Pacific Cutlery International Series

[ChungSan]

Can someone please help me to finish identifying this balisong?

- What model is this?
- What years were they produced (this one was 1985)?
- What is the blade types?
- What kind of steel is the blade made out of?
- What is the Rockwell hardness of the blade?
- What are the handles made out of?
- What is the average price of this balisong and how rare are they?

The overall length is 9 1/4"

Thanks,

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Chung San

Butterfly Knife Exchange
www.butterflyknifeexchange.com
"A new kind of balisong store"

[This message has been edited by ChungSan (edited 09-26-2000).]

 

[Gollnick]

The International Series was PC's attempt to answer shotty low-price imports with... not-so-shotty low-price imports. It's still a lower-quality import.

The fact that the copyright is '85 does not mean that it was made in '85. PC imported these for about four years. There were a lot of models and I don't even know if PC kept track of 'em all. I think it was probably a case of "open the boxes and see what they sent us this time and if any of 'em are new styles, assign 'em new model numbers." This looks like of like the model 140. It's hard to tell from the scan. But, it's got a rather deep belly for a 140, but it's NOT quite a bowie.

Who knows what kind of steel? 440 wouldn't surprise me. Rockwell hardness? God only knows. The handle are probably blow-molded Zamak though it's hard to tell from this picture.

The market on these varies widely. I've purchased 'em NIB for $20 just recently. If yours is NIB, I say it's probably worth $100.

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Chuck
Balisongs -- because it don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing!
http://www.balisongcollector.com

[This message has been edited by Gollnick (edited 09-27-2000).]

 

[ChuckG]

I believe that your knife is a Pacific Cutlery International Series Model 139 if the blade style is a "Weehawk"

The reason I say this is that I don't remember the Interantional Series being offerd in any blade styles but the Weehawk, the Tanto and the Utility. I could be mistaken in this but I don't believe so.

Check the link below for the International Series Models.
http://members.nbci.com/_XMCM/Ken_M.1/PC_International.htm

As for the type of blade steel, I have been told that the blade steel was made from 420C stainless.

It is not a bad steel, but not up to the standard of the Sandvik 12C27 used in the Mod 42's or the 440C that was used in most of the older "Custom Models"

The hardness of the steel varies from knife to knife as the heat treatment was not very consistant.

For the most part the blades I have checked with a Rockwell hardness tester have run from as low as 45 to as high as 55 Rc with around 50 to 52 Rc being the norm.

The one thing that I can tell you is that if you drop the blade on a very hard surface, it is more likely to dent or bend than to break.

The handles are indeed Zymak as Chuck has earlier said, which is a low temperture zinc based alloy and then flashed nickel plated.

Zymak tend to be brittle and the handles are known to crack where the blade is pinned to the handles.

The blade pins are far better then the pins of the Jaguars bali's

All things considered a pretty good knife.

ChuckG

(Not Gollnick)