Where to get kits?

[13blades]

Hello everyone. This is my first post on this site in years. I found it years ago as a teenager and it was my go to source for knowledge about autos. It is good to be back here amongst other blade obsessed people. I am not quite sure under which subject to ask this so moderators please advise if this is the wrong place. My question for everyone is where can a person buy Italian stiletto kits from these days? As I live in New Zealand they cannot be imported complete. I used to get them from SKM knives but I can no longer find them online. I still get plenty of Mikov kits in but my customers all want 9'',11'' and 13'' stilettos. I was using roadside imports for a while but they also no longer operate. Any advice or direction would be very much appreciated. I have emailed many US based knife companies and most of them do not supply kits and do not ship internationally. Any information or guidance would be appreciated. Thank you gents.

[Killgar]

I did a deep dive search for kits a little while back for someone, and all I found available were the mini "Magic Stiletto" kits.

On rare occasion a 9" "Magic Stiletto" kit will pop up for sale somewhere, but they are rare, expensive, and in my opinion WAY overpriced for what you get. I see that one sold at AAPK last year for $165. That's more than a brand new 11" Frank Beltrame.

Good luck in your search.

[13blades]

Thank you killgar. I'm wondering if it will come down to finding an individual willing to remove blades from complete knives. I have found a guy doing this in the US but he is only getting chinese copies. I wish I could travel to Italy and set something up. I remember Skm uses to have a whole category of do it yourself 9''s. Those were the days. I wish I'd shipped 100s.

[jerryk25]

I never saw 11 inch and 13 inch stiletto kits . . . . . . only 9"
and now, unbuilt kits are more valuable than built kits.

I have seen and built a few manual conversions to Gravity or spring Loaded.

I remember only finding 13 inch manual folding stiletto sold in Australia,
the special ones that were tilt bolster and not lockback.
I could lose the tilt bolster and make a picklock flick knife.
Everything in the USA was regular lockback manual folder Stilettoes.
So most of my flick knives were lockback conversions without springs.

I would go that route, learn to build buttons
and slow wet grind sear dremel drill holes in hardened blade tangs.
and be the conversion king of the far side of the world.

For your entertainment . .
Here is a 13inch italian lockback stiletto mangle I did in the 1980's
I brazed the nailnick, ruined the temper,
drilled the sear hole on a bad drill press., too big,, so I countersunk beveled the hole.
filled the sear hole with a brass plug peened and then filed flat.. . re-drilled it. . .
Hand ground the brass bolsters and leverlock from a made in Pakistan folding boar knife,
and found stag antlers from a coat rack at a flea market, which I disassembled.

Voila ! . . . . .Frankenstein Lives. 13 inch stag lever action picklock clip point stiletto.

[jerryk25]

So, how much of the kit do you need.
( rhetorical question . . . a kit is someone else finding your parts. )

Maybe you should just look for specific parts.
like pre-tempered finished 11 inch one piece back spring kicksprings.
build your own buttons and do conversions.
I have bought a few "springs only", and stuck them into older lockbacks.
But it is seasonal, not like I just order them.
You have to be "on the ball" and watch the internet sales every day for years.
and buy stuff you don't need because it's available.
And hide the boxes from the Mrs.

And don't look down on mangling. . .
It's where you learn your conversion skills, on junk knives.
Make a few fake picklock flickers. . .
Give away a 13incher to get the idiots off your back and entice them to invest.

1st photo left to right
9'' one piece spring, 13'' one piece, 11'' one piece, 11'' modern tilt bolster folder, common liner.
the one piece kickspring backspine were acquired about 1998-2005,
the 11 folder was about 2005 from a trashed Australian wood and brass tilt bolster folder
the liner was from a 1960's bayonet lockback, that had a blade filed to a nubbin stump.

2nd photo.. . .basic mangle
A. learn to remove and replace pins. . . .
B. grind lockback buttons off, the evil things are a product of 1958 anti-auto propaganda.
C. grind blade heels round, so the blade flick out with gravity inertia, and eventually a new spring.
D. underfile the locktab , (if you remove the lockback button),
you'll need a fingernail edge on the bottom side. . . . .
E. reassemble, learn to peen the pivot pin just enough to
keep a sloppy blade from swinging out, but a gentle wrist flick lets the blade weight inertia open.

If you do this. . you realize. . . .there is no need for "kits" . . .it's just parts . . .
and a lot of the parts are already available on manual knives.

So it's down to building or buying buttons and sear holes, kicksprings and safeties.
I'll bet there is a website for the parts somewhere.

[Killgar]

I always enjoy seeing your work Jerry .

I think the "kits" 13blades was referring to were Italian stilettos sold by Roadside Imports where the pivot pins had been removed and replaced with screw pivots by the owner of the site so that the blade could be shipped separately from the rest of the knife. On his site the owner said he did this when shipping completed knives were illegal. The buyer then installed the blade themselves.

As far as buying stiletto kick springs, there are none to be found. I used to search the internet regularly for springs, back when I started converting Cold Steel Ti-Lites, and nobody sells them. Same with ready-made sears and rocker-arm/buttons. I ended up having to buy Frank Beltrame 11" swivel bolsters to source springs, sears and rocker/buttons for my conversions. Someone might get lucky and see a stiletto kick spring for sale somewhere, but I haven't seen any for sale in years.

I used to buy parts from Roadside Imports/switchbladekits.com, but they/he disappeared a few years back (my last order was in 2019). Although a very controversial figure, the guy did sell great parts (he had them specially made), and at great prices. One-piece spring/locks for 11" stilettos were $20 each, and a set of heavy-duty sear/rocker-arms were about $15. I've used parts purchased from him in 13 different switchblade builds. I still have a few unused parts from him (springs, sears/rockers), but I hold them dearly (pic below).

How I wish I had bought hundreds of dollars more of parts from the guy. Funny thing is, the reason for my last purchase was to have extras on hand just in case he went out of business. Then he went out of business.

Awhile back someone was selling sears/rocker-arm/buttons on Ebay, but they were Chinese. Still, I bought a bunch just to have them (pic below). They're not as good as the Italian ones, but they work. They are no longer available on Ebay.

Sadly, short of cannibalizing existing knives (which is expensive), stiletto parts are difficult to impossible to find.

Here's a pic of a spring, sear, and rocker arm from Roadside Imports.




And here's a pic of a Chinese sear/rocker-arm/button.

[13blades]

You are both correct gents. And I appreciate the advice and the photos. I have built lots of switchblade kits like mikovs and leverlettos. And yes Killgar I also bought various knives from roadside. JB wasn't on the good ones list and it did get hairy sometimes but I did get a lot of knives from him. I still have a few spare parts. But to answer your question Jerry I can work with just about anything. I have some of those parts you have pictured. I just don't know where to get more from. I would happily buy parts from where ever so long as they were of reasonable quality. But it is a hassle for the person overseas. I would prefer to have genuine Italian Stilettos because that is what the customers want. And for a long time I have been seriously considering making switchblades of my own design on a larger scale. I make knives part time but have worked in manufacturing of one sort or another my whole life. I really love making knives. It works out around 50 dollars an hour when I do kits if I'm dialed in and set up. I think the only reluctance I have is the work it will take to get the design and components right. But now the kids are a bit older I'm wondering about it again. And I have been working as a production coordinator at an engineering factory for the last 2 years and I already know where I would get a lot of the work done. You guys are basically lighting a fire under me now. The question has become why shouldn't I do it?