Help identifying Kris switchblade.

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sharpy
Posts: 15
Joined: Wed Aug 03, 2022 8:07 pm

Help identifying Kris switchblade.

Post by sharpy »

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.
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Tom19176
Posts: 3619
Joined: Mon Apr 21, 2008 12:23 am

Re: Help identifying Kris switchblade.

Post by Tom19176 »

1950s pick lock Pearlex ( plastic handles)
sharpy
Posts: 15
Joined: Wed Aug 03, 2022 8:07 pm

Re: Help identifying Kris switchblade.

Post by sharpy »

Thank you!!
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JimBrown257
Posts: 2053
Joined: Tue Apr 17, 2012 10:50 am
Location: Michigan

Re: Help identifying Kris switchblade.

Post by JimBrown257 »

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.
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john
Posts: 4524
Joined: Tue Dec 01, 2009 11:40 am
Location: New England, MA USA

Re: Help identifying Kris switchblade.

Post by john »

Wicked cool 😎
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John

Massachusetts Where Everything is Illegal or Taxed
sharpy
Posts: 15
Joined: Wed Aug 03, 2022 8:07 pm

Re: Help identifying Kris switchblade.

Post by sharpy »

Thanks for the nice replies!!
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jerryk25
Posts: 601
Joined: Sun Aug 08, 2021 6:30 am
Location: Pittsburgh

Re: Help identifying Kris switchblade.

Post by jerryk25 »

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.
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JulesVane
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Joined: Sat Apr 01, 2017 12:34 am

Re: Help identifying Kris switchblade.

Post by JulesVane »

It's a good lookin' knife.
Image

"By accepting you as you are, I do not necessarily abandon all hope of your improving"- My Wife (1963-Present)
button_man
Posts: 632
Joined: Mon Feb 11, 2019 2:08 pm

Re: Help identifying Kris switchblade.

Post by button_man »

.

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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rock-n-roll$$$$$$
Posts: 971
Joined: Tue Nov 29, 2016 9:04 pm

Re: Help identifying Kris switchblade.

Post by rock-n-roll$$$$$$ »

you do not see a lot of kriss blades anymore, odd, but I do like them, and yours is a nice one also.
sharpy
Posts: 15
Joined: Wed Aug 03, 2022 8:07 pm

Re: Help identifying Kris switchblade.

Post by sharpy »

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.
button_man
Posts: 632
Joined: Mon Feb 11, 2019 2:08 pm

Re: Help identifying Kris switchblade.

Post by button_man »

.
sharpy wrote: Fri Aug 05, 2022 3:37 pmIt does have a bevel under the lock, it is not a button open.


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.
.
sharpy
Posts: 15
Joined: Wed Aug 03, 2022 8:07 pm

Re: Help identifying Kris switchblade.

Post by sharpy »

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.
sharpy
Posts: 15
Joined: Wed Aug 03, 2022 8:07 pm

Re: Help identifying Kris switchblade.

Post by sharpy »

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here's a better picture
sharpy
Posts: 15
Joined: Wed Aug 03, 2022 8:07 pm

Re: Help identifying Kris switchblade.

Post by sharpy »

haha i just saw what i said, yes it's not a button close, BUT it is a button open LOL
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