What sound do Wolverine's claws make?

Cafe Society
1

It’s one of the most iconic onomatothingy effects in all of comics. The SNIKT. Everyone knows what it means. But what does it really sound like?

Me, personally, I’ve always mentally pronounced it SHNIKT, because a SH-soun seems more appropriate for metal slicing through skin at sped. To me.

At least that’s what I always hear. o_O

2

Something like this.

3

I think SHING is better.

4

I remain unconvinced. The SHING to me is too much like a sword being drawn, whereas the SNIKT is faster, more like a spring-loaded blade, with the KT lending weight to the fact that claws have been shot to full length. Sort of.

Plus, who do film-makers and FX guys think they are to mess with something this iconic?

5

Growing up the 1992 animated series, I always think of them as sounding like the stereotypical movie sword unsheathing (which doesn’t sound like that in reality, but you’d recognize that SHRRRING! sound anywhere). Doesn’t really go with what I would read a SNIKT as sounding like, but it took me far too many years to realize that.

6

Spot-on. Too me, it should sound like the sound of a switch blade, only with a slightly wet sound at the beginning S, for obvious reasons.

7

Right. The KT part is important, exactly like the sound of a switchblade or a bolt being shot on a big door. I also feel that using the SN instead of an SH somehow vividly implies the slicing of the skin involved.

And I never realized until this moment that I had strong feelings about this one way or another.

8

Yep. In my mind, it’s always been a switchblade sound.

9

I’ve always like the sound in this video (blood and language NSFW)