Best Balisong/Butterfly Knives by Category (2026)

In this Guide

• Best All-Around Balisong
• Best Balisong for Beginners
• Best Budget Balisong
• Best Channel Balisong
• Best Sandwich Balisong
• Best Competition Balisong
• Best Balisong Trainer
• Honorable Mentions
• "Butterfly Knife" or "Balisong"
• Are Balisongs/Butterfly Knives Legal?
• Bali Comp: The Pinnacle of Balisong Knife Tricks

The balisong/butterfly knife community of 2026 is strong!

Maybe you saw our videos of Bali Comp on YouTube (which you can watch below), or your fun uncle is a master flipper and got you interested, or perhaps it was the movies that piqued your interest (they love butterfly knives in the movies).

Whatever the reason, you’re here, so odds are good you’re looking to become a member of the balisong community (or you’re already entrenched and want to be more entrenchment).

Is it "Balisong" or "Butterfly Knife"

Let’s address that real quick.

At the end of the day, it’s both, but it’s technically more "balisong" (which you can read all about below if you’re interested), so that’s the primary way we’re going to refer to it.

Now, without further ado, the best balisong knives in 2026 (by category)!

Best All-Around Balisong: Kershaw Lucha

No matter where you are on your flipping journey, the Kershaw Lucha is a great option. It’s ready right out of the box for flipping, and it’s larger-than-average size makes figuring out weight distribution easy.

The steel handles are easy to control when flipping fast or slow, and the 14C28N blade will retain its shape even after hard drops.

If you drop it too hard on its tip, the tip may still break, but a chipped balisong is worn by hardcore flippers as a badge of honor. Welcome to the club!

The Lucha comes in a ton of colors, trainer versions, and even an ultra-premium titanium and carbon fiber variant! 

If you already have a Lucha and want to try something new, you don’t necessarily have to buy a new knife.

Thanks to the Lucha’s growing aftermarket, you can change your scales out for titanium, try channel aluminum, play with inlays, and more.

The Lucha is the largest modding platform in the knife industry today (R.I.P. Benchmade 51), making it easy to build your dream knife.

The combination of a flipping performance, infinite customizability, and its effectiveness as a cutting tool makes the Lucha a force to be reckoned with!

Best Balisong for Beginners: Flytanium Zenith Trainer

If you’re a beginner, in the interest of preserving your fingers, you’d better go with a trainer.

The Flytanium Zenith has everything you could want in a premium balisong: channel aluminum handles, smooth pivots, and excellent balance for flipping.

The best part?

It doesn’t have a premium price tag: It retails for a hair under $70!

With such a low investment, you can get your hands on a near-premium experience and see how you like it—no need to break the bank before you’re sure flipping (or at least collecting) is your thing.

Best Budget Balisong: Bear & Son 114

Due to knife regulations, the vast majority of live-blade balisongs are USA-made, and that often commands a prohibitive price tag for people just testing the waters.

Bear & Son is well aware of this, and they offer the solution: The 114, their flagship balisong, comes in at well under $50. And for the price, it’s packed with flipping-friendly features.

Unlike many balisongs in its price bracket, this one has TORX hardware, allowing you to adjust your pivots to your liking. The zinc handles have a nice epoxy coating and skeletonization, making for easy grip and smooth flipping. 

That being said, at this price point, you have to make some concessions. The 114 doesn’t have fancy bearings or bushings, just washers. Instead of a more premium blade steel, it sticks with 440C.

Otherwise, it’s a solid knife all-around. It’s not going to win any competitions, but it’s a great way to graduate to a live edge on a budget! 

Best Channel Balisong: Flytanium Talisong Z 

One of the biggest names in custom balisongs is Eldon Talley, the designer of this knife.

His Talisong design has dazzled flippers for years now thanks to its superb build quality and design, but it was always hand-made in his shop, and each knife would cost north of a grand.

Until Eldon teamed up with Flytanium to create the Flytanium Talisong Z, an in-line production knife you can buy today.

Instead of scales being bolted together, the Talisong Z has a channel milled into each of its handles that the blade sits in when closed.

That means, while flipping, you’ll never snag on a screw, spacer, or anything. The only surface you have for most of the handle is the beautifully knurled surface, making it easy to grab.

One of the balisong community’s favorite features of the Talisong Z is that you can get it with either bearings or bushings. Some people prefer the speed of bearings, others the control of bushings. Get the one that fits your style!

Best Sandwich Balisong: Hom Chimera 

I’ve heard it called "the Lamborghini of balisongs," and I’m inclined to agree.

The Chimera is an ultra-premium balisong, boasting titanium scales, carbon fiber liners, a powder steel blade, bushing pivots—the whole nine yards.

It’s hard to communicate with pictures or words, but when you pick it up, you feel like you’ve picked up a master knifemaker’s magnum opus.

An interesting feature of the Chimera is its latch. Serious flippers have a dilemma—remove the latch for flipping performance or leave it there for safe carrying?

HOM Design fixed the problem by designing a latch that can collapse into the handle; that way, you can do all the super difficult tricks that a latch would get in the way of, and then tuck your balisong neatly in your pocket without fear of it opening. 

Best Competition Balisong: Squid Industries Krake Raken

Each year at Blade Show in Atlanta, Blade HQ puts on Bali Comp, the world championships of balisong flipping (video below).

Bali Comp competitors do anything you can imagine, and many things you can’t, with their knives. For that job, they need the crème-de-la-crème of balisongs. Contestants use many different knives, but by far the most popular model is the Squid Industries Krake Raken. 

Squid Industries is a company run by hard-core flippers, and the knives they make are built to competition spec.

The Krake Raken has some of the tightest tolerances on any channel balisong, making the flipping experience easy, fast, and controllable.

To maximize flipping performance, the Krake Raken employs a latchless design and a slender overall profile to make fast, difficult, and compounding tricks easier for master flippers.

If you want to compete with the best in the world, the Krake Raken is a great tool for the job. 

Best Balisong Trainer: Squid Industries Squidtrainer V4 

Sometimes we get so hung up on bushings, pins, construction, and latches that we forget what balisongs are: knives.

Knives have edges, and edges cut people.

What if you want to enjoy all the fun of balisong flipping without the risk of cutting (or losing) your fingers? That’s where a trainer comes in, and the Squidtrainer V4 is one of the best.

It’s built to the same standards as the Krake Raken listed above, but you can use it without fear of cutting yourself. 

Many balisong trainers, like the ones you can get at the mall, are often so poorly balanced and cheaply made that they ruin the flipping experience.

Squid Industries is committed to making sure that doesn’t happen, so they pulled out all the stops for the Squidtrainer. It’s built, assembled, and weighted just like a competition-grade balisong, so when you’re ready to step into a live edge, it will be a breeze. 

Honorable Mentions

Nabilis Vulp

Designed in collaboration with balisong influencer Will Hirsch, the Nabilis Vulp offers a few awesome features: a channel aluminum handle, a bushing pivot, and a bonkers price of only $65.

Unfortunately, these can be hard to find. The lack of accessibility is why they didn’t make the main list.

Bear Ops Bear Song VIII

The Bear Ops Bear Song VIII combines milled steel handles, a spring-loaded latch, a bearing pivot, USA manufacturing, and a 154CM blade all in one affordable package.

It’s not quite as affordable as its brother, the Bear & Son 114, but it’s a great bargain in its own right!

Benchmade 85

Benchmade is often credited with popularizing the Balisong in America, and they make some great ones! The mighty Benchmade 85 is a great representation of what they offer.

While it’s an incredible knife, its weight and price keep it from qualifying for the main list.

REVO Nexus

REVO Knives are a subsidiary of Blade Runners Systems, known for making some of the best balisongs in existence. The problem is BRS struggles to keep up with the insane demand for their knives.

But REVO makes the Nexus, and it has many of the same trimmings as its bigger brothers!

"Butterfly Knife" or "Balisong"

The long and the short of it is that "butterfly knife" may not be the most accurate term. The more proper term is "balisong."

It’s a portmanteau of the Tagolog words baling, which means folding, and sungay, which means horn (the most common handle material in Filipino balisongs).

Balisong is also the name of a barangay (pretty much a village) in Taal, Philippines. My coworker Gian is from the Philippines, and he told me that Batangas—the province where Taal is located—is famous for creating these knives.

Whether the barangay is named after the knife or vice versa is unknown. Either way, the modern balisong was born in Taal.

Therefore, it is more correct to call the knife a balisong, and I invite you to do so.

(This article—and most of our balisong content—uses the term "Butterfly Knife" instead/too because the numbers show that most people google the term "Butterfly Knife." But now you know better!)

There’s some debate as to where the first balisong was actually made. Was it in the Philippines around 800 AD (so legend says), or in France in the late 1600s as a modification to the Pied du roi, a ruler/protractor that shares its name with the unit it measures.

(Pied du roi literally translates to "Foot of the King," so I bet you can guess the unit is within a rounding error of the imperial foot.)

Modern balisongs are a bit shorter than that, but you must admit they bear striking resemblance to the ruler/protractor.

Historically, these devices could have ended up in the Philippines along with European explorers around the same time.

It’s still unclear where the first balisong knife was made, but we do know the following: the term "balisong" is distinctly Tagolog, the balisong found its way to America via the Philippines, and balisong flipping has its roots in Filipino martial arts.

So as far as I’m concerned, the Balisong is as Filipino as adobo!

Are Balisongs/Butterfly Knives Illegal?

It’s an important question to ask. The answer is yes in most US states. Some states do restrict them, however. Be sure to check your local laws before buying.

For additional information on their legality, check out our article on what makes butterfly knives illegal.

Bali Comp: The Pinnacle of Balisong Knife Tricks

Bali Comp is where the best flippers gather to compete for glory and cold, hard cash. Check the most recent competition held at Blade Show East in 2026:

Conclusion

Whether flipping is your thing or not, any true knife lover ought to have a balisong in their collection. Not only are they extremely cool, but they’re an important part of knife history.

And when you get one, don’t just stare at it! Pick it up and learn to flip it! It’s fun, and many tricks are surprisingly easy.

In fact, we have video tutorials that teach you how to do some basic tricks. Get those down, and you’ll be expressing your individuality through the flash of a balisong in no time!