Bargain Balisong

i'm expecting a package in the mail any day now; it's an M Tech Twist, which is a balisong designed and licensed by Darrel Ralph, a noted knife maker. i've handled Benchmades and Spyderco, and own ones from Bear and Jaguar. anyone ever handle one of the M Tech balis? i want to know if the quality is there to use it as an EDC piece, and for regular flipping.

Is EDC legal where you live for Bali's?

Sorry I don't have anything to comment on the M-tech; I'd have a Benchmade or Spyderco in a split second though....

The M Tech has the "loosening screws" problem, but those can be re-tightened. I picked up a Jaguar Classic recently (review here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddF-zmQWpnk)) that's not bad for practice and has a very sharp blade. Good lockup and zero play.

We get M-Tech knives quite often, once you put a little locktite on the screws, they really are very good knives for the price. Pretty stylin too.

knife laws in PA are fuzzy; there's no preemption, so different towns can pass their own laws on what's legal to carry. i admittedly don't know about my town, but as far as the state is concerned, balisongs are legal to own, as per Commonwealth vs. Miles. i don't ever carry a knife openly, and for the most part, if you carry a gun, LEO won't hassle you over a knife, unless you live in Philly, where it's illegal to carry a knife unless it's for work, and you're travelling to and from work while you have it.

Bargain/Cheap knives.

My pal Glenn just did a mini-review of the MTech's ---- so good of reviews , I just bought one for $23 shipped !!!

BTW --- I own BMs , FHMs , custom R. Turnbulls , and Robbie Dalton's along with a bunch of cheap flippers ---- for around $25 the MTechs are very hard to beat !!!

Here is a link;
http://www.jerzeedevil.com/forums/showthread.php?t=77562

PS --- look for the review I did of the Dalton Bali.

EDIT --- my screen name over there is DaBird

well, it's been about 2 months since i got the knife, and overall, i'm not happy with it.

i have two problems with this knife. one is a small one, and barely worth mentioning: the latch. it has some play, and there's no latch gate, so it can come into contact with the blade edge during flipping. not a big deal, just an oversight on the part of the designer.

the other problem is HUGE, at least to me: cheap, piece of crap pivot screws. so far, i've lost one, and had to cannibalize pivot screws from a $10 flea market balisong, which i actually like better. the stock screws came loose over and over again, and eventually got stripped to the point where the threads were totally gone. right now, the Twist is sitting in its box, until i can get to Home Depot to try and get lucky in finding a screw that will fit.

i liked the action on it, and it's weight and balance, and it held a took and held a good edge. i have a Kimura II, and i don't like it as much, to be honest. but the pivot screw situation is irritating. i wanted the Twist to be my EDC, but it looks like that won't happen.

i'll just carry the Kimura until my BM Model 51 gets here this week. if i like it enough, i'll buy another, one for for EDC, and one for saving.

I'll buy your Twist for cheap ---- there is a cure for the latch -- let me know if you wanna sell it.

red loctite will stop that loosening PERMANENTLY

I will say from having handled a few Mtechs that people had carried (not balisongs) for a while and used lightly, they seem to come with an excellent edge, better than most higher end manufacturers. I don't know what kind of use the ones I ran across had actually seen, probably box and string duty, but they held it, too.