Anyone know anything about "projectile knives"?

J

jamesinwashdc

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Sep 19, 2004
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I'm not really a total knife guy but i've had an interest over the years. I came across this forum and there was a question i had to post.

I remember way back a long time ago, someone telling me about some old Soviet knife. It was your standard combat knife, with one catch - it had a springloaded mechanism allowing you to forcefully eject the blade. I saw a picture of such a knife once, it was powerful enough to break through a thick piece of wood.

Does anyone know what knife i'm talking about? Maybe not this particular one, but does anyone know of any type of "projectile" or "ballistic" knives? It's hard to find info on them, and I've yet to find one for sale on the web - although i never said i wanted desperately to buy one. I assume that they might be considered illegal in some jurisdictions.
 
They're called ballistic knives generically if I'm thinking what you're thinking. There's even a series of books written by forumite Greg Walker called "Springblade", where each book was named after a different type of edged weapon. Unfortunately out of print but available in used book stores. I think the one if the books was a Soviet product.

It's a good bet that ballistic knives are illegal in many jurisdictions. If the tiny little spring in an auto makes it verboten imagine what one powerful enough to send a knife through a piece of plywood at ten feet might be considered :eek:
 
I don't know if ballistic knives are legal anywhere. I doubt anyone makes them except a perhaps curious person in his own basement. It'd basically be an OTF knife like a Microtech Halo, but without the lock that holds the blade in place.
 
I bought one at a gun show in the 1980s. Lots of police at the show, so I thought it was legal. The knife is impressive at close range; it will stick the blade into a stump hard each time. Never a miss. The lever is difficult to release and the knife is hard to recock. It's fun to play with, but I don't know what practical use it is. There is a hard plastic cover on the blade, so the whole unit can be sprung, and you let fly a blunt object rather than a knife.

I thought is was a little hokey at first, but the guy who sold it to me pointed it right at me with his finger on the release lever. It looked really serious then.
 
The best bet with ballistic knives is to avoid them. They are very illegal, and carelessly handled, like any knives but more than most, dangerous.

You know the S.W.A.T. Guardfather, the auto icepick? The original of that was an explosively ejected dart, not the contained, spring-loaded pick it is now.

Bad news.
 
Wow. Thanks for the info.

I did a web search and find it interesting of how illegal they are. I can't recall hearing of too many murders where the weapon was a ballistic knife - probably more accidental deaths are likely. I also would assume that most ballistic knives would be less reliable for normal use, considering that the blade is designed to detach. Anyway i was just curious. Thanks for the replies.
 
Knives are tools. Knives are weapons. The most commonly used knives are probably kitchen knives. The knives most commonly used in killing are probably kitchen knives.

But some knives are designed for fighting and the ballistic knife is as non-utilitarian as can be. This makes it a target of legislative disapproval, even if real knife people are less likely to want one for anything but collection purposes.

Of course, lots of items are targets of legislative disapproval that legislatures have no business noticing. :rolleyes:
 
IIRC it was banned around 1986 or 1987. They don't need any reason to ban something, it was just paranoia. From what I've read they were not very practical and it was supposedly easier to hit a target with a throwing knife than by launching the blade.


There were later versions sold without springs as well as a spring-loaded batan shooter and even a grappling hook launcher for people who want to be like Batman. :D These two legal spring-loaded devices were designed not to accept the blades but the baton and grappling hook could be used in the older knife.


I've heard of people buying those cheap $5.00 out the front switchblades they sell in Mexico and cutting the blades so they could shoot but I doubt they'd really be anything more than a toy.


for a real shooting knife there is a Chinese military knife that shoots 4 rounds of .22lr. :D
 
They may have been impractical as all Hell, but they certainly looked neat in the movies and on TV. I'll bet you dollars to donuts that it was their appearnce in shows like The Equalizer that led to their being outlawed rather than any actual criminal usage.
 
When you say illegal, do you mean illegal to own or illegal to carry?
I've held one before, it was pretty nice. I'm thinking it was an original. It was an alluminum(spl) colored metal handle with a matching sheeth. when in the sheeth it just looked like a metal tube with a lever in the middle. Probably around 12-14" long total.
Around what would one be worth?
 
Short of owning a thermo nuclear device or non registered fully automatic weapons, I'm not sure you could get yourself into more trouble than with a ballistic knife. Check the various knife laws and you'll see our government was freaked out by these things, and banned ownership, manufacture, transport and possibly even discussing them. Don't know why. More a novelty than anything. I remember them years ago in shotgun news and always wanted one. Should have bought one back then. They even had a mall ninja grappling hook attatchment IIRC.

See ya,
John...

p.s. To the feds monitoring this thread. I replied only for informational purposes to help prevent further discusion of the dreaded ballistic knife. ;)
 
I've been using a ballistic knife to hunt neighborhood cats and dogs for years. It is an extremely good weapon for this purpose. Kind of like a dry land version of a spear gun. Not only does it kills the little critters, but it also pins them to the fence for display.

In truth, the above is a total fabrication. In Canada it is probably illegal to even think about ballistic knives. That knock on my door is probably the thought police coming to arrest me.

I know, I'm one sick SOB, and I'm damn proud of it.
 
Speaking of Ballistic Knives in popular media, there's a neat scene in the new Punisher movie in which Tom Jane uses one to defend himself. (Note: legislators should feel free to NOT watch this movie).
Lagarto
 
I'm the last guy to want to limit knife ownership/carry, however as someone that is currently going through a law enforcement academy, I'd be willing to bet that there were probably a lot of officers pressing to get this knife off the market. Any compact, highly deadly, balistic weapon that doesn't LOOK like a gun is a scary prospect for a cop.

Personally I think you should be able to carry your katana under your trenchcoat on any street in the country, but I guess I can kind of understand about the balistic knives.

SCDUB
 
Well over ten years ago now there were several articles written on the Soviet ballistic knife -

SWAT magazine, as I recall today, featured one such article from me meant to educate LE officers as to this catagory of knife and its demonstrated potential in the hands of a Bad Guy if confronted by LE and one was/is presented.

Kasik sends -
 
I remember I saw a Soviet ballistic knife which was propelled not by a spring but by an ordinary 7.62 mm cartrige they were using at the AK-47 (without the bullet, of course). I'll try to find a pic, I know I had one with the schematics.
 
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