My mom says knives are fun!

oneeyedjack909

Can anyone tell me the name or term used to describe the automatic knives featured in "Smoking Aces" and "Assassins Creed". The type of knife that stays tucked up under the slieve and is activated by wrist or hand movement at which point it shoots out and is useable. They aren't switch blades or automatic knives so what is the proper term or specific name to describe them?

supabeast

Just about any knife that would fit in a sleeve could have a sheath made to keep it under a sleeve like that. But such a sheath is mostly the stuff of fantasy; it would be very, very hard to design a sheath that would release a knife only upon a certain movement being made and not at other inopportune moments.

Which is why they exist only in movies and video games.

Improvolone

Watch Taxi Driver. DeNiro makes a slide like that for a gun.

Peter Ebel

They're called gimmicks.

No, but seriously, you'd probably just call them spring loaded knives. I don't think there's any special term associated with knives that come flying out peoples sleeves.

Btw, I know KGB made a gun that was meant to hidden in the sleeve and it was fired by pulling your hand back. Some sort of system of wires and string pulled the trigger.

Doc

There is also one in "Marathon Man." It's more realistic in that you have to forcefully push the blade back in, since (obviously) the spring can't work both ways.

poshniallo

I don't think there's a real name because I don't think they're a real thing - the kind that sort of zip forward out of their sheath would be useless for thrusting, because they'd just end up forced back into the handle.

Basically, as far as I can see, anything designed like that would be too fragile (or dangerous to the wielder) to be reliable.

Blake T

They aren't supposed to be spring loaded, they are supposed to be shaken in and out. I've only seen one that works correctly and I'm fairly sure that it was highly illegal.

Basically it slid down forcing your arm up and down, kind of shaking it out. However there was a locking mechanism attached to the glove which meant it wouldn't release unless your hand was out flat. When your hand was bent it wouldn't slide.

Really though I'd be fucking nervous having the thing on my hand and be worried it would slide back in.

meeker

The coolest ones are on a guy in Hudson Hawk. But yeah, they would surely have all sorts of problems with reliability.

Khavall

Angel has some, but with Stakes instead of Knives.

'Cause, you know.


Vampires.

PirateJon

wrist blade / wrist shank is as close to a normal name as you're likely to get.

But the nay-sayers here lack imagination. Such a weapon could easily be made and be sturdy enough so that you could stab someone. The retraction could be manual, mechanical, or poerwed by co2 cartrigdes. Remember watching battlebots? Now strap one to your wrist. Some kids that make their own..
http://youtube.com/watch?v=GfwAEinCeMk
http://youtube.com/watch?v=6uuOx_DAURI

Now imagine one made by someone with more metalworking skill. It wouldn't be just a good way to cut your own fingers off.
closer... http://youtube.com/watch?v=RcEjCUOI-DU


Edit: Let me add MAJOR PROPS to OP... looking around for the half-remembered youtube goofballs led to this awesome post which links to even more in-depth stuff.
http://thedarkblade.wordpress.com/2007/12/13/phyreblades-guide-to-altairs-retractable-blade-assassins-creed/

Holy crap.. cool stuff:
http://www.sinzaknives.com/exotic.html
He has a forum where he's got a post wanting a word to describe these types of blades.
http://sinza.forumotion.com/xiphoids-f3/xiphoid-definition-new-term-for-forearm-weapons-t27.htm

Reiten

Warning: spring loaded knives (including things like switchblades) are illegal in some places. Something that you're hiding up your sleeve could also run into concealed weapon laws. Check your local laws before doing something that could land you in hot water.

Doc

Reiten wrote: »

Warning: spring loaded knives (including things like switchblades) are illegal in some places. Something that you're hiding up your sleeve could also run into concealed weapon laws. Check your local laws before doing something that could land you in hot water.

Not only that, but even if you have a "concealed weapon permit" it only covers handguns. That's how seriously they take concealed knives.

Steel Angel

Doc wrote: »

Not only that, but even if you have a "concealed weapon permit" it only covers handguns. That's how seriously they take concealed knives.

It depends on the state. A few years back, a knife salesman from Florida I did some business with had to point out to a cop that FL's CCW also covered automatic knives. Next day the cop went to his shop and bought the model the salesman carried with him. Most states are more restrictive though, to say nothing of county and city regulations that can crop up.

Pheezer

Because this is a subject that barely exists in reality, and where it does exists in a completely illegal context in many (most?) places any of you could possibly be posting from, and is a terribly stupid topic of discussion given these facts, I'm shutting this down.