Well, I'll tell you that there are several other major-name manufacturers with balisong projects in the works. I'm sworn to secrecy, of course.
But, there are problems. First, there's a lot of legal issues. It's actually illegal to manufacturer balisongs in many states. For example, California considers balisongs to be switchblade knives and it's illegal to manufacture switchblades longer that two inches in California. So, any California-based manufacturer is out of the running.
It's actually illegal to sell and/or own balisongs in many states. That certainly limits the market potential.
The balisong is actually a fairly complex knife to make. Everything has to fit just right. So, there's considerable investments in design, tooling and so forth. But, the balisong is still a bit of an exotic knife with a bit of a bad reputation (blame Hollywood for that). So, the market for it is smaller. For the same investment, you could tool up a conventional folder that will have a broader market and broader market appeal.
Increasingly, "domestic" knife companies are actually making their product off-shore. Most Kershaw, most Gerber, all Delta Z, all CRKT, all Spyderco (I think) knives are actually made off-shore. Of course, it's illegal to import balisongs into the US.
You may ask, "If it's illegal to import them, then were to all the Charming China Cheapies I see in fleamarkets and online auctions come from?" The answer is China. I've talked to several importers and they seem to agree: Customs confiscates about 20% of their shipments. If you're buying a knife for $1 paying ten cents shipping to get it here, and planning to sell it for $10, you can afford to loose 20% of your inventory and still make a tidy profit. These importers consider Customs confiscations to be just another cost of doing business and they build their business plan accordingly.
But, three things are true: first, if you want a significantly better quality knife, one that can command a significantly higher price on the US market, you're gonna have to pay more for it. Loosing 20% of your inventory to Customs suddenly becomes more than a minor annoyance. Second, to keep Customs-related losses to a minumum, the aforementioned fleamarketeer importers use techniques that are questionable at best and boarder on smuggling in many cases. It's a lot of stuff that respectible companies just don't want to fool around with. And, third, many of these better-regarded companies have, over the years, cultivated a warm relationship with US Customs. They don't want to do anything to jeopardize that.
