I got this the other day, a real Italian Stiletto. 
A real beauty and well made by a famous knife maker in Italy. I’m thinking of getting another one but with 11" overall/5" blade and yellow/black handle. I’m not going to carry it much as I have an HK Turmoil that’s my EDC.
What are you gonna use it for?
Nothing really. It’s for admiring and show off to friends. I already have an EDC knife.
I like knives. This summer I was fortunate enough to forge my own blade! I have a friend who’s a blacksmith. Next he’s gonna teach me how to make a kitchen knife.
I like to collect knives. Got quite a few already. 
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Why do you need a kitchen knife when you have a stiletto? Bitch won’t cook, you cut her.
That looks very nice. But it’s thoroughly illegal in the UK.
Wouldn’t a classic Italian stiletto have the blade shoot out from the front, rather than rotate out from the side?
Yeah, isn’t that a switchblade, rather than a stiletto?
Now that’s an interesting question there.
When I was a hoodlum switchblade knives were like $4.95 in any pawnshop. Brass knuckles, blackjacks, Saturday night specials—readily available and dirt cheap. I miss the good old days.
Be very careful. Never try to use that for self defense. Not ever.
The DA will show it to the jury and the jury will never buy that you were an innocent victim of a burglary or a home invasion.
To answer my own question:
According to Wikipedia, the term “stiletto” originally referred to the blade design (long and slender, optimized for thrusting rather than slashing) rather than the opening mechanism. In fact the first stilettos were fixed-blade daggers, rather than folding or switchblade knives.
During the 1950’s, a lot of automatic-opening knives with the same blade shape were imported from Italy to the US, and they were also referred to as stiletto’s. Some of them had telescoping blades, but side-opening mechanisms were also common.
So apparently the answer to my question is: no, it’s the blade shape that makes a knife a stiletto, not the details of the opening mechanism.
