False button?

[Bill DeShivs]

The only people they were meant to fool were stupid kids that thought they could be easily converted into switchblades.

[Tom19176]

I don't think they were sold to "fool" anyone but rather as a marketing idea to make them look cooler.....As a teen in NYC I did like them even though I knew they were fake buttons....

[sammy the blade]

Wouldn't be surprised if a lot of people bought them thinking they were auto's.

[natcherly]

Over the years, I picked up a couple of 13" false buttons. I never thought of them as anything but what they were, Faux Buttons, made to look like autos but were not, thus making them legal to sell to those craving an Italian stiletto. They tended to be very well made using the tooling that created the pre-ban units and clearing out some parts that did not fit into the new changes being made at that time, such as thinner blades, swivel bolster release, etc. Not being autos, they were not very expensive.

Below are picture of these knives. Black one has the tang stamp "Romo" (with arrow running through it) over "Italy." Blade is 5mm thick. The greyish green one is marked "Made in Italy" and has a 4mm blade. Both have appropriate heft and feel great in the hand.
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[Tom19176]

Those are two great examples!!!!!!! I have a bunch too.

[Absinthe_1900]

My 13" Romo false button.
I've had owned it for several years.

romo 1 by Jay and Imp, on Flickr

[portlandmike]

Looks like I started this thread about five years ago
I guess you can say I’ve found a few more false buttons
Mostly Italian, but the far right tray is Japanese and three on top in the middle are from Pakistan

[whippersnapper]

Wow!

[john]

David, Absinthe and Mike,
Thanks for sharing, very cool knives.

[Panzerfaust]

Wow, you guys have got some great false buttons. The only ones I have are Japanese but I have a small collection of manual Italians with bayonet blades and as I said when this post was originally made, the manuals are collectible in their own right and some of them were made concurrently with the autos.

[jerryk25]

I think those knives are fantastic. . . .

[Absinthe_1900]

I have a couple of old silver plugs too, including a 9" Kris lockback that I got way back 1973, at one of the downtown Houston pawn shops.
It survived my junior high juvenile delinquent daze back then, and never was lost or confiscated.
I have an 11" manual, Romo Bayonet Picklock that I got quite awhile ago too.

They had the usual line up of Japanese false buttons, and Dragon/Bullfighter lockbacks, etc...