Colt S&R Gravity Knife thoughts?

[cpirtle]

Anyone have any thoughts on these? Good bad or indifferent? I tried doing some searches and came up with very little.

Are the classified as a switchblade?

How is the lock-up on them? I heard they have a lot of blade wobble.

Any other thoughts would be great. Thanks!

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"I'd rather be judged by 12 than carried by 6"

 

[Cosmic Superchunk]

I saw one not too long ago at an Army/Navy store in Atlanta. Lots of blade wobble. Although it's not really a switchblade, many states regard them as such.

 

[Cosmic Superchunk]

I forgot to add that the model I saw was German made, however, it did not have the Colt logo and was plain edge. It did have the makers stamp, Eikhorn or something I think. In order for the blade to slide out quickly there has to be some play for a knife of this type, but there was noticable play on the particular model I saw. Also, the edge was a little rough, but not that sharp.

 

[RH]

From what I know, they are not classified as switchblades (since they have no switch or spring), but are just as illegal if not more so. An Automatic, or "switchblade" might be legal in certain states, or legal in the state where manufactured. I beleive a "gravity knife" is illegal just about everywhere, which might be why no one hardly makes them.

 

[FullerH]

The Colt model was or is a made in Germany version of the WWII German Fallschirmjagermesser (Paratrooper Knife). THe WWII version had wooden scales, was blued, and had a spear pointed blade with one sharpened edge. There was a marlin spike on the back of the hilt and the whole thing disassembles for cleaning. The lock-up is not great, nor is the system for holding the blade into the hilt. You pivot a toggle around and, when you push it against tension and tip the knife down, the blade slides out of the front. You then rotate the toggle back around to lock it. The problem is that it does not grip the blade in hte hilt until the tip is about half an inch or more out of the hilt. This didn't matter to the Fallschirmjager as he had a special pocket in his uhiform for it where he carried it tip up, but it does tend to cut your pocket up.

As you may have guessed, I have one of the German WWII models and speak from experience.

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Walk in the Light,
Hugh Fuller

 

[Esav Benyamin]

I got one of the CSAR-marked versions from 1SKS. In fact, it's sitting here right next to my keyboard, the little toy! It's identical to the current German Army paratroop knife, and has the same ID on the handle: LL80. The only difference is the faint Colt blade etch. It is massive, heavy, solid, and worth the few bucks I paid.

There is blade wobble, but it sharpened up nicely on the Sharpmaker 204. The spike snaps out firmly and intimidatingly, manually.

The blade release is easier and more reliable than on Hugh's old model. All you have to do is raise the toggle slightly and the blade will drop all the way out, and lock in place. Hold the knife blade up and raise the toggle slightly again, and it will drop all the way back in, and lock in place again.

It disassembles easily for cleaning, and would make a decent toolkit addition, but ... gravity knives are verboten!

 

[Colinz]

I had one with a green handle and black guard without the Colt logo. A friend bought it for me in Germany about 10 years ago.

The steel in the blade was hard to get sharp. The bladeplay could be minimized if you took it apart and fiddled around a bit. Can´t really remember how I got rid of most of the bladeplay. Wasn´t a major "operation" though.

Sold it because it wasn´t any good. Nice conversation piece.

/Colinz