Vintage Keychain Mini Switchblades

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Jackalope
Posts: 878
Joined: Tue Sep 21, 2004 3:13 am

Re: Vintage Keychain Mini Switchblades

Post by Jackalope »

Here are a couple old photos of two I owned.
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Jackalope
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Re: Vintage Keychain Mini Switchblades

Post by Jackalope »

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rithvich
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Joined: Mon Jul 19, 2010 10:55 pm

Re: Vintage Keychain Mini Switchblades

Post by rithvich »

Rob great score on those Asian minis!!! Two two older pinned Japanese are getting more rare every day and some of my favorites. Never seen one with the Hong Kong stamp on the rear either, very cool!
rithvich
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Re: Vintage Keychain Mini Switchblades

Post by rithvich »

Always love seeing pictures of your set Tom! Your bo/bc set is awesome with all the different colors. I think you should send me that little blond dagger lololol
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robcelani
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Re: Vintage Keychain Mini Switchblades

Post by robcelani »

Here's a really cool, tiny stiletto that belongs to TazmanTom. It's not a switchblade, not sure one could even be made that small, but still a cool little knife. Tom told me it fits inside the perimeter of a dime when it's closed.


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Though you hold your blade over my heart, through endurance... I will Prevail!
button_man
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Re: Vintage Keychain Mini Switchblades

Post by button_man »

THAT is a darn small knife!

Now I want to see the M.I.T. boys build a microscopic switchblade from individual molecules!
button_man
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Re: Vintage Keychain Mini Switchblades

Post by button_man »

Tazman ~ Wow! Very nice indeed! Hey, just out of curiosity.... leaving out the pens, combs, and clips, and just looking at the actual knives.... how many have synthetic scales, and how many have natural scales?

robcelani ~ Thanks for sharing the pricing info! When you say "the 2 nicer Japanese models are $100 knives" am I correct in interpreting this as $100 each, rather than for the pair? Just want to make sure that I understand this correctly....
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Jackalope
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Re: Vintage Keychain Mini Switchblades

Post by Jackalope »

At first glance, I thought it was one of the switchblade pins.
TazmanTom
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Location: Florida

Re: Vintage Keychain Mini Switchblades

Post by TazmanTom »

Called Rainy Vallotton to see if it could be converted...LOL. Haven't heard back, they're still laughing !
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robcelani
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Re: Vintage Keychain Mini Switchblades

Post by robcelani »

button_man wrote: Mon Mar 01, 2021 2:04 pm Tazman ~ Wow! Very nice indeed! Hey, just out of curiosity.... leaving out the pens, combs, and clips, and just looking at the actual knives.... how many have synthetic scales, and how many have natural scales?

robcelani ~ Thanks for sharing the pricing info! When you say "the 2 nicer Japanese models are $100 knives" am I correct in interpreting this as $100 each, rather than for the pair? Just want to make sure that I understand this correctly....
Yes, in my opinion $100 each (or possibly more). I see the Italians with 4 pins on the front scale and polished bolsters to make them look brass lined selling for $100-$200 regularly. I don’t know the age of these Japanese mini’s but they’re both brass lined and nickel silver bolsters.

I’m getting back into collecting mini’s again and get excited by the Asian imports. I prefer the variety in construction and design.
Though you hold your blade over my heart, through endurance... I will Prevail!
button_man
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Re: Vintage Keychain Mini Switchblades

Post by button_man »

Has anyone ever figured out why the "doughnut hole" of the spine lock is round in regular size knives, but frequently square in minis?
The peg is sometimes round and sometimes square.... the holes themselves seem to be square far more often.
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robcelani
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Re: Vintage Keychain Mini Switchblades

Post by robcelani »

robcelani wrote: Mon Mar 01, 2021 4:15 pm
button_man wrote: Mon Mar 01, 2021 2:04 pm Tazman ~ Wow! Very nice indeed! Hey, just out of curiosity.... leaving out the pens, combs, and clips, and just looking at the actual knives.... how many have synthetic scales, and how many have natural scales?

robcelani ~ Thanks for sharing the pricing info! When you say "the 2 nicer Japanese models are $100 knives" am I correct in interpreting this as $100 each, rather than for the pair? Just want to make sure that I understand this correctly....
Yes, in my opinion $100 each (or possibly more). I see the Italians with 4 pins on the front scale and polished bolsters to make them look brass lined selling for $100-$200 regularly. I don’t know the age of these Japanese mini’s but they’re both brass lined and nickel silver bolsters.

I’m getting back into collecting mini’s again and get excited by the Asian imports. I prefer the variety in construction and design.
After some discussion with an experienced mini switchblade collector I think my estimate of values was low. The 2 Japanese switchblades are probably from the 60's and because of the construction, are very desirable models for collectors. I'm not going to throw any more #'s out though. They aren't for sale and probably won't be for a long time.



Here's a couple more mini switchblades from Hong Kong. The marking is on the spine. These are also cactus bolster and made basically the same as the other black and brown handle Hong Kong models I showed earlier in the thread. I say made the same but these are an obvious step down in quality. I assume that means later production but don't know that for a fact. My thinking is the producers were constantly looking for ways to save money as they were making these. Over the years they got it down to the least expensive material they could use, hence the low quality.

Anyway, here's the knives.


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Though you hold your blade over my heart, through endurance... I will Prevail!
button_man
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Re: Vintage Keychain Mini Switchblades

Post by button_man »

I haven't ever seen any minis with spine markings like that.... good score!
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robcelani
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Re: Vintage Keychain Mini Switchblades

Post by robcelani »

Just got a mini switchblade pen. Only marking is "HEX". Doesn't open all the way even though the spring is thicker than the "HONG KONG" marked knives. Oh well.


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Here's some mini's I found that are way different than the stiletto style. They're little pistols. In my searches in google for mini switchblades I found a reference to these in the old Automatic Knife Resource Guide & Newsletter. I have some of those issues but the story I found was from an issue I don't have. Here's the link- https://latama.net/products/vol-7-no-1-pdf. If you scroll through the pages the second page has a story about these. The author of that story says probably Hong Kong for construction. They're all marked "ART" with the exception of one being marked "CHINA". Here's my pictures. Note the little tab sticking out of the bottom of the handle on 3 of them is a safety.


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Though you hold your blade over my heart, through endurance... I will Prevail!
Tom19176
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Re: Vintage Keychain Mini Switchblades

Post by Tom19176 »

those gun shaped ones sold on a display card of two dozen for 25 cents each in the 1990s. They often popped open.
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