Chinatown knife

[Boink]

This might have been talked about before, but does anyone know what knife was used to stick up Jack Nicholson's nose?

I saw this movie way before I was into knives and always thought how cool that knife looked.

 

[yiterp]

looked like a italian auto,bayonet blade

 

[Jeff Clark]

As I recall it was a really cheap Italian switchblade, with hollow plastic handle scales, about 3/32" thick blade, with a swing out guard, and the blade lock controlled by the opening button. I doubt that they made them that flimsy back in the 1930's when the movie was supposed to take place. I saw a lot of them in the 1960's. I had a couple of them. The steel was about 52 RC.

 

[airblade]

Jeff the knife you are talking about was a Mexican/Japanese creation, not Italian. It was called a Rizzuto, and can be found on BA from time to time.

 

[enkidu]

Trivia Fact: the thug who cuts Jake's nose (while calling him "kitty cat") is Roman Polanski himself, the director of Chinatown (and last year's Best Director Academy Award winner for "The Pianist").

If I recall, the blade itself was a special prop blade, designed to swing out of the way during the cutting motion. Anyone have the DVD? It's in the commentary.