American Balisongs
Balisong USA started manufacturing balisongs in the late 1970s, then changed its name to Pacific Cutlery in the early 1980s, before finally becoming Benchmade. The earlier knives featured a wide variety of custom blade designs (many of which were hand ground by master knifemaker Jody Samson, well known for making the swords in the movie Conan the Barbarian), as well as a number of exotic inlays for the handles (ivory, prehistoric ivory, scrimshawed ivory, mother-of-pearl, ebony, tropical woods, etc.). In mint condition, some of these early Balisong knives are worth thousands of dollars. Used, with skeletonized or micarta handles and the standard "weehawk" or "Imada high hollow" grind, they typically start at around $300 and go up from there. Unusual grinds, like the "scimitar", "cutlass", "kris", "weehawk tanto", "Spanish Bowie", or rare "mariner" cause the value to increase significantly. These early American Balisong knives are highly sought after by collectors, who frequently purchase them as investments and store them in airtight safes. Benchmade stopped producing custom balisongs in the late 1980s, but regularly offers "Limited Editions" with special features. Other American makers of commercial Balisong knives include Bradley Cutlery (Mayhem), -=BRS=- (Alpha Beast), Spyderco (Spyderfly and Szabofly), Roton (Monarch), Microtech Knives (Tachyon), and SWAT (Tiger).
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