<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">is something kinda whack here? There are only 2 knives that don't suck being produced?</font>
There are lots of quality knives being produced, but most of them are not balisongs.
Balisongs are a bit of an exotic item. They're illegal in more places than not. Many dealers even in places where they are legal, don't want to carry 'em for whatever reason. Finally, the balisong is actually a deceptivly difficult knife to make and make well.
Due in no small part to the high activity on this forum, several manufacturers are reconsidering this market right now. But, developing and introducing a new product is very expensive. I have no idea what BM paid for the moulds for the 42's handles. But, based on prior experiences with this sort of thing, a hundred grand would not surprise me. Add another fifty grand for factory tooling. Plus a couple of man-years of R&D time, and you can see that BM dropped a good fraction of a million on this project. That's what it costs to bring a product to production.
But, there's other things to consider too. A company can only support a certain number of new product development projects at one time. They have only a certain number of people, limited facilities, and limited money. They have to pick the projects that they think have the best chance for success.
Finally, a company can only keep a certain number of models in production at one time. If nothing else, there's only a certain number of square feet of floor space in the factory. A successful company is one that allocates those resources to the highest return and most successful products.
A balisong project is an exotic with a limited and restricted market. It's a risk. It's a risk economically, but it's a risk politically for whomever champions it.
If you're the marketing VP at a major knife company and you decide to commit your company's resources to a conventional tactical folder three things are true: First, nobody's going to object. Second, you're gonna have some success with it. You can always just cut the price a bit because people will buy a tactical folder. It's a proven, well-established market. Besides, if all else fails, you can always blow 'em out through K-Mart or something and at least recoup your investment. And, third, even it sales and return-on-investment fall short of expectations, well, it'll be ok. Afterall, you made a sound decision to pursue a well-known product in a well-established market. You can always blame it on manufacturing or sales anyway.
But, if you decide to do a balisong, three very different things will be true: First, you're gonna have a hard time selling the idea internally. You're gonna face a thousand objections like, "We've never done anything like that before. We don't know the first thing about balisongs. How do you know they'll sell? What if they don't? We don't know how to sell that? What if the dealers refuse it? Can't we just do something we know, another nice simple tactical folder where we know what we're doing and can be assured of at least minimal success?" Second, if they don't sell, you're company's gonna be stuck with 'em. K-Mart is not an option. And third, if sales and return don't beat every conventional tactical folder the company has ever done, you're gonna be looking for a new job for having suggested such a stupid, risky, unknown thing as a balisong when we could have used those resources on a tactical folder that would have done better.
Fortunately, BM has proven the market with the 42. BM took those risks and made those committments because BM belives in balisongs all the way up to the corner office. brought the 42 out with modest expectations. They had no idea that this thing would be the home run that it's been.
The litte guy who's never struck out, but never done anything really great just stepped up the plate. The coach isn't expecting much. Maybe a base hit. A ground double if we're lucky. But all of the sudden the ball's over the fence and he's taking a walk around the bases. Nobody expected that!
Why have so many people had to wait for months for a 42? Simple. BM tooled up to build about a hundred a week. On the day they started production, they already had the second largest backorder in the history of the company! They worked to make a hundred a day on equipment designed to make a hundred a week and got that down to with just a few hundred when all of the sudden there was a second surge of orders. And the order line hasn't stopped ringing yet!
This has proven the market for balisongs and made it possible for other companies to think about balisongs.
I doubt very seriously that Microtech would have considered a balisong product if BM had not done the 42.
The 42 proved this market and, by doing that, made balisong products thinkable for other makers.
But, thinking about a product and actually having one to sell are two different things. It takes time to develope a new product. This is especially true when the new product is rather different from anything you're currently doing.
In a year, I think the balisong market will be dramatically different than it is now. But, for the moment, we've got:
Charming China Cheapies
Jaguars
Benchmade
A few custom makers
(While I don't know anything official, as far as I can tell Bear has discontinued their balisong line. They were recently purchased and, I suspect, their new owner wanted to "focus the product line".)
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Chuck
Balisongs -- because it don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing!
http://www.balisongcollector.com
