Vintage Keychain Mini Switchblades

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whippersnapper
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Re: Vintage Keychain Mini Switchblades

Post by whippersnapper »

button_man wrote: Tue Feb 09, 2021 2:03 pm WS ~ By the way, that's a great tree! Maybe next year you could put a small shuriken on top as the star.....
I only have one or 2 left. I gave the majority away as a bonus knife when I would sell another knife, or to a few forum members who asked.

Afterwards I kind of regretted it because I could never find any more in a large lot, or individual for that matter. And I had guys looking for me who are much better at knife searching than I am. People who sell knives for a living.

I'm with you. It seems like it would be easier in this day and age to figure out where, who, and when certain things come from. But I seem to fail more often than not.


So button_man, I don't think anyone is saying these aren't hard to come by. They sure have been for me since I first bought the dozen I got. I consider them very collectible no matter where they were made.



Rithvich has one of the best collections of minis I have seen in a long time. Another member Bangie has or had a great collection too, as well as a couple others who slip my mind now.
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Panzerfaust
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Re: Vintage Keychain Mini Switchblades

Post by Panzerfaust »

rithvich wrote: Tue Feb 09, 2021 4:22 pm Here is the latest group shot I have of my minis. Took this about a year ago and have added a few more since. Every knife in this group is different whether it's a scale material, stamp, body style, etc. No doubles, except for the set on card in the top right but I count that as one.
Wow, that is a fabulous collection! I have a few of those including the Japanese picklock that I remember was the second switchblade I ever owned back in 1981.
sammy the blade
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Re: Vintage Keychain Mini Switchblades

Post by sammy the blade »

Grindworx has some Italian mini's advertised if anyone's looking.
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button_man
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Re: Vintage Keychain Mini Switchblades

Post by button_man »

WS ~ Thanks for sharing your experience with trying to obtain minis - - it confirms my suspicion that these have not been churned out by Asian manufacturers for quite some time now. I suspect those folks discovered that making full-size knives is easier and provides a higher profit margin.

rithvich ~ Great collection! Those card displays are killer! How did you find those? BTW, that piece in upper left looks like the Mago 4.75" OTF -- is that correct? I don't see a 'Firecracker' OTF in the photo.... you definitely should have one! I picked up one from Grindworx a year ago; they seem to be sold out now (and the same goes for most of their minis). It's from China but only cost me $15 and works fine. The quality seems very good for such an inexpensive knife and I think if you got one, you'd like it as much as I do. [photo credit: from Grindworx listing Jan 2020]

Update on the cheesy minis that prompted this thread: I got them in my hands yesterday and was pretty let down. The seller assured me that they all worked fine, none had blade peek, and none had any problems. Four of the eleven were acceptable; the rest ALL had peek, or refused to lock up, etc.
Back they go..... *sigh*
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robcelani
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Re: Vintage Keychain Mini Switchblades

Post by robcelani »

I've been on a mini buying spree the past month. Just got in this group. There's one newer Italian 4 inch with the split back spring. There's a 3.5 inch similar to the op example that I assume is from China. I had some of those years ago that were different colors. There's 8 that are 3 inch and marked "STAINLESS STEEL" on the front and "MADE IN HONG KONG" on the back. I took a picture of 2 and one of those happens to have a weird double stamp of "MADE IN".

I purchased the group as a lot but was really after the most interesting 2 that I think are probably Japanese. One is about 3 inches and marked "STAINLESS" and the other is a little shorter and has no markings but has the cactus guards (are they called derby?). The wasp body marked stainless is the best built. I used to have a lot of the older Italian mini's and this is comparable quality in my opinion. The cactus guard is not quite the same quality, it's missing a pin in the front bolster which I think was how it was designed, but still better quality than the other asian mini's in the group.

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I got a few more mini's coming in the mail. A couple are coming from overseas with no tracking so don't know when those will be here. The other 2 are in the states and should be here Monday I think. When I get those I'll post more pictures.
Though you hold your blade over my heart, through endurance... I will Prevail!
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Jackalope
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Re: Vintage Keychain Mini Switchblades

Post by Jackalope »

Pretty cool! Never seen one marked Hong Kong before.
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robcelani
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Re: Vintage Keychain Mini Switchblades

Post by robcelani »

I went back and found an old thread I started when I got my first mini italian stiletto. Theres some cool pictures and great information in there if anyone is interested. viewtopic.php?f=1&t=20169

A couple notes, in my first post I put pictures up and called a mini an italian when it was actually chinese made. It's similar to the OP's knife but way different handle color. I don't even know what to call it but check the link. The pictures aren't great because I was using photobucket before they pulled their bullshit trying to get everyone to pay a ton for use of their site. Thanks Imgur for still being free!

Also, there's some discussion about the liners on the italian mini's. Bill explains the process that was used to give them a look of having separate brass liners without really having separate brass liners. I'm not explaining that well so see page 2 and 3 I think of the thread. Anyway, what I wanted to point out is that the 2 japanese knives I posted above actually have brass liners, not the 1 piece handle the italians started using to make their knives look like they had brass liners.
Last edited by robcelani on Sat Feb 27, 2021 2:09 am, edited 1 time in total.
Though you hold your blade over my heart, through endurance... I will Prevail!
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robcelani
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Re: Vintage Keychain Mini Switchblades

Post by robcelani »

Jackalope wrote: Sat Feb 27, 2021 1:54 am Pretty cool! Never seen one marked Hong Kong before.
Yeah I thought that was neat. I didn't know they were marked that way until I got them. 2 I'm waiting on are also marked Hong Kong but on the back spine of the handle. That's different too right!
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whippersnapper
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Re: Vintage Keychain Mini Switchblades

Post by whippersnapper »

Nice!
button_man
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Re: Vintage Keychain Mini Switchblades

Post by button_man »

robcelani ~ Nice score! A dozen at once! Now I'm going to risk Being Tactless (a specialty of mine) and ask if you would mind telling us what kind of dough you had to shell out for this batch....? I see the new Italian minis going for around $30 to $40 on SD and I'm wondering what values are like for the Asian stuff in the secondary marketplace.... not being nosy; just trying to become informed....
TazmanTom
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Re: Vintage Keychain Mini Switchblades

Post by TazmanTom »

Anybody who didn't, read the thread posted by Rob.GREAT INFO AND READ... Thanks... Tom
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robcelani
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Re: Vintage Keychain Mini Switchblades

Post by robcelani »

@button_man - Sure I’ll talk about how much I paid and if it’s ok I wanted to ask about opinions on values.

That group above I found on Arizona Custom Knife and it was listed at $195. I hadn’t bought from them in a while so I had to quickly fill out their online switchblade form and then I called. They have outrageous shipping charges because they use UPS normally so in the past I asked them to ship by USPS. The guy told me they couldn’t ship switchblades using USPS which is weird because the majority of knives I bought in the past were switchblades and they used USPS for those. That was years ago though so maybe they changed policies or something.

Anyway, I was expressing my frustration about the higher shipping charge using UPS and the guy offered me free UPS shipping so I saved $10-$15 on that which was great.

So I paid $16.25 each which I thought was a great deal. In my mind the cheaper built Hong Kong models are $40 knives and the 2 nicer Japanese models are $100 knives. Maybe a little more for the wasp body marked stainless. The Italian and Chinese models I listed last night on eBay for $85 for the pair. That price is a little higher than I thought they were worth but I gotta pay extra fees selling on eBay.

I’m basing those values on my experience selling older Italian mini’s years ago, what I see some older Italian models sell for now and the newer Italians selling for $30-$40 each.

What are other peoples opinion on values? I freely admit to having a bias towards over valuing my knives sometimes so I’m not going to be offended by people telling me I’m crazy.
Though you hold your blade over my heart, through endurance... I will Prevail!
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robcelani
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Re: Vintage Keychain Mini Switchblades

Post by robcelani »

TazmanTom wrote: Sat Feb 27, 2021 1:41 pm Anybody who didn't, read the thread posted by Rob.GREAT INFO AND READ... Thanks... Tom

Thanks Tom!



TazmanTom asked me to post pictures of his collection because he's having computer issues. I had to take a picture of his original collection picture because imgur wasn't letting me load it. I think it kept enough detail to see most the knives and I took pictures of his original picture in 4 blown up images. I think I see a small italian (2.75 inch?) with a safety. Is that correct Tom?


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Last edited by robcelani on Sun Feb 28, 2021 11:37 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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whippersnapper
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Re: Vintage Keychain Mini Switchblades

Post by whippersnapper »

Great display!
TazmanTom
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Re: Vintage Keychain Mini Switchblades

Post by TazmanTom »

The little white one with the safety I had done a few years ago. It's Mastodon ivory and the safety works. I've seen a couple that had the button, but it didn't function. Thanks, Rob, appreciate the help. Tom
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