Balisong by Fred Perrin

[Nemo]

Bonjour,

Fred Perrin uses and makes a lot of Balisongs. It's a locking folder of quality. Easy to clean and with simple mechanism. And seeing Fred jungling with his balisongs is really impressive !

Now in France a lot of fishermen has adopted balisongs (actually cheap German bali's) as their EDF (every day fishing) knife.

Balisongs or Couteaux Papillon in France are used since a very long time.
Now it's current to say they are Filipino knives…
And some even say it's antique knives.
We would like to understand how people who could have and a carry fixed blades have invented folders instead

We think the Butterfly knives have not been invented in the Philipinnes !
In fact you can find Balisong in the Philipinnes since the 1920.
Because Manilla is a harbour. And the sailor used Butterfly knives made in Germany, France and the US.
Then Filipinos people has developped technics and made their own.
The utility of that knife is to be concealed. And the Boom was during WW2 when knives were prohibited.

There is three big production center in the Philipines Manilla Batanga and Balisong.
Balisong come from broken horn, but again, there is many books around that nmae (Imada or Coco Hernandez)

In 1904 in US Billing and Spencer has patented the Butterfly knife but it was allready patented since 1872 !!!
This is the first trace of Balisong in the USA.
You see how old is it !

In Europe… In France and Germany many brend were allready making Balisong.
The first trace has been found in 1780 in France with a knife called "Le Pied DU Roy". (The King's foot)
Circa 1800 the butterfly knives were common.
It's easy to find some butterflies from that time. They were made in Paris and Thier (Center of France). There is a beautiful collection of that old Butterfly Knives in the Thiers Museum.

You will notice in Thier Museum, "Le Pied Du Roy" like many old Butterfly got gradued handles à la Leatherman !!
French Army troop have been provided with a Butterfly Knife but after WW2 there is no more traces of Butterflies made by brend.
It was a question of fashion in Europe.
Fashion…

Now what you need to see in Butterfly design:
It's a folder with reliability.
You can have double edge blade… the combinaison are infinite.
The Butterfly is reallly solid and if you know isostatism, the three points of locking are centered.

Also the easy one hand openings and closing made it a great tool.
Easy maintenance: no springs !

Closed it's a yawara. Half opened it's a flail.
And it's really fun to play with and you make auto training and develop your feeling.
The more you play with it the more you develop a close relation ship with your tool.

Fred got very old Balisong in his collection like
this two tools who has been displayed for the Universal Exposition at the end of the 19th century.
The inventor is mr Gadget (that where the name come from…)
We think the butterfly knives has been a real hype in 1900 after the Exposition


Another balisong is a 19th century knife (circa 1880) made in Germany by BOTENGEN and SABIN.
3 inches carbon steel blade of course. The handle are in silver nickel and wood.
Its really well made! Excellent ! We don't know modern balisong made with that excellence unless expensive customs.
We find in their catalog these knives called "Springless Marvel) also Yatagan Blades.
In that time the Balisong were produced in good quantity and also exported because of their quality.
Looking at the quality at the pins at the axes. No glue were used !

Another one is a Butterfly knife from WWI. It was a reglementary and regular knife in the french forces .
It has been made in Thier (by Deluc Ets) the handles are folded steel and the blade is carbon steel.
There is an hard chrom finish. You can notice there is a guard on the blade. And when closed the tang is a screwdriver…


My own knife made by Fred Perrin.
The blade is 4 inches CPMT440V chisel ground tanto bowie.
The handle in titanium sandwich construction.
We have made a flip flap sheath in leather with low profile look.
It's look like a speed loader for gun.

I use it since 1996 and it is one of the rare folder I got which has always performed perfectly while working in the mud.

I have made digital pictures of the old bali's, I can send it to you if you want.

cheers

JM

[Sal Glesser]

Hi Nemo. Thanx for the history lesson. Good information. I have some old balisongs, but the oldest is one that Fred gave to me a while ago. It is made with a leather latch. Chuck Gollnick has given lectures on balisongs dating them back to France and England int the 1700's. He says it was the French, British and American soldiers that first brought them to the Philipines.

I would love to see the pics you have of old butterfly's. Maybe it's time to visit Thiers?

sal

[oliverplomion]

Salut Nemo!
Super! alors on a inventé ca aussi!!! Do you know if Isidore from Armes Bastilles is going to get some of them? or do I have to call Fred?
Thanks for this very instructive thread!Tu peux m'envoyer quelques photos? Merci!

[roloss_valdes]

Nemo, please send me the pics....

roloss_valdes@hotmail.com

excelent review.

[Hawaiian]

Interesting post Nemo, thanks. Chuck has a good history of the balisong on his site that you might enjoy. http://www.balisongcollector.com/history.html

[French Kiss]

Salut Nemo,

It's a well known fact: french people have always had great ideas but not enough talent to sell them... too bad huh?
It's the spear point's position: l'avant garde

Very interesting history lesson, passe le bonjour a Fred!

--Xavier.

[thombrogan]

JM,

Could you send one of these digital pictures to me?

Many thanks in advance,

Thom

[Nemo]

Sorry,

i have been away from some weeks.

Olive, I think Isidore can have easily some Bali's.

Thom I am sending a picture to you !

cheers

JM

[thombrogan]

Thank you, JM!