Benchmade plans to reintroduce the Bali Song line

What Benchmade had told me was that the same thing that's been said about the low quality due to old tooling . . .

But also, Benchmade said that Balisong sales weren't that good at all (ie. not enough to justify new tooling) until they told everyone they were discontinuing the line.

Bernie
 
Please keep in mind that Bali Song Cutlery started out as a classic garage shop with a few guys making the knives they wanted to make. And if anyone wanted to buy them, well that would be ok.

Today, Benchmade is a large company, a major Oregon employeer, and has several hundred employees. There are children who depend on Benchmade for food and new shoes.

Benchmade's managment has a serious responsibility to its employees and to their families to wisely invest the company's money in new products that will keep those paychecks rolling. It's no longer a matter of what one person wants.

Personally, I don't want a new Bali Song if it's gonna jeopardize someone's job. I know what it's like to loose a job because managment made stupid decisions. I've also watched friends of mine clean out their desks not because of anything they did wrong, but because managment squandered the company's resources. I've litterally cried thinking, "what is he gonna tell his wife and kids tonight?"

The love of Bali Songs goes all the way to the top at Benchmade. I know that the decision to discontinue them was difficult and not what Benchmade's management personally wanted to do. It's a sign of great maturity that they were able to set aside their personal feelings and make what was, I'm sure, a difficult decision.

We can be thankful that Benchmade's managment has now found a way to bring back our special favorites and still remain responsible to their employees. Where there's a will, there's usually a way.

Chuck
 
Hi, chizpuf

I've believed there is nobody else to play with a stapler as an alternative balisong.
If you don't fint a leatherman, a stapler gives a fun in circling left/right, and finger-twirling. When you circle the stapler, start from stretched (open) position and you'll have full 360' turn!

One major advantage of a stapler over a leatherman PST is, no sheeple fear a stapler-nut.


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\(^o^)/ Mizutani Satoshi \(^o^)/
 
I can't wait to be able to get quality Bali-songs again without paying a fortune. The collection can continue!
 
A Cautionary Marketing Note:

I hope that the manufacturers of the Advanced Folding Camp Knife will introduce the New Butterfly Knife as a super-strong, super-useful folding knife with the strength of a fixed blade, suitable for the hard-core trout fisherman, warehouseman, or florist, with nary a word about Filipine martial arts technique or doing helicopter impressions. It's an upscale version of that plastic-handled Finnish fishing knife, isn't it?

"Knife people" already know about that side of the Balisong, and will share advanced techniques and band-aid stories among themselves. There is no need to go about scaring the non-knife people. Not if we want to see it stay in the market.

For an example of how to introduce a new snappy knife mechanism to the market, see the Kershaw-Onion Speed-Safe. That thing is close enough to being a "switchblade" that a hostile DA would want to see what a judge has to say about it, if it came to his attention as a "fighting knife." But Kershaw has introduced it as the relentlessly utilitarian "Random Task" and "Mini Task" to avoid stampeding the sheeple.

Let's not stampede the sheeple.


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- JKM
www.chaicutlery.com
AKTI Member # SA00001
 
Mr. Mattis is, of course, absolutely correct. I like the part about florists, especially. You know, the Weehawk IS the perfect blade profile for flower arranging.
wink.gif
. I'm sure that Benchmade, the makers of the Advanced Folding Camp Knife, will be sensitive to this.

The Bali Song isn't really taught much in FMA these days. Today's tactical folders are so much more practical. The Rekat Escalator, IMHO, obsoletes the Bali Song as a weapon.

Just the other day, I saw a news article reporting a knife attack using a butterfly knife, the first I've seen in years... in Japan. Here in the US, the only place people get attacked with butterflies is in the movies. When was the last time you heard of a "drive by knifing" anyway?

In Portland, Oregon last year, there were over a hundred shootings, but only one knifing (and there was some question about it being a self-defense situation).

Unfortunately, most people believe what the media tells them, not what the facts indicate.

Chuck
 
Hmmmmm......lets see if I got this right. Put a wolf in sheeps clothing, and tell the "sheeple" it's a cute, cuddly, kitten...... Yeah, that'll work.

new ad:
"New improved diaper remover. Simple one handed operation. Never again be bothered with those stubborn tapes. And the fun clicking noise will keep your infant smiling for hours! No nursery should be without it!"

I have a better chance of walking down the street with an AK-47, telling people it's a nail gun.

The "sheeple" may be totaly misguided, but their not all stupid!

A Balisong is a Balisong gentelmen, that has been decided for us by the sheeple..... and I don't see THEM forgetting THAT in the near future.

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Clay G.
www.balisongxtreme.com


 
No, I don't expect the sheeple to forget that quickly. But why write their propaganda for them?

Now the fact is that the most popular "fighting knife" in America is the Kitchen Knife. How about a book and video on home defense with what you can find in the kitchen? Maybe letting the public get wind of that would show the futility of trying to ban Things That Can Hurt People.


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- JKM
www.chaicutlery.com
AKTI Member # SA00001
 
The last time I really cut myself badly (I, the Balisong collector), was with a potato peeler. That thing just peeled off the top of my thumb. Worse than any butterfly has ever bit me.

I'm always amazed that knives are something most everyone uses every day. Yet people are more terrified by knives than by guns.

Next time you go to rent a video, walk through the "Action Adventure" section and just look at the pictures on the cover. Every other one shows the hero holding a gun, usually with his finger on the trigger and the gun pointing up held right next to his temple. It's amazing that we've only had one actor killed by a gun on a movie set recently.

Now, walk through the "Horror" section. On every other cover, you'll see a picture of the anti-hero holding some sort of edged weapon, often a large knife in reverse-grip high over his head as if to say, "Disarm me, please."

Guns are for adventure and for heros. Knives are for terror.

Just about everyone in this world has been cut by a knife at one time or another. Usually, it was self-inflicted. Usually, it was very minor. But, you know what? It hurt! And it bled. And it took a week or two to heal. Cuts hurt.

Very few people have had a first-hand experience with a bullet in flight. But, I saw a thing the other day estimating that by the time the average American reaches age 18, he's seen 30,000 shootings, most of them up-close and personal.... on TV and in the movies, of course.

In the movies, if you're a good guy, you don't get shot -- and if you do, well, it's only a minor flesh wound and it's fine by the last scene where you get the girl anyway. If you're a bad buy, you'll get shot, but it's real quick. You just fall down and that's it... maybe the camera catches a bit of blood, but not to much.

The typical knife scene in a horror film, though, is quite grizzly.

So, people exchange what they know is true, that knives are useful tools, for what the media tells them, knives are instruments of terror.

In American cinema, very few heros use knives. I know of only one popular American movie where the "hero" uses a Balisong (Streets of Fire), and Tom Cody is a rather dark hero. Don't forget, he takes the Balisong from another motorcycle gangster early in the movie.

Fortunately, Benchmade has always portrayed the Bali Song line in a very positive light.

Chuck
 
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