Movie Switchblades

[Nate]

can anyone please tell me what the exact knife ace used is.

[whippersnapper]

Ace who?

[boots]

Was watching Reform School Girls the other night and Wendy Williams had a switchblade but looking closely you could see it was one of those switchblade mustache combs, they didn't even try to alter it to look like a switchblade.

[Highspeedsteel]

can anyone please tell me what the exact knife ace used is.

It’s a Rizzy clone which is an anachronism being Stand By Me was supposed to take place in the 50s and that knife was 70-80s

[Twobit]

In 133 pages of replies I might have missed a reference to this but does anyone have any suggestions as to what a dirt poor greaser like Johnny Cade was doing carrying high dollar German steel in his hip pocket? Seems like a Rizzy would have been more his speed. I know, it's just a movie and Hollywood doesn't care much for accuracy but... Any input?

[Erik131065]

Same story......I'ld think that rizzies weren't around yet in the early sixties.

[Killgar]

In 133 pages of replies I might have missed a reference to this but does anyone have any suggestions as to what a dirt poor greaser like Johnny Cade was doing carrying high dollar German steel in his hip pocket? Seems like a Rizzy would have been more his speed. I know, it's just a movie and Hollywood doesn't care much for accuracy but... Any input?

Maybe he swiped it from a pawn shop or hardware store.

As I recall, in the book the story is told how Two-Bit acquired his prized switchblade- he stole it from a hardware store. Maybe Johnny did the same.

Unlike in the movie where Two-Bit had a butterfly knife, in the book he had a switchblade.

[sammy the blade]

I'm sure he swiped it, that's how I got mine!

[Twobit]

Good responses! There are no wrong answers it just got me thinking and I was interested to see how others thought. Hinton never described any particular switchblade in the book other than by length and those were confusing seems like one might be blade length and another by overall- like I believe Johnny's was a six inch and TwoBit's was eight. Ponyboy also had one in the book with no description at all.

[Panzerfaust]

I doubt Hinton knew much, if anything, about switchblades and she may not have ever even seen one other than in movies. As far as the shell puller in the movie, that was probably just random and was the knife that someone in the prop department found.

[Twobit]

Panzerfaust I agree on all counts.

[Killgar]

According to an interview of S.E. Hinton I read, she was a tomboy, and the greasers in The Outsiders were based on a real gang of greasers that she hung out with. She said the original inspiration for the story that later became The Outsiders was an incident where one day she and a greaser friend were walking home from school when some "nice" kids pulled up in a car, got out, and beat the greaser up just for being a greaser.

If what she says is true, and I have no reason to call her a liar, hanging out with greasers it's entirely possible that she may have seen a switchblade or two.

Bear in mind that she wasn't writing The Outsiders specifically for switchblade enthusiasts. I'm sure if one of us wrote the book we would have gone into great detail about the knives.

[Panzerfaust]

If a switchblade enthusiast had written The Outsiders, I imagine the descriptions would be like this: "Two Bit carried an 11-inch Italian stiletto switchblade. The tang of his knife was stamped Latama, and Two Bit became fascinated with the Italian stiletto after seeing Rebel without a Cause when he was 13 years old. This was the same type of knife James Dean wielded during the knife fight scene.
"Johnny Cade carried a different switchblade, a German leverlock springer with shotgun shell pullers on the front bolster. It was a popular sportsman's knife and Johnny stole it from his father, who was a duck hunter. Unlike Two Bit's knife, it was easily sharpened because it was made for cutting, not piercing.
"Most of the rest of the Greasers carried Imperial Jack-O-Matics, the most common switchblade in the 1950s. They were available in every hardware and sporting goods store before the 1958 ban. Earlier versions of the knife were stamped Hammer Brand on the tang. One greaser carried a Colonial switchblade and its tang was stamped Shur Snap. Another greaser carried a German paratrooper gravity knife his father brought back from World War II. It was a large, clunky knife but he loved the sound of the blade sliding out of the handle and locking into place."

[jerryk25]

7 inch Rizzuto Estilletos were DEFINATELY around in 1965.
I was in 8th grade in 65. . ., saw an older kid with one.
7th and 8th grade were at the bigger High School Building.
So, if I was in the High School Cafeteria, it was at least 1965.

I had never saw a shotgun shell bolster until the internet.

In Pittsburgh, (south toward West Virginia), everyone had Buck folding hunters.
You could have them in school, on your belt, in a pouch.
The boy scouts in full uniform could wear scout camper folding knives.
So I guess teachers did not mind. We had a gun club that shot on our campus.
(Keep in mind, cowboy boots that smelled of horse and cow dung was normal. )
My one friend had a crooked pinky finger because a cow stepped on it while milking.

I was born in 1951. . .I remember vaguely hardware store
Hammer brand automatic cigar jacks. . .in a hardware store checkout.

I remember when all the italians switched from bayo point to clip point.
I remember when plastic fake horn handle scales started appearing on Italians.
Up until then I had only seen white fake pearl.
When You got a real horn handle knife in the mail, it smelled so good.

I didn't see my first "Tilt Bolster" until 1974. a Friend Jim had a tilt bolster.
In woodshop he wire brushed a rusty knife and made a cherry wood set of scales.
He flicked it and closed it so fast for a picklock.
I asked him how he did it. . .he showed me the tilt.

[Twobit]

Awesome first hand history! Thanks for the contribution to the conversation, Jerry.