BRS Barebones Balisong Butterfly Knife Aluminum Channel (4.5" SW)

If you want a bali, and this knife is available, I highly recommend it or any brs knife really. The construction of this knife is very solid, and it feels nearly indestructible, I believe it is ideal for a beater or for heavy flipping. There is very little handle play, and the action is buttery smooth. It is hard to explain how smooth rollovers feel with this knife, but it's a huge improvement from many other knives. The latch is not a spring latch, but it is a bounce latch, and it is perfect on mine, never loose, never too tight. One thing that is important, however, is that this knife is extremely sharp. It will cut you up if you are not careful, and the tip is probably the sharpest tip of any blade I have ever encountered due to the tanto design. What would normally be a simple poke during an aerial will hurt and bleed a lot. Also, the design for the pin can cut you or at least rub against your skin, which can be fixed by filing. Absolutely wonderful knife.

Best Flipper you can buy in the ~$200 Price range IMO. A lot of the issues I disliked with the original barebones are fixed. The nipple was filed down, the edge is beautifully crowned along the entire spine and the knife was lightened up...specs indicates only by 1/2 an ounce but feels like more than that in the hand. Blade is a lot thinner and narrower. Very evenly balanced. Never had a knife that fanned this easily. I really didn't care much at all for the original barebones--would give it a 3/5. It was just too painful to flip and too tiring as well.Too many sharp edges and the spine wreaked havoc with my knuckles. It also was very blade heavy and was just too heavy for the thin and narrow handles. It liked to twist a lot between my fingers. The new version fixed almost all of the issues. Its not a high-end knife in terms of fit or finish but in terms of function there really isn't anything close to it in this price range.

OK, so I have been flipping this knife for about 4 or 5 months now and these are my thoughts after that time. Firstly I actually love this knifes weight and balance. I like heavier knives and this one feels great to me. I know some people don't like the finish, or the sharp corners, but those things don't really bug me. What DOES bug me is that they spent all this time with the wight and the length and the look, and put in stripped screws. Over half of the screws are stripped from the start, and I know that's probably something you can send back to them after you get the knife but it's not something you notice until you spend a month or 2 flipping and work the joints loose. Fortunately the screws that are stripped are the ones at the back of the handle so I can still tighten the flip joints. the other issue i have is that the latch catches, this is a pretty serious issue when you start getting into things like zen rollovers and the timing is off because the latch caught. It wouldn't be such an issue if i could remove the latch..but again...stripped screws... Again, i really like this knife, it feels great and when i try and flip other knives they feel foreign. I just wish they spent a little more time on the hardware and the latch system.

This is my first BRS balisong and my initial impressions out of the box revealed a decent knife. The flipping and pivots are extremely smooth and there is no blade play. The blade is razor sharp (I sharpened it some more..a knife can always be sharper!) My biggest complaint is the finishing on the chevrons on the handles. They are rough. You can literally see where the machined tool marks start and stop. This is most evident on the larger chevrons, although one of the smaller ones has a significant divot, as if the tool skipped. This would have taken ten minutes by hand with a jewelers file to remedy, which I will probably do myself. My last complaint is in regards to the latch, I expected a spring latch for the price. Overall, I am happy with it. Yes, I cut myself, twice, I don't know another way to break in a new bali. It is by far the smoothest opener in my small collection which at the moment comprises of a Pacific Cutlery Model 68 and a Squiddy trainer (next month a Benchmade 87 will be on it's way). Would I buy another BRS product? Probably. Did I expect better? Yes. Are the minor finishing defects a deal breaker for me with this blade? No. As for the latch, paracord lanyard. I have punches to drive out the pin and reinstall it and plenty of paracord. UPDATE: 1-25-2019 After extensive playing/EDC with this blade, I experienced blade rub and had to tighten the pivot screws, usually after each day of playing. I still carry it everyday but I have not used it to cut anything other than tape or saran wrap. The swept back tanto tip is undersirable to me. When going from an icepick back to a normal grip, the last swing when the blade is coming towards my hand, the tip, being curved, always pokes my middle finger. I refuse to do that trick with this blade. Now that I have my BM87, OMG. That is a workhorse, quality, smooth, there is almost an inch difference in the tip of the BM87 and the BRS profile. The BM87 does not hit my fingers and yes I am aware of the price difference. Finally, the last thing I noticed was how thin the BRS handles were and I have to be careful to keep my pinky finger out of the way when flipping because the tip of the blade, profile not a problem in this regard, slicing my finger as the blade comes out of the handle. Never drew blood, just shaved a layer or two off the end. I measured the thickness of the handles at .39" thick while specs claim .42" compared to BM87 and Squiddy at .50" .39" is .030" short of spec but within a +/- .030" typical machine tolerance. It needs to be wider. .050" G10 liners would solve this on all four handle sections adding .100" to come to .49" thickness. Spacers remain the same, just need longer screws and probably longer sex bolts. I will most likely do this myself. I guess I should also mention that I did use some stones and small flat hones to clean up the rough edges on the chevrons. I had to smooth out the latch itself as burrs began to build up and for some reason the safe handle, in the closed position, ready to latch, the bottom of the handles began to mushroom out from impact of the latch causing it to catch and stick. I had to file and hone those down as well. I still carry and flip this knife. I won't use it to cut or EDC as I originally thought I may because the blade honestly looks to weak. So this is relegated to flipping only. Meanwhile the BM87, EDC all the way and my favorite of my small collection. Hope this helps others and let me note I am only a beginner with flipping to the point where I will do aerials and spins but only with the Squiddy at the moment. The blade of the BRS is sharp and demands respect.