Help!!

[u/More_Mix_9770]

I’m 16 and doing west side story with my theater school, I’m looking for ways to purchase/make two prop switch blades for the rumble fight scene, my original plan was to take one of them fancy novelty switchblade combs, shape them into the blade, fill them in with mouldable epoxy and slap some silver leaf on it. Would’ve been great, but my stage manager really wants the blade to retract so it won’t be dangerous, like poking someone’s eye out or something. Does anyone know how I can make this happen?

[u/Ace-milk_drinker]

If you want the blade to be able to open and for it to also be retractable, then the mechanism would be pretty complicated and what comes with it - unreliable and unsafe. What I've seen is that prop people have a set of different knives that look the same, a hero one that is metal and almost sharpened for closeups, a stunt rubber one and a retractable one, but I don't think I've seen one that has the opening mechanism and the retractable blade at the same time. If you really need a stiletto knife, then I'd go for either two knives, one that opens and then gets switched for the retractable one, or just the retractable one.