I’ve been interested in knives every since I was a 1st grader in the Cub Scouts of America (and later in the Boy Scouts). First and foremost, knives are tools, but they’re also toys if you enjoy messing around with them as much as I do….Before we talk about Balisong, can I just say that this video would’ve been 100x better if that dude used his knife to cut off that rat tail?…Moving on…
I’m not quite sure on the legality of butterfly knives these days, and I know for certain that they are illegal in certain parts of the nation (NYC, I’m looking at you). So I won’t admit that I have one of these sitting in a box somewhere in my closet, it would be stupid of me to implicate myself that way. So, I’ll just say that butterfly knives are super fun to mess around with as long as you pay serious attention to what you’re doing because you don’t want to accidentally chop a finger off while twirling the double-sided blade around.
In the clip above, which I found over on DIGG, we get to see some of the fanciest ‘Balisong’ tricks around. ‘Balisong’ is just another name for the butterfly knife, also known as a ‘fan knife’, but Balisong is the preferred nomenclature in The Philippines where these knives are still super popular. These days it seems like ‘Balisong’ can refer to both the knife and the act of using the knife for tricks, it’s almost become an interchangeable term, so if you’re ever searching Balisong videos on YouTube and see that word being used in a variety of ways then now you know why.