But you need to get your technicalities right. There is a small but crucial difference between what you think is a stiletto knife and a stiletto style knife. Actually, a stiletto style knife is an upgrade or evolution on the original stiletto knife. So what's the difference between the two?
Stiletto Knife vs Stiletto Style Knife
As you must have seen Don Corleone wield out a stiletto gracefully and menacingly, you are witnessing a stiletto knife in action. A stiletto knife is an Italian knife which has some distinctly characteristic features.
The tip or blade point of a stiletto knife is a slender point, like in the stiletto heel we can all observe today sharper than that. The original stiletto knife had a fixed blade. Which means its blade can't be folded.
The modern rendition of this stabbing weapon is a stiletto style knife, which is a switchblade knife. All switchblade knives are essentially concealed knives whose blade is not fixed.
This minor adjustment turns a stiletto style knife into a pocket knife that can be closed and opened with a push of a button. Super slick right? Now imagine the same lethal blade popping out of the front with all its deadly grace. This makes stiletto style knives extremely popular and cool to carry.
Features of a stiletto style knife
The features of a stiletto style knife overlaps those of most switchblade knives because of similar opening mechanism. These two features determine if a knife can be considered a switchblade or an automatic knife.
Firstly, a stiletto style knife must have the blade folded inside the handle, carefully embedded and not easily distinguished from the handle.
Secondly, the blade of a stiletto style knife would only be ejected out with a switch or an activation button. There can be another device on the handle to assist this ejection.
Now, if a stiletto style knife does not have both these features in it, then we can't call it a stiletto style knife which is switchblade. The other types of knives may have some assisted opening mechanism (spring assisted knives)or they are the original stiletto knives (fixed blade).
The key difference to be noted here is that there is a knife with assisted opening mechanism such as spring assisted knives, which are not the same as automatic or switchblade stiletto style knives.
A spring assisted knife is also a folding knife like stiletto style knife, but it has an assisted opening mechanism which sets it apart.
When there is a thumb stud or lever on the rear end of the blade, which assists in the opening of the knife by pushing back against the tension of the spring in the handle, then a knife cannot be called automatic. Stiletto style knife is not spring assisted but has an automatic opening mechanism.
Final thoughts
Now you know the crucial difference between a stiletto knife and a stiletto style knife. You can also figure out which knife is a switchblade and which isn't.
Knowing these key distinctions will go a long way in your journey as a blade connoisseur and help you distinguish and pick out a stiletto style knife without much confusion.
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