Lile The Mission: The Origin of the Movie Knife
by Greg Foster
Following the success of the film “Rambo: First Blood,” a sequel, “Rambo: First Blood Part 2,” was immediately commissioned and released in theaters in 1985.
Sylvester Stallone needed another survival knife for the film, so he renewed his verbal agreement with Jimmy Lile, who designed nine prototypes in 1984 and sent them to Stallone for approval.
The prototypes featured several unique characteristics.
Stallone preferred knife number 9, so the knives in the film were modeled after it.
The knife had a 25 cm blade made of 440C stainless steel, matte black with polished edges and 14 teeth on the spine (9 split teeth and 5 raking teeth).
The blade was 5 cm wide, and the knife was 38 cm long overall.
The matte black guard was made of 440 stainless steel with screwdriver-style ends, like the knife from “First Blood.”
The handle was made of 304 stainless steel and was wrapped with black nylon fishing line.
The aluminum pommel featured an O-ring and a brass bushing, just like the original knife.
The knives used in the film were equipped with 10- to 12-ounce military-style full-grain black cowhide sheaths featuring an M EZ diamond sharpener on the front.
The sheaths were manufactured by Johnson Sheathed.
There were 10 numbered knives, numbered 1 of 10 through 10 of 10.
Greg Foster
Rambo collector from Australia
