Help identifying Kris switchblade.
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Help identifying Kris switchblade.
Hello everyone,
I picked this one up the other day and i'm trying to figure out if it's from the late 50's or if it's newer. It has some patina from age so i figure it's not too new. It measure's just under 11 inches total length. The handles i'm thinking are fake mother of pearl, probably plastic. No marking's on any part of the knife. It is not a swivel bolster. Thank You.
I picked this one up the other day and i'm trying to figure out if it's from the late 50's or if it's newer. It has some patina from age so i figure it's not too new. It measure's just under 11 inches total length. The handles i'm thinking are fake mother of pearl, probably plastic. No marking's on any part of the knife. It is not a swivel bolster. Thank You.
Re: Help identifying Kris switchblade.
1950s pick lock Pearlex ( plastic handles)
Re: Help identifying Kris switchblade.
Thank you!!
- JimBrown257
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Re: Help identifying Kris switchblade.
That's a great knife. Not a lot of the old picklocks had kris blades and even less of them had IMOP scales. And of the few that did, virtually all of them have cracks in the scales.
Re: Help identifying Kris switchblade.
Wicked cool
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John
Massachusetts Where Everything is Illegal or Taxed
John
Massachusetts Where Everything is Illegal or Taxed
Re: Help identifying Kris switchblade.
Thanks for the nice replies!!
Re: Help identifying Kris switchblade.
If it's a picklock from antiquity, then the pearl plastic is probably brittle. and a resin/hardener cast type.
Don't let novice beginners flick and drop it onto a hard floor.
I remember on another forum, a great discussion about types of plastic pearl.
It was obvious the manufacturing plastic changed over the years.
there are cold poured resin and hardener cast polyurethanes and cast polyester resins and cast vinyl-ester resins,
There are heat injection polystyrenes and heat injected mold polyvinyls
I remember a plumbing class in Texas where I learned about spin welding nozzles on Poly-Olfin tanks
and the difference between Chlorinated Poly vinyl Chloride pipe, (CPVC) and ABS plastics.
I can spout a list of materials like Nylon, Rayon, and brand names like Staglon and Kaylon and Ultramid.
I took apart 1970's manual folders with soft white pearl scales that could flex,
I remember in 1988 buying sheet of Pearloid that was brittle and would chip and spall and was hard like real pearl.
Other Older collectors kept using the phrase " Cracked Ice" when talking about older vintage knives.
but I don't recall how they identified the material chemical makeup.
There was a guy that was pouring his own fake Tortoise shell , and fake pearloid with fish scales and ground pearl shell.
The discussion string was really involved and didn't really have a resolution .
Some of my favorite stilettos were dark horn substrate with mother of pearl laminate on top.
The dark sides highlighted the pearl, and the scale side taper made the scale face seem slim, and thus the knife seemed slim.
Don't let novice beginners flick and drop it onto a hard floor.
I remember on another forum, a great discussion about types of plastic pearl.
It was obvious the manufacturing plastic changed over the years.
there are cold poured resin and hardener cast polyurethanes and cast polyester resins and cast vinyl-ester resins,
There are heat injection polystyrenes and heat injected mold polyvinyls
I remember a plumbing class in Texas where I learned about spin welding nozzles on Poly-Olfin tanks
and the difference between Chlorinated Poly vinyl Chloride pipe, (CPVC) and ABS plastics.
I can spout a list of materials like Nylon, Rayon, and brand names like Staglon and Kaylon and Ultramid.
I took apart 1970's manual folders with soft white pearl scales that could flex,
I remember in 1988 buying sheet of Pearloid that was brittle and would chip and spall and was hard like real pearl.
Other Older collectors kept using the phrase " Cracked Ice" when talking about older vintage knives.
but I don't recall how they identified the material chemical makeup.
There was a guy that was pouring his own fake Tortoise shell , and fake pearloid with fish scales and ground pearl shell.
The discussion string was really involved and didn't really have a resolution .
Some of my favorite stilettos were dark horn substrate with mother of pearl laminate on top.
The dark sides highlighted the pearl, and the scale side taper made the scale face seem slim, and thus the knife seemed slim.
Re: Help identifying Kris switchblade.
It's a good lookin' knife.
"By accepting you as you are, I do not necessarily abandon all hope of your improving"- My Wife (1963-Present)
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Re: Help identifying Kris switchblade.
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sharpy ~ That's a great find !! May I be nosy and ask what you had to shell out? (a little scale humor there!)
The lock tab does not appear to be beveled on the underside for lifting. (note the bevel on the lock tab of
the R. J. Richter in the photo below.) Can you confirm the assumption here that your knife is a picklock?
Or does it have a BO/BC (button open / button close) mechanism? Thanks ~ ~ ~
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sharpy ~ That's a great find !! May I be nosy and ask what you had to shell out? (a little scale humor there!)
The lock tab does not appear to be beveled on the underside for lifting. (note the bevel on the lock tab of
the R. J. Richter in the photo below.) Can you confirm the assumption here that your knife is a picklock?
Or does it have a BO/BC (button open / button close) mechanism? Thanks ~ ~ ~
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- RJ_Richter__602cc__lock_tab.jpg (97.31 KiB) Viewed 1848 times
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Re: Help identifying Kris switchblade.
you do not see a lot of kriss blades anymore, odd, but I do like them, and yours is a nice one also.
Re: Help identifying Kris switchblade.
It does have a bevel under the lock, it is not a button open. I "shelled" out $150.00 for this one, a friend found it at a yard sale and texted me a picture and asked if i wanted it. i took a chance and said "yeah i'll do that" LOL i wasn't a 100 percent sure how old it was.
The scales on this one are odd because depending how you hold it under the light it looks different at various angles, sometimes if you hold it right you can see through them and see the groove for the safety. It has a slight swirl to it also.
The scales on this one are odd because depending how you hold it under the light it looks different at various angles, sometimes if you hold it right you can see through them and see the groove for the safety. It has a slight swirl to it also.
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- Posts: 650
- Joined: Mon Feb 11, 2019 2:08 pm
Re: Help identifying Kris switchblade.
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Ah, okay..... the bevel doesn't really show up in the photo (to me at least). (And I assume you meant that it's not a "button-close")
I think you did great on value..... it's the magic Goldilocks size, and with an unusual blade for a knife of that time period.
How tight is it? Does it open strong? Any blade play when open? Does the safety work okay? Even if it does have some
minor issues, I still think it's a very nice score.
.
Ah, okay..... the bevel doesn't really show up in the photo (to me at least). (And I assume you meant that it's not a "button-close")
I think you did great on value..... it's the magic Goldilocks size, and with an unusual blade for a knife of that time period.
How tight is it? Does it open strong? Any blade play when open? Does the safety work okay? Even if it does have some
minor issues, I still think it's a very nice score.
.
Re: Help identifying Kris switchblade.
It wiggles alittle in each direction when open, safety works, blade doesn't open real snappy, i did oil it and that helped but it's not a fast mover.
Re: Help identifying Kris switchblade.
here's a better picture
Re: Help identifying Kris switchblade.
haha i just saw what i said, yes it's not a button close, BUT it is a button open LOL