The purpose of this tutorial is to demonstrate, a simple way to build a balisong knife with the minimum of tools and equipment. While building custom made balisongs, I kept thinking there had to be an easier way, something more in line with the construction of liner lock folders. The way I built this knife is somewhat similar to traditional folders. I also tried to build in such a way that methods could be duplicated with the minimum of equipment. This is not the way that I build my custom balisongs, I utilize a few jigs and more thought and care is taken to insure precision.

Material suggestions: 1” or 1 ¼” blade stock – Recommended – O-1 surface ground tool steel.

3/16: X ½” handle material – Recommended – Aluminum, Stainless Steel or Brass.

3/16” Round pin material – 303 stainless steel or brass.

Depending on your preface: Bushing material and thin washers for pivot.
Latch material, 1/8” round pin material.

Tools: Drills, saws, files and heat source. Material and tool selection will be discussed more thou ally in tutorial. Have a plan before ordering material and always have extra material.

Start with blade material, I will be using a 6 ½” X 1” X 1/8” piece of 1095 spring steel. For the process of demonstration I will be substituting other stock for photographic purposes. If you order material it will be longer stock, witch will aid in building knife, do not cut to length until some blade work has already been completed. Also with the use of simple high carbon steel, heat-treating may be accomplished with minimum of effort.

This is how I laid out the blade pivots. On this blade, pivots will be ½” apart, ¼” from center of blade. The center of blade is marked twice the length of blade. (more on this later)

Drilling, It is best to use some scrap of the same material that you will be using, in order to find the proper drill size. Pin/bushing material will need to fit snug but not tight, it may be necessary to drill too tight a hole use file or Dremel tool to open hole up a little for good fit. On my customs I use undersize drill bit followed by reamer.

Also holes need to be square (90*angle).
Check your drill press and make appropriate adjustments to obtain 90* angle.

I use a dial indicator. Also shown, my blade with pivot holes.

In Photo #3, I have transferred my pivot hole into a 1” X 4” board. (Visualize one piece of steel instead of two. This is the only piece of high carbon I had at the time)

I have cut my four pieces of handle material 1” longer than pivot to end of blade dimension. I chose ½” X 3/16” aluminum rectangle strip. If you have minimum equipment I suggest you use aluminum, stainless steel is hard to cut, drill and shape. I buy my handle material, online from mcmaster.com. However if you use stainless steel, purchase the higher price strips, as it is true rectangle, the lower price material is “sheared stock” and is not true rectangle. Causing much more work. Cutting handles from plate and squaring up edges requires much work and effort. Mcmaster.com will also have blade material, pin stock, washers and bushings. Order it all at one time as there shipping and handling is expensive. Drill pivot hole in handles, center of stock and ¼” from end.

I have decided to make a warncliff blade, so I will need to place my “end of handle” spacer just past blade tip. At this point it is best to place “end of handle” spacer at very minimum, I can shape blade to fit handle. (You can take material off, but you cannot add it later) I have drilled my 3/16” hole for spacer at this time.

After drilling this hole, I will transfer both holes into other three handles by clamping in a vice and drilling though to undrilled handle. It will be tempting to drill all three handles at the same time, but I suggest you drill one at a time.

A decision needs to be made at this time. With sandwich construction balisongs, it is almost necessary to use blade pivot bushings. We need to eliminate handles from pinching the blade. I use ¼” brass round stock and machine out on a lathe. You may be able to find pre-made bushings of proper size. However bushing length must be extra precise. I have a pile of bushings that are too short, but I can just make some more. The difference between a loose pivot and “just right” is .0005” With use of 3/16” pivot pin material and properly finished blade pivot. (slightly polished and de-burred) I feel bushings are not absolutely necessary.

An alternative, to prevent handles from “pinching” blade will be “hidden blade stops”.
I have taken a scrap piece of handle material and have made a drill template. I drilled the pivot hole and drilled the “blade stop pin” hole at minimum distance from “blade pivot hole”. If you use wider blade material and plan on making guards on blade, you will need to adjust accordingly in order to allow clearance for blade stop pins. Place hole as far to one side as you can so that “waist” of blade will not be too narrow.

Utilizing my template I have drilled a “blind hole” into inside of handle .125”. I used my drill stop, an alternative would be to place a tube over drill bit in order to limit drill travel. Care must be taken to not drill too deep, so that if you contour outside of handle bottom of hole does not become exposed. I ran 3/16” reamer into my blind hole in order to square up bottom of hole. If you do not have a reamer, you could shape end of pin to fit bottom of hole. Be sure to drill two handles then flop over template for other two handles to make two matching pairs of handles.

Now we are going to take our handle template (if you are not going to use blind holes for blade stop pins, you can use your drilled out handles) Clamp down so that you will have maximum gap between handles, using blade centerline for a reference. Drill though blade stop pin hole, though blade. Will fine tune later with a file.

I have my blade with pivot holes, blade stop positions and marked for material to be removed. The extra holes are to aid in removing material. Note: if you are using longer blade stock, there is no need to cut blade from material. You can shape front of knife and grind blade bevels. The extra material will give you a handle to hold on to while working blade.

I am going to utilize 1” radius for my blade waist, however you might prefer to do something different. I also will use .375” washers, so I marked the area I do not want to remove material and material that will need to be removed.

Remove material so that blade stop pin has clearance to rotate from open to closed. Shape blade to desired profile. I removed .100” from blade edge to prevent sharp edge from being too close to opening of handle while knife is closed.

I also placed pivot washer on handle to help me judge radius on end of handle. At this point in time we will not be concerned with latch end of handle.

After grinding or filing handles all flush, matched up and pivot ends radiused. Try handles on blade and check for proper fit.

At this time we will need to cut some blade stop pins, we will not get precise at this time, just need something to hold handles together so we can adjust handle gap. I used finishing grit belts to adjust gap between handles, grind a little and check gap. Compare with calipers, open and closed to get as close as possible. Do not get gap too close together as we are not finished with blade yet. We can close gap more, later. Remember you can take off more material later, but you cannot add material later.

I squeezed handles together and marked latch pin pivot hole. Don’t squeeze too tight, I just used vice to hold and free up both hands.

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The balisong knife is a unique subject. The method I constructed this knife is the most simple of any folding knife I have built thus far. Channel construction balisongs is a very good type, but you will have to use a milling machine to construct the handles. Tang pin knives have the advantage of, no need of the “waist” area of the blade and the horns or blade guards can be much larger. But that is the only advantage I see. Personally I do not like pressed pins in the blade. Lock backs and slip joints utilize springs, to work properly. Liner locks despite their simple construction must be precise to lock open and even more precise to stay closed with detent ball. However the balisong is subject to preciseness issues, same as liner locks. It is fairly easy to build a sloppy folding knife, the advantage of the balisong is that it will not accidentally close, where as a sloppy liner lock can be disastrous. Lock backs and slip joints have the advantage of spring pressure on blade at all times, looseness is not as noticeable.

This knife that I built was not satisfactory to me. I still had some binding and looseness issues. I will continue to use pivot bushings and screw construction for my custom knives that I offer for sale. I have not found a short cut. But for the knife making hobbyist this method will be good place to start. The balisong design offers a creative outlet in knife making, I have seen several new designs in the last year that is nothing short of evolutionary. There is the offset pin/tang pin design that I believe will open the door to new ideas. Myself, till I seen the photos, the idea never occurred to me. I was under the impression that symmetrically was the norm with this type of knife. I hope this simple method of balisong construction will allow the maker to be creative. Always wanted a foot long blade? I hope to see some of my efforts on this project come to light. Being a part time maker, for about 20 years it has been a balance between building knives to my customer wishes and creating the works that are on mind. “So many knives, so little time” In the future I hope to achieve the status of not bowing to customer request and utilizing my own creativity. Of course I will need to find willing buyers, I have no desire to be my own collector. My only advice to beginning makers is to build what you want and not worry about what may sell. (you will not get rich making knives anyway)

Again, I hope this tutorial is beneficial to aspiring knifemakers.

Terry Guinn - August 2003