Greetings fellow flippers and balisong enthusiasts alike.
As you may know the most praised Benchmade 42 Bali-Song has been discontinued and with the current prices on the secondary market, it is nearly unobtainable. The 42 was dubbed as one of the best high-quality production balisongs on the market. So what made it so good? Note: I'm looking at it from a flippers point of view.
Handle was a bit over 5" alongside 4" blade with a weight of around 4oz.
Are there any production balisongs in the market that are close to these specs?
Well the closest one in weight would be the Bradley Mayhem, but it is quite a bit shorter overall. Personally I don't know how well it flips and is the shortness really a factor. BUT then theres the price, which will a bit over 200$, even the 42 was well below the 200$ mark. :eek:
Then there's the long awaited mid-priced balisong: the Kimura II.
Very close in size, yet it is significantly heavier, some like it, some don't.
And finally the knife that Benchamde replaced the 42 with: the 51.
Almost identical in size, yet significantly lighter which is a turn off for some flippers. With the added weight of SS liners instead of Ti, it might actually be a very worthy competitor. :p
So with the discontinuation of the Smallfly, the Szabofly being the only balisong left in the lineup, this could be a good change for Spyderco to step in and introduce a Ti handled balisong, perhaps worthy of stepping into the big shoes left behind by the 42.
So how about it, a re-introduction of the Spyderfly with Ti handles and an affordable american steel (to make it more appealing to flippers), maybe the Carpenter BD-1 that they'll start using in the UKPK?
Or perhaps a totally new model? :)