Italy Fake Switchblade Info Request

[novice]

What is the approximate vintage of the fakes and how rare are they? (I would guess post ban or were they offered prior to it, ~1958?) This one is 8", no bug bites, tight lock-up, factory edge, mostly mirror polished, and no sharpening marks. It looks to have been carried as there is some corrosion on the spine and dark spots on the blade as well as depletion of the nickel on the bolsters and button inset. It is marked "Made in Italy" only on the front, the back is blank. I would appreciate any info there is on these. It's the first one I've found from Italy. I have a few others from Japan.

[Bill DeShivs]

They were made in the 1950s for areas where switchblades were illegal. These were made well into the 1960s.

[novice]

Thanks Bill.

[omega]

There were also some really nice fake ones available in the 1966-early seventies era. Probably built in Maniago.

Real horn scales. They were lockbacks like the one in your photos above. They had actual firing buttons that depressed - but nothing that worked. They had a bias towards closure, so trying to convert one was pretty useless.

Sold by Westbury Sales Co out of NY. Wonder what ever happened to them. My online searches for WSC suggests they must have gone under sometime ago. Some Italian-American charity now occupies the old WSC 6600sf building and has for a while now. All of my usual detective skills have proven useless in trying to verify WSC's existence beyond 1973. Anybody know?

Wish I still had my old WSC fake. It was stolen from a coat pocket when I was at church. Damn Methodists!

[Jackalope]

I own a lot of these and the Italian ones are very well made. I love them almost as much as the real ones.

[omega]

I own a lot of these and the Italian ones are very well made. I love them almost as much as the real ones.

Love to see pics of the WSC fakes! Post one if you have a good example. I only wish I still had one in my collection. I'm thinking they may be a little on the rare side since I never run across one anymore. I've seen more real Latama pieces than the old WSC fakes.

[novice]

I believe all the Japanese fakes I have are made with buttons that depress.

[Tom19176]

Westbury Sales on Post Road ....They were around till the 1980s. It was a small store front that only did mail order sales. They did finally close and are no longer around. The Len Company in Brooklyn offered much of the same items ( Both of them were on Long Island as Brooklyn and Nassau are both on LI)......

[Panzerfaust]

The vintage manuals are great knives and collectable in their own right. The early ones were picklocks and there is also one called a slip joint that has a non-locking blade.

[omega]

Westbury Sales on Post Road ....They were around till the 1980s. It was a small store front that only did mail order sales. They did finally close and are no longer around. The Len Company in Brooklyn offered much of the same items ( Both of them were on Long Island as Brooklyn and Nassau are both on LI)......

Oh Wow! I had totally forgotten about the Len Company. Another great importer from back in the day.

[natcherly]

I don't believe the term "Fake" is an appropriate designation for these knives. Fake implies phony, counterfeit, low quality or in more modern terms, a clone. These knives, at least the ones made in Italy, are none of those things. Perhaps a better term is Manual Stiletto. A subset of those would be False Buttons that actually have a button backed by a spring, but they are all show and no go.

I have a 13" false button that is as well made as any vintage 13 from Maniago. I know it would be very upset if I told it that people considered it a Fake.

[omega]

I don't believe the term "Fake" is an appropriate designation for these knives.

Correct as usual, Mr. Natcherly. I only wish that the every-day auto stilettos we have now were of half the quality of the old false-button pieces of yesteryear.

Some of those false-button pieces had stellar horn scales and were generally very well made.

[Tom19176]

That 13" is stunning!!!!! Very nice!!!! There are some modern Falcons that are nice too. They have the Falcon logo where a false button would go.....

[lance]

I've seen the high quality false buttons,but I've never had a chance to snag onemail yet