Hey there, we're doing Arsenic and Old Lace and the director has decided that Jonathan needs to have a realistic-looking knife to flash around.

The knife doesn't need to actually cut anything, it just has to look real/scary/etc etc.

Seeing as it's high school, our producer is extremely loathe to let us use a real knife. I've scoured everywhere for fake knives that look realistic but have come up with nothing. Any ideas?

(I know that using a real knife and dulling the blade is a solution, and that is what I personally would like to do, but with laws being what they are in schools that's not possible)

Much thanks, Jesse

For a ?Stiletto? {Flick or switch blade knife] We purchased a novelty comb, which was in the form of a ?Switch blade knife? & replaced the plastic comb blade, with a rigid piece plastic of plastic, & sprayed it chrome using an auto chromium spray can. It did look real & the flick switch worked surpassingly well.

Chookas

Get a knife from a toy shop and then paint it dull silver if it looks too plastic. Some books say you can add black or a metallic dark colour to add in a shadow. But just chrome/dull silver would do.

We got a carpenter to make a set of three wooden knives based on a sketch and we painted those which looked quite alright. They were daggers for Macbeth. One was bloodied in advance.

Real knives, I think, like fire should be avoided on stage. And quite agree, whether or not they are dangerous, prop weapons should be treated as if they were the real thing.

Edited by eagle

When we did Arsenic, Jonathan was played by a doctor who came up with all sorts of horrible looking instruments none of which were knives.  After he lit the candles, he took the items out of his bag one at a time and showed each one to Mortimer so the audience could see them.  We left it to the audience to imagine what he was going to do with each.  It worked for us.