The Balisong Collector Reviews

A New Charming China Cheapie

"The Chinese Sidewinder"

"Made In China".

Among balisong enthusiasts, this phrase is generally associated with cheap balisongs with poorly cast Zamak handles that break, with dull blades made of scrap steel that won't take or hold any edge, and with soft brass (often hollow) pins that break after just a few minutes of use. These "charming China cheapies", as I've come to call them, flood the online auctions, discount catalogs, and flea market tables and are usually sold to underaged buyers by questionable dealers.

I haven't bought a charming China cheapie ("CCC" as I sometimes say) in years... until just a few weeks ago at the recent Bladeshow 2001 show. Why would I go to one of the greatest knife shows in the world and buy a made-in-China cheapie balisong? Well, take a look at it:

(Click on this or any other image in this article for a higher-resolution version)

"Wait a minute, Balisong Collector" you might say, "You posted the wrong picture! That's no Charming China Cheapie. That's an original Bali-Song Cutlery Custom Weehawk worth maybe six or eight hundred dollars!"

Nope. That's the right picture. Look closely at the markings on the blade. "Stainless China".

It certainly does look like an original Custom Weehawk, doesn't it? I'm convinced that the "designers" of this knife copied pictures from several on-line sites including mine (click here and then tell me that this new CCC isn't copied in large part from this custom Bowie) when they designed this new balisong. The dimensions of this new CCC are virtually identical to the original Bali-Song Cutlery/Pacific Cutlery/Benchmade 4" custom Bali-Songs.

So, they copied the design. So, this cheapie (which is currently selling for less than $50) looks like an old custom. But is it built like the old customs? Does it handle like the old customs? Well, the answer is: almost.

The handles are milled out of solid steel stock. These are just great handles. If you like thick, heavy handles, you'll love this balisong. The workmanship of these handles is remarkable and the finish is very nice.

The inserts are NOT Micarta as they were on Bali-Song customs, but, rather, some sort of plastic resin material that is rather soft and easily scratched.

The good news is that it shouldn't be to difficult to remove that cheap material and replace it with an insert of your own choosing, perhaps Micarta or some nice wood.

The latch is a different story. It is, I think, aluminum. My guess is that they tooled up for steel latches but got the dimensions wrong and the steel latches didn't fit, they were probably to short. So, rushing to get product out, they scrapped the steel latches and quickly made up these aluminum ones. But, not wanting to repeat their mistake, they went the other way and got it wrong again. The new aluminum latches are to long. So the knife don't latch reliably open or closed.

This is nothing new. CCCs are famous for loose latches.

The solution employed on this CCC is to borrow the little hole in the latch seen on early Bali-Song customs and fill it with a rubber plug. This rubber plug, not tension in the handles, holds the latch closed.

Unfortunately, the little rubber plug on mine is already starting to wear out. It won't be to long before it's gone and then the latch will not latch closed or open.

I've said many times before that the balisong design is deceptively complex. It's deceptive because it looks so simple: a blade, two handles, and a latch. Where's the complexity in that? Well, the complexity is in the dimensions. Everything has to be dimensioned properly on a balisong. If the latch is to short, you won't be able to get it latched. If the latch is to long, then it won't stay latched. It's gotta be just right. You can't just copy the design, you have to understand it.

Many years ago, I attended a lecture by one of the engineers who designed the American "Sidewinder" air-to-air missile. He recounted how, when they designed this missile, they were aware that it would inevitably be copied. So, as a curious experiment, they replaced one of the screws with a reverse-threaded variant. Now sometimes there are reasons that screws must be reverse-threaded. But, in this case, there was absolutely no good reason to reverse-thread that screw. It was a test for whomever might try to reverse-engineer this missile.

When the American engineers later examined captured Soviet copies of the Sidewinder, they found several interesting design improvements. And they found that the screw in question had been replaced with a standard-threaded version. Obviously, the Soviet engineers had thought the design through and correctly concluded that that screw did not need to be reverse-threaded.

But, when the American engineers examined captured Chinese Sidewinders, they found that absolutely everything was virtually identical including that unnecessarily-reverse-threaded screw. The Chinese had blindly copied the design without even thinking about it.

Later, intelligence reports told that the Chinese had had a lot of trouble with their Sidewinder copy and eventually had to scrap it. Why? Simple, they didn't actually understand it. Their copy wasn't absolutely perfect. And, without actually understanding the design, they weren't able to work out those little bugs. They could copy the American design almost perfectly, but they couldn't get their copy to work perfectly.

Apparently, some of those same Chinese engineers worked on this balisong copy. And, apparently, they don't understand the mechanics of a balisong any more than a missile.

Notice the tang. Something is missing. That little protrusion of metal you see on good balisongs that seems to make no sense. That bit of metal we call a "kick".

The purpose of the kick is not obvious to the unknowing. The kick can only be seen when the knife is open, but it only functions when the knife is closed. So, it's a bit of a puzzle and easily dismissed as a silly whim of the bladesmith's profile. Witness the fact that the Filipino makers have not figured the kick out to this day.

Well, without a kick, the edge of the blade hits the inside of the handle when the knife is closed. On a typical Filipino Handmade balisong, where the handles are brass, this
isn't so bad. But, on this one, the handles are solid steel. So, edge damage does occur.

The redeeming feature is that the latch doesn't work. You can't really latch this knife tightly closed. So, the thin edge is never really pulled down hard against the solid steel handle. Mine shows some damage to the edge already, but not the sort of ruin that you'd expect if the latch fit properly.

You can see the damage that the blade is doing to the inside of the handle, damage which reflects what the handle is doing to the blade.

Like the old customs, there is no latch-gate feature. The Batangas-style latch is free to hit the blade and the back of the safe handle.

Speaking of the blade, what we have here is a very nicely ground piece of work. The grind lines are straight and crisp. It appears to actually be ground (the blades on most CCC are cast). It's thick like the old customs, about 5/32" thick. It's flat-ground; the original customs were usually hollow-ground. Like the old customs, the swedge is factory-sharpened.

It's no razor, but both edges of mine were reasonably sharp, much more so than the average CCC.

Of course, one of the main questions knife-enthusiasts always want answered is "What kind of steel?" The answer is: who knows? The tang stamp reads "Stainless". Usually, when a manufacturer stamps such a vague description on a blade it means, "Whatever kind of steel we could get cheap this week." Often, it's scrap steel. It may even be "pot steel."

(Pot steel is the cheapest grade of steel which is made by melting down small scraps of assorted other types of steel all together in one big pot. There's nothing really wrong with pot steel. It's an inexpensive material that's perfect for many applications where the special characteristics of some specific alloy aren't required. But, because it's made from assorted scraps, one might even say "recycled", it's inconsistent. Blades are an application where we want specific characteristics, i.e. edge taking and retention. So, pot steel, which is what many CCCs seem to use, is not the best choice for blades.)

The good news is that the blade on this balisong is NOT chrome plated. The blades on many CCCs are chromed in order to mask the variation in the color of pot steel from batch-to-batch.

I don't know that the blade on this knife is an inferior steel. All I know is that it's marked "Stainless" and I doubt seriously that it's anything special.

At the base of most balisong blades, you find a tang pin. This one is no exception. But, the tang pin is further proof that the designer of this knife copied without understanding. You see, the handles have no pockets to accept the tang pin. The pockets are another feature that are visible only when the knife is closed but functional only when the knife is open. The the unknowing, they may look just like decoration. And, since they add some machining to making the handles, they may look like expensive, unnecessary decoration.

Leaving off the pockets was a mistake. Without them, the tang pin is to large. To compensate for that, each tang pin has been hand-filed.

Hand-filed? You mean by hand?

Yes, I do. One aspect of manufacturing in China is that labor is cheap, maybe even free.

You can see how the tang pin is a little bit slanted down on the left side. That, I think, comes from force applied to drive the tang pin in. On the right-side, you can see where it's been filed down to make the knife fit open.

Maybe you can see it better in this picture.

You can certainly see the lack of pockets. What you can't see is the natural formation of pockets due to wear. One reason that manufacturers include pockets is to accept the round pin and distribute its force. Without pockets, the force of the pin hits on only place and wear results. The problem is that when these natural pockets form, they'll change the dimensions of the knife and make the lock-up open even worse. This wear doesn't show in this picture since it's worse on the other side where the tang pin hasn't been filed flat.

The tang pin has been similarly filed on both sides of the blade.

The other thing you can see in these two pictures, or, more accurately, not see, are the pivot pins. Just like the old customs, they've been polished down. You can just barely see one of the pins on mine. It's about 5/32" in diameter. (It could possibly have been made from the same stock as the blade.) We're talking big, thick, steel pins here.

Notice also how thick and heavy the handle is at the fork.

The fit and finish of this aspect of this balisong is just great. There is very little blade wobble. Neither edge nor swedge will rub on the handle. The assembly of the blade to the handle is very similar to the old customs.

Very similar, but not the same. The old customs had thin washers on both sides of the blade on both handles. Those washers weren't there to take up space, to act as shims. They were part of the design. Putting a washer a joint like this reduces wear since we now have two joints (handle to washer and washer to blade) instead of one (handle to blade). The wear is essentially cut in half. If some lubricant is added, there are now two joints for it to lubricate instead of one. So, the lubricant can do more good. Finally, some metals are just naturally slipperier than others. So, the washers in the old customs were made from a bronze alloy that is naturally lubricating.

This new CCC has washers (the material is unknown) on only one side of the blade. Those washers are probably there just as shims to take up some space since the fork was probably just a little to wide for the blade. But, the result is perfect. The washers are just the right thickness and result in joints that move freely but don't have to much wobble.

With good pins and a good fork, this is a very sturdy balisong. Just like the customs it copies, this thing should give many, many years of smooth manipulation.

At Bladeshow, I put this knife into a fancy case that I had with me and, when I'd meet other balisong enthusiasts, I'd say, "Let me show you what I bought." Then, I'd lovingly remove it from that case and hand it to them.

Initially, they'd say, "Wow. An original custom. That's sweet." Then, they'd open it and see the China marking and say, "Wow, that's amazing."

Right now, you can buy one of these for $40 from Knifezilla (click here). My conclusion is that for $40 this is a good deal. When you really put this thing under the microscope, it's a far cry from the original custom that it resembles. It's got a few short-comings. But, the joints are solid and it moves well. When it comes to air-to-air missiles, even one or two short-comings is to many. When it comes to a knife for serious work or for self-defense, even one or two short comings may be to many. But, for pure manipulation fun, this knife will get you 90% of the way to an original custom for five percent of the price and that's good enough for most folks.