this is my 6th balisong (bm 43) the first, a china cheapy, my dad borrowed and "lost". second and third i got from korea. i traded one of those away, a peice of crap chrome dragon one but i loved the other one though it was a china cheapy it had great handles and i've never another. I broke the handles on that then got one of equal quality from my bro. that was my 4th. I lost that when i was rather intoxicated one night. I was then out of a bali and going through withdrawl. I would oft wake up in the middle of the night in a sweat chanting balisong. anyways i got a p.o.s. kriss from knifezilla and had a good time with that for bout a month and a half till i decided it was time to upgrade to a bm43 that was bout 2 weeks ago and i got the bm a week ago and love it. I would love to hear your guys stories about how you got into the bali world and your first balis and second balis and so on.
Your first balisong / balisongs
- Thread starter chris_64
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My first was in 1979, after reading an article on Bali's in SOF (earlier thread, search under "balisong bug"). I proceeded down to the Chinatown martial arts store on Canal St. (because they're just so strict about selling knives to anyone under 18, NOT) and picked up an Utility bladed/brass handles Valor. Went home and promptly closed the blade on my fingers (this was before Jeff Imada's book, and before Clay's site.) Took the blade to the Arkansas stone and stripped the edge off. After about a week of playing around (hey, it's only two fulcroms) and found a few moves that allowed me to open and closed it rather quickly, I went back and got an identical one as my second. Went through some Parker-Taylors, some Compass Industries, and some FHM's from Gutmann (say about 15 or so) in the next 2 to 3 years. Broke down in Christmas 1981 and ordered a PCC (B-S,U) Utility blade with aluminum handles as a present for myself, at a price of $169~ (mucho steep for a high school student on minimum wage.) Good thing too, as I've been hooked on them since. Gone through about 18 BM Customs since them. Of course, let's not talk about recent aquisitions, please....
Dawkind
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I read the same article Tony and a bunch of other people read. I proceeded to find, several years later at a gun show here in Topeka, an early Bali-Song USA custom drop-point utility 4" with burgundy/black stripe micarta inserts in stainless handles, in the original Cocoon sheath. I still have it and it happened to be the one I was wearing in KC at the national NRA convention when I ran into Les and Travis at the BM exhibit.......Les liked it!
My first bali is the drop-point utility above the reverse-curve and clip-point utilities.........
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Hey Dawkind, from those pictures I can tell that the only one to see much use is the drop-point. It's the only one with the tell-tale markings on the tang area. I've got a B-S C Weehawk with that burgundy/black stripe micarta. The stuff looks brown at times but "I KNOW" its the burgundy/black.
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i don't remember the first time i saw a bali, but i think i was pretty young, and i didn't give it much thought. it's the last two years or something i've really gotten into this.
my brother had a bali (probably a cheapy), old one with wooden inserts. i remember i've tried it a bit before (like i saw a cop demonstrating it at tv sometime, related to a big knife bust), but what really made me interested, was when i and a friend of mine pulled it out again, and he showed me a couple of tricks (the standard vertical opening, and the latch drop). so then i had to find out more about this wonder of a knife. i searched the internet for butterfly knives, found some webpages, found out that they were also called balisong, so i did a search on that instead, and found clay's site (thanx a lot, clay!). my dream had come true. i started working on the flips there, and i didn't have to wait long before i could impress my friends with new tricks.
i recalled a friend of mine had bought a bali when he was in spain or something. i talked to him, and decided to buy it, for about $12. i understood later that it was a really good buy, since it was a goddamn cc (cheap chineese). but what ever, it didn't last very long before one of the handles broke, and i was back to my brother's one.
i found knifezilla, and bought a jag. i had it a while, and loved it (at least it was solid!), but then i lost it in customs between norway & sweeden (stupid me had to carry it through )
so now i'm back with the wodden inserts one. i'm thinking of getting a bm43 or 42 or 47 or maybe all, but since balis are illegal in norway, i'm thinking of getting a 'collecting-permission', or at least try.
phew! there ya go, that's my balisong story.
my brother had a bali (probably a cheapy), old one with wooden inserts. i remember i've tried it a bit before (like i saw a cop demonstrating it at tv sometime, related to a big knife bust), but what really made me interested, was when i and a friend of mine pulled it out again, and he showed me a couple of tricks (the standard vertical opening, and the latch drop). so then i had to find out more about this wonder of a knife. i searched the internet for butterfly knives, found some webpages, found out that they were also called balisong, so i did a search on that instead, and found clay's site (thanx a lot, clay!). my dream had come true. i started working on the flips there, and i didn't have to wait long before i could impress my friends with new tricks.
i recalled a friend of mine had bought a bali when he was in spain or something. i talked to him, and decided to buy it, for about $12. i understood later that it was a really good buy, since it was a goddamn cc (cheap chineese). but what ever, it didn't last very long before one of the handles broke, and i was back to my brother's one.
i found knifezilla, and bought a jag. i had it a while, and loved it (at least it was solid!), but then i lost it in customs between norway & sweeden (stupid me had to carry it through
)so now i'm back with the wodden inserts one. i'm thinking of getting a bm43 or 42 or 47 or maybe all, but since balis are illegal in norway, i'm thinking of getting a 'collecting-permission', or at least try.
phew! there ya go, that's my balisong story.