Knife Trick???

[Jonezer]

Hi, all. I'm new here. Be nice to me.
I am a Chicago-based designer/theatre artist, currently taking on one too many shows.
For too little money, of course.
I am looking for a GREAT looking spring-loaded trick knife. NOT the $4.00 or even $7.00 DELUXE
model readily available. This one needs to look impressive: wooden handle (I can paint plastic...)
6" blade. I don't need it to squirt blood. Not yet, anyway.

Where are these things available? Or, are they totally illegal? I'm sure they can be custom built,
but I doubt I have the skills and facilities for doing metal work.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

[Apollo]

This should be posted in the prop forum, not this one!

 

[VilleLeskinen]

Thread moved! Carry on!

 

[cavx]

When I read "knife trick", I immediately thought of Bishop in ALIENS.

 

[MikeyFraz]

Hello! Check out this one from The Specialists LTD. I don't see a price listed, but I would send them an email.
http://www.thespecialistsltd.com/stunt-kit-retractable-chef-knife

 

[nomuse]

I dunno what is out there now, but if I was tasked with building one myself I'd want to avoid single-point failure. Which is; the blade should be of soft enough material so it is incapable of causing serious harm EVEN if the spring completely fails and causes it to lock in place. And look for plausible substitution of hero prop for trick prop; my example being the "Little Wonder" in Oaklahoma where it is demonstrated once, then appears to threaten Curly in an entirely different scene. Meaning it can be swapped for a non-functional version between scenes.

Heh. I don't remember the details, but apparently Callas threw herself into the stabbing of Scarpia the way she did into singing the role of Tosca, successfully drawing blood from the poor Tenor even with a fake knife.