John Wayne movie knife

[Der Verminator]

Anybody that would throw a nice switchblade would have to be crazy.

 

[257x50]

I just traded into one of these.....German silver bolsters and thick Stag scales....bought in the 90s

 

[Bob Denman]

did the duke just pull out a switchblade in a western??!

Yup! I'd guess Colonial also.
But since he's The Duke: he can carry anything he wants

 

[Peter Hartwig]

Strange that this thread got bumped today. I was doing an outside search on this (looking for blade length in a round about way)just today and this thread popped up. The search agreed with Hubertus

 

[qmether]

Was expecting this clip when I saw the thread title...

 

[Bob Denman]

that was Mississippi's knife anyway...

 

[eisman]

This Flylock dates back to around 1918:

 

[shawnmunns]

Can anyone tell me what brand / Mfg knife that was used by John Wayne in the opening scenes of "Big Jake" when he throws it at the leader of the lynch mob trying to hang the sheep farmer ???

The automatic knife that the Duke used in Big Jake was a Friedr Herder switchblade FYI

 

[killgar]

It was indeed a German Friedr Herder. Pics below, including screenshots.

And yeah, I know it's an old thread, but I just recently figured out how to take screenshots from movies shown online, so I thought I'd provide some photographic proof to this old question.

First pic- A Friedrich (Friedr.) Herder switchblade.

In this pic, you can see the end of the toggle firing switch sticking out below the bolster. You can also see that the Dukes knife has a lanyard loop.

And in this pic you can see the distinct slant of the bottom of the bolster.

And if anyone was ever interested in how they did that scene, in this shot, right before the knife is "thrown", you can see the wire the knife traveled along to hit the tree. Ain't high-def great.