Got "Glocked" in 1981
The tale I heard, including the torture tests, was that Gaston was looking for 'indestructible' materials that could be formed and not machined too much. Polymers were just being marketed by chemical companies. His first patent on the polymer-stuff was a washing-machine impeller-blade. Then came the 1st military applications; a stealth knife-blade in its own sheath, and the folding, lightweight shovel/pick. And then the very fortunate the open testing of a sidearm by the Austrian Army. The rest, as they say, is history.