The Balisong Gallery
At first Glance, one might dismiss this balisong as just another BM42. But that blade is rather shinny and those handle pins don't look quite like Benchmade's. If get to pick this knife up, you'll quickly know that it's something else. The blade is Benchmade, yes. It sports the famous Bali-Song butterfly logo. It is, in fact, a blade saved from a broken Benchmade Model 239 that the owner sent to knife maker Chuck Griffin who made fine new handles for it in Aluminum.
A few of the smaller holes in the skeleton pattern aren't quite straight, but I kind of like that as a refreshing variation of the classic skeleton pattern first popularized by Jody Samson at Bali-Song Cutlery. On the other hand, notice how nicely counter-sunk the larger holes are. The two-part handle pins can be taken apart or adjusted with a hex key rather than the Torx screws used by Benchmade.
The handles are very well-made. Unlike Benchmade's, these taper in only one dimension. Every edge is nicely rounded over. The latch handle incorporates a latch-gate feature to keep the latch from hitting the blade edge. The latch is nicely made and attached with a solid pin that this polished down like the old "Production Quality" Benchmades. The latch is actually a very hard part to make on a balisong as it has to be just the right length. This one is perfect and the knife locks tightly and yet easily open or closed. Another hard part on balisong handles are the pockets in the sides that the tang pin goes into when the knife is open. The pockets on this knife are very nicely made.
The balisong on the top in this picture is a Benchmade 42 (the Titanium handles have been thermally colored). As you can see, Mr. Griffin's handles are quite a bit thicker than Benchmade's. In fact, these handles are about 6/10ths of an inch thick. The BM42's are only about 45/100ths of an inch thick.
This balisong is about 5 3/4 inches long. The BM42 is a little shy of 5 1/2 inches long.
The owner came to have the blade for this knife because he tried to tighten his BM239 by clamping it in a vice. This method doesn't work well on Benchmade's Economy Line knives like the 239 since the Zamak material that the handles on these knives are made of is very brittle.
Zamak handles, be they Benchmade's, Bear's, Jaguar's, etc., do eventually break because the Zamak material just isn't up to stress of constant manipulation. If you've got a blade from a broken balisong, having new handles made for it is a great idea, but balisong handles are a lot more difficult to make than you might think. If the dimensions aren't right, the knife won't move well or lock-up correctly. This one moves great and locks up very well. I'd say that Chuck Griffin understands the complexities of balisong handles quite well.
You can read the owner's own story about this knife and his own interest in balisongs in this article by clicking on the icon below:
