Gumball Machine Switchblades

[john]

1989
Those knives are adorable.

[Quaero]

Cute little fellows, and something I had not seen before.

[portlandmike]

Never seen those before! Very cool!

I bought a "lot" of I think 12 of these slightly bigger ones like I decorated this Christmas tree with 12-15 years ago. I could never find any more.
merryxmas.jpg

I just bought a couple of those red and green scaled minis

[button_man]

I love the tiny "keychain" switchblades..... I have only ever found one while nosing around the flea markets.... another collector told me
that it is circa 1968. (it works perfectly and there is NO blade peek!) If anyone has any old minis for sale or trade, I am always interested.....

[TazmanTom]

Hard to dial in year on those, that is a very early tang mark. They were also done without the inox being underlined. Could be two piece spring that early. Very nice horn. Never was able to determine which was first, with and without being underlined. Could have been same time frame, different makers, although there weren't many cutlers doing those. IMHO.
Tom

[TazmanTom]

Didn't notice Swede, nice plus.

[TazmanTom]

Swedge

[button_man]

Tom ~ Thanks for the info..... I never gave any thought to the underline! You have good eyes to pick up on the swedge; it's barely noticeable in the photo. The nice thing is that the blade is swedged on both sides, not just the front. It's a very appealing little knife and when the seller told me "twenty dollars" I couldn't get my money out fast enough. I can't find any more old minis so I've been reduced to collecting the modern ones.....

[TazmanTom]

It's a fairly common response here, "wanna double your money? lol There's plenty of guys that still haven't found a horn one yet, nice one. Can you tell if it's a slip in spring ?

[button_man]

I will let wiser heads than mine determine whether it's a slip-in spring..... also, here is a look at the horn on the reverse side....

[TazmanTom]

Another plus, looks like a two piece, slip in spring to my old eyes.

[jim d,]

Mine as well

Jim

[button_man]

Thanks guys..... so if the spring ever broke, is it possible to remove it just by pulling it out with needlenose pliers or something similar?

[TazmanTom]

Basically yes, but as we all know, nothing is as easy as it sounds... maybe Bill will see this and chime in.

[Markco the Mad otter]

I agree with the date being at least 1989 as that appears to be the date on the quarters pictured in the "50cent" picture. Pretty cool, never saw them before.