Many balisong/butterfly fans on THR?

[dimasalang]

dimasalang,

I'm glad you put that out there. I've been wondering if it was ok to bring them into the U.S. Seems like you scored. I've been wanting a batangas knife. I'll be traveling there shortly. I want a custom built bali to my specs. Can you recomend any good shops?

Well, when you depart from Manila, the first thing they do is Xray your luggage. After throwing my box on the machine, I looked at the monitor and I saw all of the balisongs easy. I just laughed to myself. The lady and security then looked at me and asked if I had Balisongs and how many? I said yes. Then she asked, "Do you have 5? 5 is the minimum". I said yes, but I really had 15. LOL Security came and took my box over to another counter to be opened. I had so much junk in there, I put the balisongs way at the bottom of my box. After looking through the top layer, the security guy looked at me and said forget it! LOL He just smiled, closed up the box, looked at the other security guys and said "hes ok!" I just have to mention also, they were all very courteous and polite.

As for having one built to your liking, you would have to travel to a shop(actually their house) and ask them to make you one. Im sure any of them would be willing to make you one, but then you also have to consider how long it will take. Ask them for a "biente nueve" style bali, that is the original length(29mm), size, and thickness. The balisongs I purchased were $2-5 each(easy to sell in the states for $30-90 each). You can find Balisongs from Batangas at every mall now, and at some tourist spots like Tagaytay...but that will run you $10-20 each. They may cost more, but it does save you the trip and they are the pick of the litter. It was a whole day trip for me to travel to Taal. Barangay Balisong is not the only place that makes Balisongs..Lemery, Taal, and few other towns have knife houses...very easy to find, just ask around. Taal and Lemery being a 1-2 hour drive from Tagaytay ridge. And when you go there, they will have boxes and boxes of Balisongs...I couldnt believe how many just one house had, literally thousands...all different lengths, thickness, shapes, sizes, inserts, etc... Let me know when you go, or PM. I can tell you more info.

 

[Soap]

I think they look nice.

"The balisong flippy dance thing always seemed pretty cheesy and ridiculous to me, probably with the association with crappy 80s action movies. I never saw the attraction to a knife that needed so much choreography to open with one hand. "


Me too though. Saw Big Trouble in Little China again a couple nights ago and when one of the "Kung Fu" guys was in about the 8th second of his little butterfly thing I thought to myself, I could have stabbed him in every one of his vitals by the time he gets this thing open!

Umm...it doesn't take very long to windmill it open.

 

[pictoblu]

Here ya go:

http://www.balisongxtreme.com/

Probably the best website for butterfly knife technique.

From all accounts, the butterfly knife has origins in France, and was later taken to the Philipines.

Probably the best all around butterfly knife website belongs to Chuck Gollnick, but can't remember it at this time. Earlier in this thread someone brought up the bladeforums.com butterfly knife forum. Chuck is there and you can get to his website from there.

It don't mean a thing, if it ain't got that swing. Yep, that's what Mr. Gollnick says and he's right on with that.

 

[dimasalang]

"The balisong flippy dance thing always seemed pretty cheesy and ridiculous to me, probably with the association with crappy 80s action movies. I never saw the attraction to a knife that needed so much choreography to open with one hand. "


Me too though. Saw Big Trouble in Little China again a couple nights ago and when one of the "Kung Fu" guys was in about the 8th second of his little butterfly thing I thought to myself, I could have stabbed him in every one of his vitals by the time he gets this thing open!

HAHA. In a real knife fight nobodys going to twirl 20 times to get their knives open. I can get my balisong open with one flip in a mill-second. All that fancy stuff is just for show and fun...which is why you see balisongs being flipped in movies.

From all accounts, the butterfly knife has origins in France, and was later taken to the Philipines.

Probably the best all around butterfly knife website belongs to Chuck Gollnick, but can't remember it at this time. Earlier in this thread someone brought up the bladeforums.com butterfly knife forum. Chuck is there and you can get to his website from there.

It don't mean a thing, if it ain't got that swing. Yep, that's what Mr. Gollnick says and he's right on with that.

I believe the butterfly knife had origins in France as well, but I also believe it was the Filipinos that took the concept a step further. Who in France or Europe kept the idea of the butterfly knife going?..no one. If it werent for the Philippine Balisong, the butterfly concept would of been lost forever and extinct by now.

This is Chucks website. Some timeless pieces on his site.
http://www.balisongcollector.com/