Texas decision against assisted opening knives

[C-dub]

Is the butterfly knife "Balisong" are illegal too?

I could be wrong, but I thought the "butterfly" style knifes were always illegal. Aren't they all or most of them double edged? Is yours?

[Skiprr]

Balisong knives are not necessarily double-edged. In fact, only a minority are. However, they are illegal.

Technically, they have never been "butterfly" knives. That term was first used decades ago for the Chinese shuang dao, a short (9" to 10"), wide-bladed sword with a full-hilt ring, and that is most often used in pairs. The term "butterfly" came about because the swords' short length and hilt rings allowed them to be wielded at great speed, in a flurry, around the body.

The balisong is a relatively recent design, supposedly originating in the far-south of the major island of Luzon, Philippines. The origin of the name is the Filipino term "baling sungay": broken horn. Originally, two pieces of Caribou horn or Philippine mahogany were formed so that they hinged a blade at the bottom, and folded around the blade to secure and lock it. Somehow, in the West, it came to be called a butterfly knife because of that two-part, folding sheath.

When I lived in the Philippines many years ago, virtually everyone I knew had a balisong. It was the de facto pocket knife. I had a reasonable collection at one time.

When I say it is a "relatively recent" design, I specifically mean that it is a recent--and IMHO questionable--addition to the native Filipino martial art of arnis. Many traditional Filipino martial arts instructors will not consider the balisong part of their syllabus.

Even in Mindinao where Indonesian Silat blade forms were more prevalent, or in the Visayas where some notable short-blade fighting techniques originated, the balisong didn't hit the charts until the 20th century...my guess is before/around WWII.

The allure of the balisong (except for those folks who actually use it as a functional pocket knife to open boxes or cut string) is that you can get creative with flipping it up, down, around, open, and closed. That's nothing more than a 1950s Western movie star spinning his revolvers all over the place to show how cool he is.

It's pointless, it's potentially dangerous, and it ain't gonna do nuthin' to stop a bad guy.

In my opinon, the balisong design is inferior to the modern spring-assist folders we have at our disposal today. Very much so: both in speed of deployment and in structural integrity.

[XtremHunter]

when it is gonna be legal?

[Skiprr]

when it is gonna be legal?

When is what gonna be legal?

[The Annoyed Man]

when it is gonna be legal?

When is what gonna be legal?

You know.... IT.

The allure of the balisong (except for those folks who actually use it as a functional pocket knife to open boxes or cut string) is that you can get creative with flipping it up, down, around, open, and closed. That's nothing more than a 1950s Western movie star spinning his revolvers all over the place to show how cool he is.

It's pointless, it's potentially dangerous, and it ain't gonna do nuthin' to stop a bad guy.

In my opinon, the balisong design is inferior to the modern spring-assist folders we have at our disposal today. Very much so: both in speed of deployment and in structural integrity.

This is exactly my impression of it, and I am not even that knowledgeable about knives. I have a few. I know what I like. I'm no knife historian, nor am I any kind of a knife fighter. But I do know that anytime I see somebody showing off with a balisong, I am reminded of that scene from the first Indiana Jones movie - the one where the huge guy in the black turban and robe challenges Indiana Jones by flashing all of his cool ninja sword moves, and Jones just pulls out his pistol and shoots him because he doesn't have time for this kind of crap.

That's what the balisong reminds me of. But try explaining this to your teenaged son. It's an exercise in futility. He has to get his own gun before he understands. I am very respectful of the knife as an offensive weapon. Like I said above, I don't know much about how to use one, but I'm smart enough to know that someone else might know how to, and I worked in an ER long enough to see what a knife can do. It ain't pretty. But when I look at a knife that requires you to do a song and dance and pass the hat for tips just to get it deployed, and I compare that to the simple speed of getting any one of a hundred different other kinds of knives into play, and the balisong seems like a pretty useless design to me, and I don't blame masters of the phillippine martial arts for looking down their noses at it.

[KD5NRH]

But when I look at a knife that requires you to do a song and dance and pass the hat for tips just to get it deployed, and I compare that to the simple speed of getting any one of a hundred different other kinds of knives into play, and the balisong seems like a pretty useless design to me, and I don't blame masters of the phillippine martial arts for looking down their noses at it.

It's no more necessary to the deployment of the balisong than this is necessary to the deployment of a rifle. A simple single flip will get the blade out and ready pretty quickly.