Question for all you Filipinos out there...

[Disco Stu]

I understand that many of the knives that come out of the Philippines are probably 'tourist knives' made especially to please Americans. So what kind of balisong would a native Filipino carry?

I have to believe that someone who grew up in the country that made them famous would know a good bali when they see it.

[This message has been edited by Disco Stu (edited 10-20-2000).]

 

[Samurai6]

I scrounged all over, including Batangas, and asked everyone I met for a month when I was there, and I never found a good quality balisong. The main highway into Batangas was lined with tourist stands all selling pretty much the same brass and cow bone handled butterflys for $5. They do come with pretty decent bearing steel blades though. I did find a country blacksmith who made me some great bolos, but I found no craftsman quality balisongs at all. I am sure they are there somewhere, but like in the US, hard to find.

 

[JohnR7]

>> asked everyone I met for a month when I was there, and I never found a good quality balisong.

As far as I know, they only make two different Balisong Knives in the Philippiens. One is a tourist knife, for people to put on display. The other is what they call a martial arts quality knife, that is more durable. The test for the marital arts quality knife is that you have to be able to drive it though a quarter. The first time someone asked me to test a knife that way, I really thought they were nuts. But I have learned how to do it, and actually, the $12 Taiwan knife, is the most easy to get to go through a coin. IT almost goes through it like butter, where the cheap China knives you have to hammer on it quite a bit to get it to go through a coin, and then it pretty much destroys the knife in the process. But the new Serrated China Knife Blades will go through a coin in three hits, with no damage to the blade or the knife. Thanks, JohnR7 www.BalisongKnife.com

 

[Federico]

Best way to get a good quality knife there is to go to a smith and custom order a batch. A friend of mine went to batangas ordered 100 to be made at his specifications. This cost him $100, at $1 a knife, and took about a week to be finished. The average knife had a five inch blafe and came shaving sharp. The one that he gave to me is excellent. Extremely beautiful, but definitely strong. The pins are original at 15 years old. The blade easily gets through a quarter with no damage. I just wish I got more of them before he sold them all. I was amazed at the time that he was able to sell them at $40 a piece, but now Im not surprised.

 

[sniperboy]

While what I say might not be gospel.. Hnn this is good coffee.. Iguess coffee is good when you wake up.

The drive the tip of the knife thru a quarter test. more commonly known as "Bearing" in the vernacular (why.. I have no damn clue

) is done a lot nowadays.. John is right that knives are made generally in two standards in Batanggas. However eventhough my accent sucks I don't think the saleslady tried to pull a fast one on me. SHe said this one can go thru a coin this one cant. I predominantly found that the only reason it coudl go thru a coin was because the tip was reinforced (and ugly). ANy knife can go thru a coin, but the 'bearing' knives made it effortlessly. No magic just edge design.

and CONTRARY to popular belief.

Filipinoes (except me) DO NOT carry knives around. THey carry guns. Hoever there is some nostalgia in Balisongs and I remember once that the cop who pulled me over had one in his pocket. It was a cheapie though.. but then in my opinion there is really no 'martial arts' grade balisong from batanggas. THen again I can only be disproved. I dont think my mother really fancied the iddea of spending our weekend searching for some legendary smith who will make me the ultimate FHM that makes water beadlets hat fall on the blade glisten in the moonlight.

Filipinoes, usually cannot tell and do not care about Balisongs past high school. and are generally ignorant about them. (Yeah I impress my brother's classmates that way). it is VERY rare to find a balisong enthusiast in the Philippines.

and as an added tidbit - do you knwo that Kali is MORE popular in america than it is in the Philippines.

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<A HREF="http://www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu/~soo/balisong/balisong.html" TARGET=_blank>http://www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu/~soo/balisong/balisong.html
</A> If you play with love you will be heartbroken; if you play with knives you will [bleed]

 

[batangueno]

Well i just got back from Batangas, and of course i stopped by barrio balisong on the way. I just got eight balisongs which i'm going to post in a while when photopoint receives my scans.

You'll be surprised that not many filipinos here carry balisongs and even other knives for that matter. It's probably the same situation there anyway.

Several batanguenos (batangas native) do carry balisongs with them. Most of them are old balisongs (special or heirlooms maybe) and not those rambo design balisongs. Since it's common in batangas, their balisong has to be different from the others. The only way to do this is to have one custom made. So it's basically like this, batanguenos carry special balisongs and other filipinos if they have balisongs carry the ordinary ones.

If you buy a balisong along the highway, you'll probably see the tourist balisongs but some of them looks pretty decent enough with bearing blades as they say. You can still have one custom made in the barrio itself, according to whatever specifications you have. Right now they have have an all stainless balisong, i tell you they look very very nice. But like in the states, you have to pay for quality, and those all stainless balisongs costs 5 to 10 times more as the ordinary ones. I just got a semi stainless one, the blade and frame are stainless but the bolsters (i don't know if that's the right term for balisongs) are brass. You have to remember that the people who make this balisongs have very limited and outdated equipment, so putting out quality balisongs is very hard, but they can probably still put out excellent balisongs if you give them the materials (quality steel), the specifications, and the money of course.

The common balisongs now has inserts like, plastic, narra wood, horse bone, mahogany and deer horn, and that's ascending in price. You don't have to custom order a batch. They are not bringing this out in machines or anything, every knife is handmade. Actually you can have a custom made balisong with almost the same price as ordinary ones, as long as the materials used are the same.

A batangueno will be able to tell a good balisong when they see it, i just showed them my BM42.

-Paul

 

[batangueno]

I forgot to mention one thing.

It's true that filipinos are more interested in guns than knives. Due to the restrictions implemented in the new government, issuance of gun carry permits are very rare. That's why i shifted my attention to knives since i can't bring my gun anymore.

I hope that more filipinos start to get into knives. So far there's only one person here in the philippines that i know of who's also interested in knives as i am, compare that to the population of the philippines.

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-Paul

 

[Disco Stu]

Thanks guys, lots of interesting stuff here.

My father works with a man from Batangas and said that as soon as he mentioned balisongs, this fellow's eyes lit up and his hands started twirling. I took that to mean that he had infact carried a bali at one time.

 

[Federico]

I have to say that whole gun thing is kinda strange. I know my uncles and stuff al carry guns, but then theyre cops or soldiers. My understanding of it was that guns were really expensive, and most filipinos couldnt afford them. Anyways the main reason I was suggesting custom ordering was so that whoever is doing the ordering will get exactly what they want instead of what is normally being sold. Dont get me wrong I like whats being sold, but if someone wants something else I dont want them to get the impression that it cant be done. Anyhoo its like anywhere else that makes and sells anything. They make what they think people want, but that doesnt mean they cant make anything else. Anyways if youre in the US its difficult to get balisong from PI due to dustoms. You got a 50/50 chance in getting them into the country. I got all mine nabbed at customs, but then my friend got all his through. So its up to luck and the customs agent whether or not you can gettem back in.