STILETTO
BLADES - A stiletto is a short knife or dagger, with a long slender
blade of various designs. This dagger is primarily a stabbing weapon, its narrow
shape ending in a rigid pointed end allows it to penetrate deeply. It is not
suited for cutting, even with edged examples. A typical early stiletto was a
one piece cast metal handle and blade, that was then hammer forged in a "V"
groove anvil producing a triangular blade cross section without any sharpened
edges. Other examples have round, square and diamond cross sections. The word
stiletto may sometimes be used in American English to refer to a switchblade.
Stiletto may also be used specifically for a knife exhibiting the same triangular
cross-section and hollow grind as a small sword.Furthermore the V shaped blade
makes the wound very difficult to heal and most people die of exsanguination
at a very rapid rate.
The word stiletto comes from the word "Stylus". The earliest
writing in clay tablets (Summeria 3000BC) was done by pressing a Stylus (cut
reed stick) into the wet clay. The term cuneiform literally means "wedge-shaped",
referring to the text font resembling combinations of triangular holes. Triangular
cross section weapons left the same type of holes. The stiletto began to gain
fame during the Renaissance when it was popular as a tool against heavily armoured
knights. The thin blade could easily pass through most chainmail, or find its
way through tiny gaps in a knight's armour. Later the Gunners Stilettoes became
a tool for clearing canon fuse touch holes. Used like an automotive oil dip
stick, they were often scribed with marks indicating levels of powder charges
for ranging distance.
The stiletto was also favoured amongst assassins because it was
an easily concealed weapon. This tactic occurred repeatedly, from the Zealots
of 1st century Judaea, to the Venetians and the Assassins of Alamut.
World War I created the need for stilettos, several versions were
made by all countries often grouped together in one class nicknamed the trench
knife. World War II saw a resurgence of the stiletto style in the form of several
variants including the, U.S. Marine Raider Stiletto, Fairbairn-Sykes Fighting
Knife and V-42 combat knife. However it should be noted that since these weapons
can hold a cutting edge they are not true stilettos.
Collectors often refer to the handle and cross guard style found
on italian 1950's folding picklock switchblades as a Stiletto. The blade options
included dagger blades, clip points, bayonet points and wavy indonesian style
kriss blades. Early 1950's stilettos had thick blades in proportion to the height
and length, resembling the renaissance knife, making them desirable. Modern
production italian knives of this style tend to have conventional thin flat
blades, and are rarely hollow ground.
Many using American English are referring to a switchblade whose
blade telescopes, or comes (OTF) "out the front" of the handle. The
word Stiletto was trademarked in the early 20th century for woodworking tools.
A popular folding Switchblade is tang stamped "Rizzuto Estiletto Milano".
The word stiletto has been applied to every blade imaginable , from boat propellers
to safety razors.
SWITCHBLADES - A switchblade (also known as automatic knife, switch,
or in British English flick knife) is a type of knife with a folding or sliding
blade that springs out of the grip when a button or lever on the grip is pressed.
Switchblades are legal weapons in the U.S.A. and Russia, often covered
by very specific laws—many of which appear to have been enacted at times
of moral panic by newspapers and films about supposed knife use. This was most
striking in the late 1950s, when films such as The Wild One in 1954,
Rebel Without a Cause and High School Confidential in 1955, and
the Broadway play West Side Story in 1957 about rebellious youth featured
switchblades, and were closely followed by the US Switchblade Act of 1958 (a
federal law; individual state laws differ widely). This US federal law was closely
followed by the UK Restriction of Offensive Weapons Act 1959.
Switchblades from the 1930s to the 50s had a high amount of hand
craftsmanship and are very collectible. Recent mass production methods tend
to yield cheaper knives with thinner materials and less detail work. However,
there are a fair number of knife companies and custom makers who build high-quality
automatic knives for military, emergency personnel, and for knife collectors.
Some famous automatic knife manufacturers include Microtech Knives, Gerber Legendary
Blades, ProTech, Benchmade, Dalton, Boker/Magnum, Severtech, Spyderco, and Piranha.
Then there are the Italian manufacturers famous for the classic stiletto style
switchblade. Included among these are Frank Beltrame, whose family has been
making automatics for over 50 years, and AGA Campolin, another family concern
that has been in the business for some 60 years.
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