Real Catwoman Retractable Claw Gloves

[Meow1940]

"...Many of her costumes have been shown to incorporate retractable metal claws on the fingertips of her gloves and toes of her boots. They can shred a bullet-proof vest and be used to climb with."

Hey,
I'm looking to make some retractable metal claws for my catwoman costume hopefully in time for Halloween but if not, no biggie. I have another thread on a weapon site about the same thing but I wanted to ask around here too. Hopefully you guys could maybe come up with some great ideas on how to make these claws happen as well. I'm hoping to make them so they lock in either extended or retracted position and be no more than half of an inch long. There were actually a lot of great ideas on the other site...I just couldn't figure out how I would make it all come completely together. here's the site if you'd like to see it: SINZA-EXOTIC AUTOMATIC~Exotic Weapon Design
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[Meow1940]

So, on the other site we did come up with this idea in my sketch (attached file). The claws are made of flexible clock springs and the mechanics worked by me flexing my fingers and bending my wrist back. The claws would then come out and when I bend my wrist forward and ball my fists up the claws would go back in. The ONLY problem with this design, I just realized, is that I wanted the claws to be able to lock in either extended or retracted position. But I don't know how or what to add or do to the design to make that happen. There were lots of other ideas too on the site along with some pictures and a video, etc. So check it out if this interests you...but I think you have to be a member of the site to see into the thread.
On another note, BOOO! No replies so far. I wanted to make the claws as simple as possible because I wanted it to be a breakthrough for all Catwoman cosplayers btw.

 

[SajaRawr]

Hey im looking foward to make kinda the same mechanism but you have to understand its pretty hard to make them, pm me so we can talk about your project and see what we come up with

 

[SajaRawr]

This are supposed to be retractable Claws

 

[Meow1940]

WOW! Did you do the sketching yourself? Amazing.

 

[Murdoch]

I may be out there on this, but why not google switch blade mechanisms. Thats where i would start. But to retract. Hmmm. I'll think about it at work tomorrow, get back to you...GM

 

[Meow1940]

Thanks for the reply! I'm starting to appreciate and cherish the few I do get. Haha. But yeah, that's the same direction I was pointed to on the weapon site. I took a look at it then and again since you advised it and it still seems like rocket science to me...on how the switchblade works, specifically the DA OTF.

There's so many different sites and videos, etc. I'm still researching when I get the time though. I was also advised to look into retractable pen mechanics. But I think I'll stick with the mechanics in my sketch...It already works, all I need for it is a way to be able to lock the claws.

 

[Keiron]

Did you ever find out how? It’s been more than ten years and now I’m the one looking and researching how to do this.

I don’t have much hope for your reply or anyone’s but I do hope that if you see this and you indeed found out how and made it, you could walk me through the procedure. If not, maybe you could get me a bit more specifics in how you made it as far as you did and perhaps I could perfect it.

Even without a reply I thank that you mentioned some of the mechanics in a comment above.

Speak to you (hopefully) sometime: K.