CRKT Balis?

Has anyone approched Columbia River about making a balisong? I was thinking the other day, "What happened to all of the companies from 10 or 15 years ago that made good balis for reasonable prices?" I see all of the balis in people collections that look amazing and hear "I only paid $20 for it and it still locks up tight" or some such. Why don't we have anyone making these anymore? And what can we do about it?

I don't have a job right now so I can't afford $120 and up for a knife. I only got my 42 because my father bribed me with it. And I know there's a lot of guys out there who have too many bills to pay for an expensive bali. So I also know that there would be a big market for a mid-priced, decent balisong. And due to CRKT's reputation of providing fairly impresive knives at good prices, I think they would be the ones to accomplish this.

In my mind is a vision of a stainless steel handled bali with a weehawk blade that you would not be afraid to use every day for fear of losing or wearing it out. And most importantly a $50 price-tag (or somewhere aroung there). Or possibly a delux model, still SS handled, but with hard wood or micarta inserts. I also don't believe that the blade steel matters much. I, for one, don't use my bali's blade much at all. That's not the reason most people have them. I'd say that 50% of bali owners don't even use the blade often enough to dull it. I think a blade of AUS-8 or even 420hc would be fine for a blade that's likely to be droped more than once. And you steel snobs out there keep your mouth shut. Steel is steel is steel. It all cuts if you take care of it.

OK, down off my soap-box. Wht do you all think?
 
GuyInBlack

GuyInBlack

Joined
Feb 19, 2001
Messages
285
Personally speaking I'm really happy with all my CRKT kinves, so I'd be well happy if they did start producing balis. I'd buy one (or maybe 2) for sure if they were around $50!
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Thats definitely a great idea, but I think they're a little "gun shy" right now.

Remember, it wasn't too long ago that they had a shipment detained by customs.

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Clay
www.balisongxtreme.com
Because......
getting 'em open
is half the fun!
 
It would be great to have another player in the Balisong market. CRKT would be a great player in this field since they offer lots of great designs at very reasonable prices.
It would certainly be nice to see some balis in the $50 price range with a wider selection of blades and handle styles.
Assuming they get past the import restrictions, what would it take to get CRKT to commit to this?
 
You will not see a CRKT Bali-Song, trust me
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To many import issues right now as was mentioned above.

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CRKT is headquartered in Wilsonville, Oregon. For those of you who haven't studied that part of the map recently, Wilsonville is the southern-most suburb of Portland on the east side of interstate highway five. Sherwood, where I live, is the southern-most suburb on the west side of the highway. My gym is in Wilsonville and I drive right past CRKT's offices to get there. I can assure you that there's no factory there. It's just wearhouse and offices. They import everything they sell.

It's also important to know that CRKT has a very strained relationship with US Customs. The Portland Customs House would like nothing more than to bust CRKT on something that would stick in court. Surely Customs opens every tiny package bound for CRKT and inspects it with a fine-toothed comb.

No, CRKT ain't gonna touch a balisong with a ten-foot pole.

Now, were I CRKT, I'd have one of my overseas friends draft up some blueprints of a balisong and machine up some prototypes of handles, no blades and nothing assembled, just machined handle parts. Nothing illegal about this. Then have 'em put those prints and those parts in an oversized box with lots of curls and send it over. Include an unsealed letter saying, "Here are the prints and first prototypes of the 'secret project' you asked us to send you. Sorry for the misunderstandings. We understand the changes you want. We will make the changes you requested in our phone call. As we discussed, first production pieces will be sent the other way."

The "truth" is that the "secret project" is actually a conventional gentleman's pocket knife with a 1" blade, but there was a miscommunication. The vendor thought CRKT said balisong... bad phone connection, the language barrier... nudge, nudge, wink, wink. Now, CRKT wants the blueprints and prototype parts that were already made so that they can destroy them themselves and completely elliminate any trace that they every considered trying to import a balisong. "First production pieces will be sent the other way," doesn't mean that they'll be shipped differently to evade customs, it means that they'll be gentleman's folders, not balisongs. Of course, CRKT can't be responsible if Customs jumps to their own conclusion and goes mad trying to find "the other way" and intercept the "secret project" balisongs.

It's just a though.

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Chuck
Balisongs -- because it don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing!
http://www.balisongcollector.com
 
I don't know about his whole CRKT thing...I have a horrible picture of them making a balisong similar to their KISS and PECK models
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Hmmm, yeah I hadn't considered the import issues. But the need for a decent bali at a fair price is definately out there. If CRKT can not (or will not) give it a go, who do you guys think will? I assume they would have to have factories in the US to avoid customs issues. They would also have to be a company with a rep for delivering a good knife at a low price. Camillus?
 
I wonder if SOG could be convinced to make one. They make decent knives at a reasonable price.
 
Or perhaps I'm attacking this at the wrong angle. Maybe instead of bringing a new player into the balisong market we should work with what we've currently got. Bear for instance. Has anyone tried to convince them to change their handle material? If they used steel for their handles it would likely dramatically increase thier sturdiness. Or maybe we could just get them to make a different bali. They sell like 10 models and those are all variations on (IMHO) a craptacular design. I say Bear MGC because Jag's are made in Taiwan and their makers are probably less likely to care for our input.
 
Hmm..I don't even know which makers are still around.The ones I remember that made some decent balisongs for decent prices were: Taylor/Seto, Valor, Frost, Parker, Compass Industries and Pacific ( now Benchmade), and a few lesser knowns like Royal Cutlery and Gutmann.
Almost all of the other knives were really cheap & crappy copies of better ones,which were made by Taiwan companies.
I'd really love to have some of the old blades made by the old companies...but right now I'll just deal with some of the better made cheapies I can get...until I get some money rolling in again.


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*The* Lunatic Puppy
It wasn't me...It was my *good* twin..
My "inner puppy" made me do it..
 
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