of the cheese with a regular knife.
The products, which are still produced in Lillehammer, has through the more than 80 years become a classic symbol of Norwegian innovation, quality and design.
The patent
The patent on the invention was registered Feb 27th 1925. Thor Bjorklund's prototype consisted of four pieces; blade with cutting edge, neck, spike and handle.
Even though the cheese slicer has developed over the years, the principles of production are still the same as in 1925. The patent is developed in a way that makes it easy to make slicers for different types of cheese.Methods, design and material work have followed the development, but the principle is unchanged. The production is extended with numerous new types of slicers, soft cheese slicers, graters, knives and other serving cutlery.Since the start in 1925, the factory has produced more than 50 millions cheese slicers. in the early years, it took 50-60 working operations to make a slicer, which took about an hour.
