The Korizzy is another iconic and popular vintage switchblade knife. Just like the Japanese Rizzuto Estileto Milano, it was often the first automatic knife many had. The Korizzy is often called a clone of the classic Rizzuto. It did have some characteristics which made their models distinct.
The Korizzy was made by the Bell Metal Industrial Co. Bell was founded in 1954 and somewhere around the early 80s, they began producing their switchblade knives. There are two primary builds of the Korizzy, which are highly collectible and enjoyed today.
Textured Handle Style
This is often the knife people think about when it comes to Korizzys. Different from the Japanese Rizzuto is its black textured acrylic handle. This handle material seems to hold up better than the smooth Japanese Rizzuto and are often found without cracks or pieces missing.
This flavor of Korrizy always had a flat grind blade and the firing button had a flat top. Like the Japanese Rizzy, these had a bale but it was always smooth and not filigreed. The swing guard was patterned after the standard rizzy rounded variety. The word Korea was often stamped on the guard.
These came in 9 and 11 inch overall lengths. In the 80s, The Edge Co imported and marketed this style of Korizzy. The 9 inch is most commonly seen with the 11 inch being much more rare. The Korizzy came with a peek guard liner, which is one of the easiest ways to identify a Korean made switchblade.
Smooth Handle Style
This model is much more like the Japanese Rizzuto, but still with some characteristics unique to Korean builds, particularly the presence of the peek guard and smooth bale.
These were made with a bayonet blade and smooth acrylic handles like the Japanese Rizzuto. The smooth Korean handles also seem to be of better quality and thickness than the Japanese knives as breakage and cracks are less often seen. The safety slide on these is oddly made without a button and operating it often resulted in scratches where a user tried to move it with their finger nail or other object.
The 9 inch overall length was standard on this model of Korizzy.
What To Look For
These knives fire nice and hard with good operation. The 11 inch textured handle knives are the hardest to find. The blades are usually stamped with stainless steel on both varieties. Sometimes they are found with Rostfrie instead which is more rare. Bell had a logo but that was rarely stamped, which makes a knife with this stamp harder to find.