I am renovating my 2nd floor hallway and tearing out some drywall, found a vintage switchblade in the wall along with some porn dated 1960s/70s. The knife is pretty cool: 13” open, weighs about 295g, button works and knife snaps out very quickly upon pushing the button. Looks like pearl or something on the handle? Also have some old deposit slips from the original owner, a Korean War Vet, with his name on it. Pretty interesting find. I can’t figure out who made the knife, as it just says INOX and that’s it. Assuming Italian from 50s-70s. Looks like a knife from James Dean Rebel without a cause!
Is this thing valuable? I see prices everywhere from $100-2k Not sure what I am going to do with it, don’t really collect knives.
It is Italian. Looks to me like a "transitional", a stiletto switchblade made during the 1960's when the Italians switched (transitioned) from making picklock stilettos to the easier to close swivel bolsters. Handles look like pearlex (synthetic).
That's my impression anyway. If I'm correct, then it definitely has some value to it.
I would leave the entire provenance and the accompanying material all together as a bundle, if it were me I'd keep it honestly as who can say they find time capsules this cool in their wall? The value of the knife being plastic pearlex handled and 13" "transitional period" 1960s would fetch somewhere in the $400+ dollar range in my opinion, some people like pearlex, I'd prefer a horn handled knife so the price is kind of subjective.
Very cool find, especially with the home owner/veterans information and the other taboo items of the day