Some of my autos!

[Madmarco]

It's funny you ask that, Garry, I was about to state in my post that they have sheaths but for whatever reason didn't, probably forgot!
They're just simple hunting knife sheaths that are buried at the bottom of a container with 400 other sheaths, otherwise I'd post a picture for you although I'm certain you've seen similar before.

[Madmarco]

The letters O.M.O.R. are ROMO spelt backwards, Smitty, and I believe ROMO was a knife company of some kind but I'm not really sure.
The significance if any, of the letters being backwards also is unknown to me.
Thanks for the compliment, bud, and I told you you likely hadn't seen these before! lol!

[Madmarco]

I don't follow any specific brands or patterns, Kim, so I think of myself as an accumulator of automatic and usual/unusual manual folders from as many places around the world as I can, and I've been doing so for closing in on 4 years.
I've been on this forum everyday for most of that time as well, and that's really where I've gained any knowledge and/or experience I have.
My Chinese foods is here, so...later!

[Killgar]

ROMO is short for Rosenbaum and Mogal, two US importers.

[Madmarco]

Thanks for cluing us in, Kill, your information sounds familiar to what I'd already heard but more specific.
I love your Ti-Lite convert, when I saw the breakdown on YouTube my mouth started watering.
At that time, perhaps 6 months ago, he wasn't selling them, has this changed or did you get yours somewhere else? It's such a BIG and beautiful knife, and I want one soooo badly! Thx!

[Killgar]

Thanks for cluing us in, Kill, your information sounds familiar to what I'd already heard but more specific.
I love your Ti-Lite convert, when I saw the breakdown on YouTube my mouth started watering.
At that time, perhaps 6 months ago, he wasn't selling them, has this changed or did you get yours somewhere else? It's such a BIG and beautiful knife, and I want one soooo badly! Thx!

Thank you for the compliment, I'm the one who does the conversions. It's my youtube channel- https://www.youtube.com/@killgar2621/videos

I only do them once in awhile, it's a lot of work (particularly the safety). They require precise custom fitting of parts to achieve the level of quality I demand from myself. It's a lot of "assemble knife, test, disassemble knife, remove a fraction of a millimeter of material, assemble, test, disassemble, remove a fraction..." over, and over, and over for hours, until everything is just right.

It's a very slow and tedious process, and for the price I've been selling them for I don't make a lot of money from them (it costs me around $250 to make one). So I don't produce many. For me, making switchblades is just a hobby, and thus far selling them has been more about personal pride rather than making money.

These are two of mine. The first and last ones I made (with original handles). They are among my most prized possessions.

[Madmarco]

Jeez, I'm sorry man, I didn't make the connection and I subscribe to your channel and I've commented on your videos in the past. I've also read your comments and viewed the pictures from Bladeforums and have always been impressed.
I follow Paul "Burn" Panak knives too, and you build your knives just like he does, like a tank, and I really like that. I've watched and listened to some of the engineering you put into your builds and that's the kind of knives I like and want, solid with some weight and detail put into them.
With all the work involved in making one of these knives it's little wonder you get burnt-out, and as much as I'm disappointed you don't build for regular online/offline sales I certainly understand your reasoning.
I don't belong to any other forums, so if you decide to stick around here would you kindly put the same info about a knife being available to buy in your posts like you do at Bladeforums so I can have a chance at getting one. Any auto, not just Ti-Lites cuz I really dig your converted boot knife as well, and I'm certain any knife you build will have the same love and care put into it as in the Ti-Lites.
And if you build a knife for me you can immediately eliminate the safety cuz I'm not a big fan of safeties or pocket-clips.
It certainly isn't hard to see why those 2 knives you posted are prized possessions of yours, and I love that you ramped the catch-holes, that should save plenty of wear and tear on the sears.
You build beautiful knives man, your skills are most impressive!
BTW, would you happen to know for certain what ever happened to JB, Chad, and Roadsideimports.com, I know they shut-down but why? Thx!

[Madmarco]

I forgot to ask, Killgar, is that the safety sitting in the top hole right beside the button on the 2 Ti-Lites you posted above?
Thanks!

[Killgar]

It's all good Madmarco . I appreciate the kind words, and your interest in my work.

I too am an admirer of Paul Panak's work. I don't know if he is active anywhere online, but I wish he were, because I'd be very interested in anything he says about his knife making. I for one am happy to talk about my work and answer questions.

As far as me selling my conversions, I've never actually gotten the chance to announce or post any for sale. I receive a lot of requests for my conversions, as well as requests to convert Ti-Lites that people already own (something I don't do), and each of my sales were the result of people getting to me before I had the chance to put the knives up for sale. They had the money, I had the knives, and my policy has always been "first come, first sell". I don't do pre-orders or waiting lists. But if I produce any more for sale I'll post them in my sig line here. I wish I had knives for everyone who wants one.

As far as JB and Roadside Imports, I don't know what happened. But as recently as last night I was thinking about how I wished I could still get some of the parts JB sold. The springs, sears and rocker arms in all of my first generation Ti-Lite conversions were produced by JB (as well as several other switchblades I've built). I know that he's a controversial figure, but he did produce some high-quality switchblade parts.

As for the two knives in my last post, yes, the knobs in the holes to the right of the firing buttons are the safeties (picture below). When I designed my Auto-Lites I wanted to produce a true "user" stiletto switchblade, basically just an auto version of what the Ti-Lite was already intended to be. To that end it was important to me that they be as easy as possible to operate. I wanted the safety control to be close to the firing button so that a person could deactivate the safety, and then press the firing button, without having to change their grip on the knife.

Again, I appreciate your interest. And by the way, I've enjoyed viewing this thread over the past few years and looking at your collection .

[Madmarco]

You are most welcome, KG, your fine work deserves praise and interest.
I can't say if Paul P. is active online anywhere, but if I'm not mistaken I've read the very occasional post from him on one of the knife sites, but certainly not what you'd call "active", he likely doesn't have the time.
I knew that when I was typing out my request to you that it was confusing, but you caught my drift anyway cuz all I was asking was that you put any available knives in your signature line, not that you start accepting orders from me or anyone else, I apologize for the confusion. It's almost a shame though that you don't build knives for a living, as you say plenty of folks want them and there's just not enough available to satisfy everyone. I was wondering if you accepted already owned Ti-Lites for conversion, but didn't wonder long after reading how well you engineer each knife with customized parts, and that wouldn't work so well with already owned knives since there's no way of knowing what their current owners might have done to them.
I'd figured out what JB was all about very shortly after communicating with him for the first time, and as long as he was always right we got along famously, all I had to do was refrain from telling him he was full of sh*t. lol! I did business with him for about 5 years and he helped me get about a dozen great autos into Canada where I live and where autos and most other knives too are considered as prohibited weapons and are seized and destroyed by Customs, and for that I will always respect him. I too very much miss not being able to buy his parts any longer, I was doing a bit of tinkering and those parts made things so much easier. One of my biggest regrets is; the blade which was shipped separately so as to pass customs, for the last John Nowell & Sons conversion Chad built that I bought before they closed, was lost in the US mail so my US$600. knife sat as a paperweight for a long time before I was able to have another one made. That in itself was very disappointing cuz JB was no help once he'd conceded to the fact he was done and I wasn't able to get him to do a Mail Search with USPS, but when the new blade arrived and I installed it, it just wasn't 100%. I'd requested a 5mm blade cuz that's what Chad put in it, but it came back with only the tang being 5mm, the shaft was much thinner and doesn't really suit that big heavy knife. It operates O.K., but I know it's not the way it was built to be.
Boy, if I'm disappointed about Roadside, you must almost be in tears since I'm sure you used his parts for far more than any tinkering I did. Roadside was my first introduction to RPK's/Russian Prison Knives, and now I own half a dozen of them. R.I.P. Roadside!
A big part of the reason I like your knives so much is the way you build them so well engineered with little tid-bits such as ease of operator use by positioning the safety in a convenient yet unobtrusive location, I mean, who besides you and Paul does that?! Well done, sir! Your new pictures today show the safeties much better, I couldn't really tell if that was them from the original pictures and is why I asked, and they certainly show your desire to make the knives easy to operate with where they're installed, they couldn't be more easy to shift your thumb over to the button while maintaining the same grip than if a professional engineer had installed them! Simply brilliant, brother!
I apologize for writing a book here, it's just that I get excited when I talk with someone who knows automatic knives as well as you do, and thanks for the compliment about my knives! I'm more of an accumulator as opposed to collector, cuz I'm not focused like you are, I like anything that goes "crack" when you push the button, hence the potpourri of autos you've seen in my collection!
These pictures are of the knife with the secondary blade, it looks O.K., but is suppose to have a 5mm blade not just the 5mm tang, and as a result doesn't feel right when it's fired! See, no safety! lol! Sorry bout' the poor pictures, I only have my laptop to take them!

[Killgar]

Thanks again Madmarco .

Sorry to hear about the blade of that knife being lost, that really sucks. It looks like a cool switchblade, I like big ones. It also sucks that JB didn't do everything possible to find it, but what can you do. I hear what you're saying about trying to stay on the right side of JB, although I never had any interaction with him, I've known people like that. It's especially difficult when they are the only source for what you want and you have to be careful about upsetting them. It is cool though that he was willing to take knives apart and ship them to Canada for you.

Perhaps I was lucky in that with over a dozen orders placed with Roadside I never had any problems, so I never had to deal with JB personally. I did catch some flak from others online for buying from him, people thought I was being naive, telling me it was only a matter of time before things went wrong, or criticizing me for doing business with a crook (their words), but the fact is, he was the only person on the entire planet who was selling off-the-shelf Italian stiletto parts, and without those parts I wouldn't have been able to build the knives I was making. He wasn't just "the only game in town", he was "the only game ON EARTH", so I was willing to take the risk.

I'm inclined to believe the negative things people said about JB, because I heard similar stories from several different people, but my experience with him was always good. I always received exactly what I ordered, there was never any funny business with my debit card (of course I only used a prepaid card), and he shipped my orders faster than anyone else I've ever dealt with. In many instances I received a tracking number for my order in less than 12 hours after placing the order. Like I said, perhaps I was just lucky.

Oh well, those days are over.

On an unrelated topic, my reference to pre-orders and a waiting list for my conversions was not directed at you, it's just something I always mention when discussing sales. I didn't mean to suggest that you were requesting such things. Sorry for any confusion I may have caused .

And just for the heck of it, for people viewing this thread who might be curious what we're talking about, here are a few pictures of some stiletto parts that JB had specially made and sold, I still have a few. The first pic is of a one-piece spring/lock for an 11" stiletto, and a sear/rocker-arm set. Another positive thing about Roadside were the prices, $20 for the spring, and around $16 for the sear/rocker set. The other pic is of two different size of mini threaded posts with slotted ends. I don't know of anyone else on earth who makes or sells these (the smaller one takes a 0-80 screw, the larger one takes a 1-72 screw). Prior to making my Ti-Lite conversions, I used these posts in all of my switchblade builds, as well as my first batch of Auto-Lite conversions.

[Madmarco]

The type of lock you refer to, Kim, is called a "picklock", cuz you need to "pick" the lock-tab with your thumb and first finger, then lift it up to release the blade for closing, and lots of folks don't care for them either, hence the invention of the "swivel bolster" lock release and it works just like it sounds, the bolster "ear" will swivel and at the same time pushing the lock-tab back and away in order to fold the blade closed. "Picklock" is an original term for that type of auto, and was used for years before the "swivel bolster" mechanism was invented around 1962 or so. Some safeties used by builders these day are new and revolutionary, in that they slide easily every time and are very small and unobtrusive, they're actually brilliant!
As for the safety not being present on the knife I posted, it was deliberately not included cuz I don't care for them, and besides, the solid brass button is completely flush with the cover and next to impossible to depress other than with direct thumb pressure.
The difference in you sliding the safety on your Latama between you and your hubby doing the same is just a matter of technique, it seems he has it down but you don't so far. If it has the slightest bend in it under the cover, caused by trying to press the button while it's applied, that can also make it hard to slide, but the good news is, practise, practise, practise! lol!

[Madmarco]

I hear you loud and clear, KG, and I don't feel you just got lucky in your dealings with JB, cuz I got the same stellar service with my purchases. When he eventually knew you were a serious buyer he'd pull up his socks and take care of business. It was more often when you spoke with him about non-sales stuff that he'd come off like a jerk. In all fairness to him, when my blade was lost he was right in the middle of his business collapsing, problems with his teeth, and over 600 emails/day causing his system to crash, so I have to cut him some slack regarding not helping by initiating a mail search when he was the only person who could do it, but it sure was unfortunate and inconvenient. When I got the knife out to take the pictures I fired it, and it's actually not so bad!

I totally understand what you say about how unique JB's parts were, on more than one occasion I bought parts hoping they were the right ones and they worked perfectly for the minor project I was working on. He had a virtual monopoly on knife parts, but now that's gone! He had been shut-down on 2 other occasions by the government, but he re-opened under a different name both times and this worked for him for over 10 years, this time must have been serious cuz he's yet to re-open and that was last year already. Oh well!

My better autos have that 1-piece 5mm back spring in them, and you know how hard those fire. His single-headed pins were totally inconvenient too, and those slotted posts you show almost look like the new safeties Chad or Paul or whoever invented, and I'd bet it won't be long before they're the only type of safety a builder will use. They're so simple solid and virtually unbreakable, why not use them exclusively. It just dawned on me, those slotted posts are one half of a screw and barrel pivot pin system, not safeties, right?

No need of an apology, KG, my wording was confusing and at one point I think I said, "if you build a knife for me you can immediately eliminate the safety", etc. but I was only meaning if you included available knives in your signature, not to start taking orders, and for that confusion I apologize.

Great talking with you again, buddy, later!

[Killgar]

If I recall correctly, the threaded posts I pictured were advertised on switchbladekits.com as "swing guard pivots". Replacements for swing guard pins. They are made of hardened stainless steel. I used them instead of pins to hold my knives together (example pictured below, red arrows). I like them because I can fully assemble and disassemble the knives as many times as necessary during production. And with screws I can precisely control how tightly the knife is held together.

There has been someone on ebay selling some of the same items that JB sold. I don't know if it's him, but I suppose it could be. Among other things the person is selling the same stiletto blades that JB had made special with the Roadside skull and swords logo on them. Awhile back there was a listing for the rocker arms I pictured earlier (a batch of 50) that JB also had made, I thought about buying it, but I decided that 50 rockers wouldn't be of much use without the sears.

It's great talking with you too. Talking switchblades is one of my favorite topics .


.

[QGofLake]

KillGar, just wanted to chime in about your Ti-Lite conversions. I came across your youtube videos last fall when I began to get back into autos. While I enjoy vintage Italian and American styles, I most appreciate a robust, well built knife that fires hard, can be used and will hold up well. Your conversions are all of that and then some! Extremely well done.

[Killgar]

KillGar, just wanted to chime in about your Ti-Lite conversions. I came across your youtube videos last fall when I began to get back into autos. While I enjoy vintage Italian and American styles, I most appreciate a robust, well built knife that fires hard, can be used and will hold up well. Your conversions are all of that and then some! Extremely well done.

Thanks QGofLake . I always consider it a great compliment when other switchblade enthusiasts like my work .

[Madmarco]

The Latama you're having trouble closing, Kim, is a "Picklock"!
Re-read my answer on why you're having trouble.
The "little metal pieces" are the outer edges of the tab-lock, and those must be pinched with thumb and first finger and then lifted enough for the tang-pin to clear the hole to fold closed.
Perhaps try YouTube, "How to close a picklock knife", so you can get a visual cuz clearly my explanation is confusing you.

[Madmarco]

to AAPK, QGL!

[Madmarco]

Would you kindly supply a link or their ebay handle for the person selling JB's parts, KG, I'd like to see for myself.
That's ingenious how you're using those slotted posts on your knives, I love any knife built with screws instead of fixed rivets cuz it makes it easy to remove the blades for shipping to me here in restricted Canada, and of course for your purposes.
Talking autos is a favorite of mine too, especially when the person knows what they're talking about, just like you!
The knife you posted today is unbelievably gorgeous, I want one, I want one, waaaa! lol!
Is this the logo you referred to?

Sorry bout the sub-par pictures!

[Killgar]

Would you kindly supply a link or their ebay handle for the person selling JB's parts, KG, I'd like to see for myself.
That's ingenious how you're using those slotted posts on your knives, I love any knife built with screws instead of fixed rivets cuz it makes it easy to remove the blades for shipping to me here in restricted Canada, and of course for your purposes.
Talking autos is a favorite of mine too, especially when the person knows what they're talking about, just like you!
The knife you posted today is unbelievably gorgeous, I want one, I want one, waaaa! lol!
Is this the logo you referred to?
8)WIN_20230816_19_03_16_Pro.jpgWIN_20230816_19_04_11_Pro.jpgWIN_20230816_19_12_25_Pro.jpgSorry bout the sub-par pictures!

That's the logo.

Here's a link- https://www.ebay.com/itm/175444667927?h ... SwPVJhCy4l

Yeah those slotted posts are great. If it weren't for them I doubt I would have built any switchblades.

I've used a few of those blades myself (pic below ). But I bought them from switchbladekits.com when they were only $20. I also used those slotted posts in all of these knives.

[Madmarco]

The last knife I posted has the blade and logo you referred to, KG, but it was purchased well before the troubles JB's having.
That seller on ebay somehow doesn't strike me as being JB himself, I'd say more likely someone bought up a bunch of parts after Roadside closed. JB was too active in the industry to settle for slow moving ebay sales, and besides, he had over 10,000 knives to get rid of when they closed, in my opinion, he'd dedicate his time and efforts into selling those. But as I said, IMO.
The knife I last posted has one of the slotted posts/barrels as the pivot pin, and has the screw-in on the other end, and along with bronze phosphorus washers make it tight and solid with a very precise fit. I actually have 1 complete set of the screw and barrel pivot as an extra.
Thanks for the ebay link, and that line-up of your knives you showed us is outstanding, how bad would it really be if you were to drop the 3rd from the left into a small box and mail it off to ME! Just teasing you, buddy, but it's unlikely I'll stop trying! lol!

[Killgar]

how bad would it really be if you were to drop the 3rd from the left into a small box and mail it off to ME! Just teasing you, buddy, but it's unlikely I'll stop trying! lol!

Can't blame a guy for trying .

[QGofLake]

to AAPK, QGL!

Thank you Marco for the welcome! Towards the topic, here is an image of a knife I recently picked up. It is an 11" horn with black on the front and white on the back, built somewhere in the 70s time frame. I really enjoy it.

[Madmarco]

how bad would it really be if you were to drop the 3rd from the left into a small box and mail it off to ME! Just teasing you, buddy, but it's unlikely I'll stop trying! lol!

Can't blame a guy for trying .

I'm glad you get it, my friend , and of course I'm just teasing, you've explained your knife building/selling situation quite clearly, so I'll simply watch your signature from here on in! lol!

[Madmarco]

to AAPK, QGL!

Thank you Marco for the welcome! Towards the topic, here is an image of a knife I recently picked up. It is an 11" horn with black on the front and white on the back, built somewhere in the 70s time frame. I really enjoy it.

Oh come on, QGL, you've teased us by telling us the knife is 2 different colors, you gotta at least post another picture showing the difference!
That's a nice BLACK 70's stiletto you have there, BTW, I wonder if the back cover is WHITE? lol! I'm really liking the swedge blade as well!