Follow me and we’ll jump down the rabbit hole of Italian switchblades, specifically Frank Beltrame.
First, the disclaimer. Knife companies change names and tang stamps like crazy. It can be fun for active collectors trying to get all the variations, but it’s hell for someone with a single knife wondering who, what, when, and the big F. Yeah, is it a fake?
I’m trying to just give you a family rundown of who is involved with Beltrame switchblades. The best source I’ve found is http://stiletto-italiano.com/eng/beltramefamily.htm. In fact, everyone seems to be copying from this.
I prefer the term switchblade for the classic Italian automatic knife. Other people may make autos, but for me, switchblades come from Italy, probably Maniago, Italy.
It starts following World War II. Vittorio Beltrame starts a knife company called Beltrame Vittorio & Figli Company. Vittorio has four boys and three daughters. The boys are Carlo, Danilo, Luciano and Ivano and they come to work for Vittori. The daughters, I assume, are married off. They used several different tang stamps, but only the switchblades were stamped BV&F.
Frank is a Staff Correspondent at KNIFE, and The Knife Edge is his personal blog. This is a great article, and could have probably been worthy of print publication.