It's a way of opening it up with one hand (faster). You can open it up slowly using two hands. That, and you can perform it behind your back, hiding it from your intended victim...I mean opponent Oh, and its simply balisong. You make it sound like it's a pop hit from Indonesia *gets tomatoes tossed at him* Sorry...it's been a slow day...
Hahahahaha! There's quick and efficient balisong deployment and there's also fancy and nearly worthless twirling. Maybe you saw the later. But the fancy moves are also a means of geting comfortable with flipping the knife open very quickly, even without the other extra movments. I presume that someone who is very good with playing around with a balisong can open it in a flash in a SD situation.
my father, uncle and cousin used to teach us kids how to use balisong at a very early stage. this would include how to open it in various grip and position, what part of a human body we should aim, etc. and as we grew older (teen age) they start introducing us to jungle bolo. the whole family are telling us story about our ancistor being a well respected mananandata in our barrio, that sometimes they go to other barrio to challenge our barrio mananandata or sometimes just to simply learn other barrio style (only 2 style they can remember). because this thing is such a big deal to my father's clan they keep on pushing us kids to be good at this thing also, but being a teenager growing up in the city i have my attention in other stuff (like girls and disco dancing) and lost interest on this family tradition. then during my college years i found out that this tradition is a martial art they called 'ARNIS'. tried to ask my relative to teach me what they know and most of them also lost interest teaching us for no one in the family want to continue the tradition. my father teach me what he can only remember (mostly basic only, his not into it much like his brother and cousin). although i can say i'm very good in handling a balisong (can even throw a close balisong in the air amd catch it open, hehehe) the one describe by Jordan is only one way of effectively opening a balisong. there are various way of opening a balisong, also it depends how the balisong is constructed. my family are from agoncillo, batangas.
As juramentado said there are more balisong openings than you could imagine. In the opening you saw, there is a functional reason for the "flip"/"rotation." I'm assuming that you're referring to the motion where the person opens the knife, one of the half handles swings and hits the back of thier palm, they rotate the knife, the back of the blade hits the back of their palm, and they catch the returning the half handle to their palm so that both handles are back to back. This is probably the most widely known opening for these knives. In this case the rotation is used to open the knife and exposed the blade while returning the opening half handle into their palm. When the knife is opened this way the weilder has full control of the handle of the knife. Note that this isn't the only way to open the knife one handed and get both handles together in the palm. Also understand that a balisong can be wielded effectively with a grip on only one of the half handles. And all of that leads to the balisong being one of the most useful and dangerous knives to carry one you understand how to use it. - Matt
I know many openings -some quick & simple - some just for show and dexterity. My basic practical goal is to be able to pick the knife up from a pocket etc and be able to open it into any grip whilst held in any position.
Ah great. Someone from the province that created this great knife I've been to Barrio Balisong, Batangas and it's a balisong fan's dream. Every house has a little stall in front with knives for sale. The choices are just amazing. You can have it custom made or just pick one up from the dealers. The balisong is a handy knife to carry coz it doesn't require aa sheath. As far as SD in concerned, it might be a little tricky to deploy on a stressful situation but even in a closed postion it's still very useful as a palm stick. I've seen it taught as such, with the handle whipped at the face of the attacker as it's being opened. Even in the half open position, it can deal some hurt. Too bad balisongs have this negative reputation in the Philippines and makes it dangerous to carry. If not for the legal hassles, I'd carry one daily.
balisong Thanks for your answers guys and gals, but my next question is isn't a bowie knife just as dangerous as a bali song when fully opened, and if not why do some states consider it more dangerous than a pocket knife, after all there both blades?
I think it's because of 2 reasons: a) the folding capability of the knife (which is also a feature of many pocket knives, which puzzles me as well) b) the use of the balisong among gangs and other criminal types. the same thing here in the Philippines. A folding pocket knife will not attract as much police attention as a balisong. To officers here, balisong equals "criminal intent". In the end, a balisong is just a knife. How you use it makes all the difference.
