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The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is ready to order! See this thread for details: https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/bladeforums-2024-traditional-knife.2003187/
Price is$300$250 ea (shipped within CONUS). If you live outside the US, I will contact you after your order for extra shipping charges.
Order here: https://www.bladeforums.com/help/2024-traditional/ - Order as many as you like, we have plenty.
Open it
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- Start date
Clay
Balisong forum Moderator
- Joined
- Jul 15, 1999
- Messages
- 871
Check the Beginners page on my site. Thats where all the quick, dependable methods are.
http://www.balisongxtreme.com/baliplanet2/beg.htm
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Clay
www.balisongxtreme.com
Because......
getting 'em open
is half the fun!
http://www.balisongxtreme.com/baliplanet2/beg.htm
------------------
Clay
www.balisongxtreme.com
Because......
getting 'em open
is half the fun!
Gollnick
Musical Director
- Joined
- Mar 22, 1999
- Messages
- 29,258
One of the nice things about balisongs is that there are so many ways to open 'em. Many of them are just for show. They compromise speed or security of grip in favor of show. These show openings are the real fun part of balisong manipulation and they serve the important purposes of developing manual dexterity, an intuitive feeling for the knife, and confidence in handling it. But, sometimes you need that fast, secure opening.
This gets us back to the point that one of the nice things about balisongs is that there are a lot of ways to open 'em. Even among the simple, secure openings, there are dozens of options. Part of it depends on what position you start with the knife in and what position you want to end it. With a conventional folder, if you happen to draw the knife "upside down", then you're in trouble. If, for example, I have my AFCK in my right hand with the pivot pointing away from me and the blade swinging out the the left, then I can easily use my thumb in the hole and maybe a bit of a flick of my wrist to quickly and securly open the knife.
What if I flip my AFCK over, still in my right hand, still with the pivot pointing away from me, but now with the blade wanting to swing to the right? I can't open it. The blade wants to swing out into my fingers. I have to flip the knife over. That's a time-consuming thing to do and involves risk of dropping the knife, especially if my hands are cold and numb or maybe wet.
What if I flip the knife so that the pivot is now toward me and the blade wants to swing to the left (still in my right hand)? Again, there's no easy, safe, reliable way to open it. I have to flip it over again.
What if it's pivot toward me, blade opening to the right in my right hand? I can try to grab ahold of the spine of the blade and flick the knife to allow inertia and gravity to to swing the handle of the knife down. It sort of works, but it's rather ackward.
So, of the four ways I can possibly have my AFCK in my hand (pivot forward with blade swinging right, pivot forward with blade swinging left, pivot back with blade swinging right, and pivot back with blade swinging left), only one lends itself to a really fast, secure opening. Two are pretty much impossible, and the fourth is not very reliable either.
Furthermore, both of the workable openings leave me in a foreward, saber grip. What if my situation would prefer a reverse (icepick) grip?
With the balisong, there are simple, fast, reliable techniques to get from any closed position to any open position.
Some may argue that opening a balisong is more complicated because you have to worry about which handle you have. But, for simple openings, it just doesn't matter. The simple, fast single-flip up works safely and reliably regardless of which handle you're holding.
Clay's site and also http://www.balisong.com have great video showing many simple, fast, reliable techniques.
------------------
Chuck
Balisongs -- because it don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing!
http://www.balisongcollector.com
This gets us back to the point that one of the nice things about balisongs is that there are a lot of ways to open 'em. Even among the simple, secure openings, there are dozens of options. Part of it depends on what position you start with the knife in and what position you want to end it. With a conventional folder, if you happen to draw the knife "upside down", then you're in trouble. If, for example, I have my AFCK in my right hand with the pivot pointing away from me and the blade swinging out the the left, then I can easily use my thumb in the hole and maybe a bit of a flick of my wrist to quickly and securly open the knife.
What if I flip my AFCK over, still in my right hand, still with the pivot pointing away from me, but now with the blade wanting to swing to the right? I can't open it. The blade wants to swing out into my fingers. I have to flip the knife over. That's a time-consuming thing to do and involves risk of dropping the knife, especially if my hands are cold and numb or maybe wet.
What if I flip the knife so that the pivot is now toward me and the blade wants to swing to the left (still in my right hand)? Again, there's no easy, safe, reliable way to open it. I have to flip it over again.
What if it's pivot toward me, blade opening to the right in my right hand? I can try to grab ahold of the spine of the blade and flick the knife to allow inertia and gravity to to swing the handle of the knife down. It sort of works, but it's rather ackward.
So, of the four ways I can possibly have my AFCK in my hand (pivot forward with blade swinging right, pivot forward with blade swinging left, pivot back with blade swinging right, and pivot back with blade swinging left), only one lends itself to a really fast, secure opening. Two are pretty much impossible, and the fourth is not very reliable either.
Furthermore, both of the workable openings leave me in a foreward, saber grip. What if my situation would prefer a reverse (icepick) grip?
With the balisong, there are simple, fast, reliable techniques to get from any closed position to any open position.
Some may argue that opening a balisong is more complicated because you have to worry about which handle you have. But, for simple openings, it just doesn't matter. The simple, fast single-flip up works safely and reliably regardless of which handle you're holding.
Clay's site and also http://www.balisong.com have great video showing many simple, fast, reliable techniques.
------------------
Chuck
Balisongs -- because it don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing!
http://www.balisongcollector.com