At first glance, this may look like yet another Benchmade 42 with the now familiar torx pins and the 42 Weehawk blade with its deep swedge. But wait! Something is missing! Where's the latch? It's a latchless 42! That's not factory production!

This balisong started out as just another ordinary Benchmade 42, but the owner decided that he wanted to try a latchless balisong. Benchmade is not currently making latchless balisongs. Nobody is. Custom-made balisongs are rather expensive. So the adventuresome owner simply cut the latch off of this Benchmade 42 himself.

Such a modification is possible on the Benchmade 42 because after the latch is cut off, the latchgate then becomes the new end of what was formerly the latch handle.

One of the biggest problems of a latchless balisong is distinguishing the safe handle from the opposite handle by feel. The owner solved this problem by adding some very nicely done filework groves to the safe handle.

These groves are gentle enough that they don't catch on your finger or tear at your flesh during finger-twirl tricks, but the groves are just enough to feel which handle is which perfectly.

Unfortunately, in the process of chopping off the latch, the owner discovered that the Benchmade 42's handles are made of cast Titanium. Castings sometimes have voids in them.

While the owner polished the ends of both handles very nicely and the voids are only minor, nothing can be done about them. Fortunately, the owner intends this balisong as a working knife and the voids are only cosmetic.

The owner performed the chop job with a Dremel tool. You can see on the side of the opposite handle that there are some minor mares. These were caused by the cutting tool hitting the side of the handle. They're just a little bit to deep to be buffed out. Again, though, the owner intends this as a working knife and isn't upset about these minor marks.

This is a fun knife to play with. You just don't have to be concerned about the latch at all. This frees you to some interesting techniques.

Personally, I'm not a big fan of openings and closings in which the artist holds a balisong by the latch (latch-drop openings). Those techniques are still possible with this knife. The artist pinches either handle between thumb and forefinger in the first skeleton hole. It takes a bit of a touch since of you grip it to tight, the balisong won't be able to move and the trick won't work, but if you grip it to loosely, the knife will fall to the floor. The neat thing about this is that you can now do latch tricks with either handle.

I found that this knife is particularly great for aerial tricks. I love a 42 for aerials in general. No balisong I've seen likes to catch air like a 42, but with the latch removed and the handles perfectly balanced, this one spins very nicely.

The subtle filework groves on the safe handle are perfect and I quickly came to depend on them.

Because the owner intends to carry and use this balisong, he had Matt Draper, who is a well-known maker of custom Kydex sheaths, make a special sheath for this knife. It's a combination neck and watch-pocket sheath.

I've never, myself, been a big fan of Kydex because I don't like the hard surface of it. Mr. Draper is famous for his "alien skin" finish coating for Kydex. I don't know what this stuff is -- nobody but Matt does. But, it's a sort of a rubbery material that gives a soft but durable surface to the Kydex that I rather like. In my opinion, it makes Kydex usable.

The cord allows this to be used as a neck knife. I'm not a big fan of neck knives myself. Furthermore, this sheath doesn't retain the knife well enough for that type of carry. I found that just jumping up six inches and landing on my feet would cause the knife to fall out of the sheath every time. Climbing a set of stairs with this sheath as a neck-knife is risky.

The problem is the sheath's dual role. For a neck knife, retention must be tight to keep the knife from falling out. To draw a neck knife, you yank down and you can apply plenty of force. But, a watch-pocket sheath is a different matter. Here, you want a sheath that holds the knife vertically, but retention is not as big an issue. The draw is up, often to a latch drop opening. So, less drawing force is available and the sheath needs to have less retention. For a watch-pocket carry, the sheath must release the knife as the knife is drawn. You certainly don't want the sheath coming out with the knife.

In case you're wondering, a "watch pocket" is that funny little pocket above the front, usually right-side, pocket on a classic pair of blue jeans, though often found on other styles of pants. It was originally intended for a pocket watch. Having a separate little pocket keeps your watch from getting scratched and marred by anything else you might have in your pocket. Today, everyone pretty much wears a wrist watch. So, this pocket is pretty much unused. One modern use for these relic pockets is for a knife. But, a typical knife, including a balisong, is very narrow. So, a little sheath is used to fill the pocket and keep the knife vertical.

In this type of carry, the cord can either be removed, allowed to fall into the main pocket, or, best yet, looped around the belt so that if the sheath does come out with the knife when the knife is drawn, it can be pulled off.

While functional for this type of carry, I found this sheath a little to narrow. The knife still doesn't stay perfectly straight up. In short, in trying to be two diverse sheaths, this one doesn't, in my opinion succeed perfectly in either. But, I do like the finish.

I'm really pleased the owner let me try out this knife. The latch removal is well-done and really does make this knife a lot of fun to play with. I very much like the groves on the safe handle.

I'm also glad to be able to show the minor voids as a caution to anyone considering this type of project. The result is great, but you should be aware of the risk of voids.

Here's this fine semi-custom next to an un-chopped Benchmade 42. You can see that the factory-original 42 is just a bit longer.

You can read the owner's own thoughts about this knife and about how he made the modifications by clicking on this icon:

The tour continues