The Flipping Arena

I had mentioned in another thread a while ago that I would post pics of my custom FHM straight razor bali. So here they are. The first three images are the design that I created for the knife. I built it in Google sketchup so I could give the bladesmith full orthographic views and as well as some 3/4 shots so hopefully my design would be clear.







And here are pics of how it turned out in the end. While it's not a 100% exact translation of my concept art, they matched my design close enough that I'm happy with it.

Some specs:
High carbon steel blade
aluminum bolsters and spacers
kamagong wood scales
brass latch
it's one of a kind baby! woot.













The knife is big! Here's a comparison pic so you can get a feel for how it is:

Thats dope, how much it cost you?

have you shaved with it yet?

nice!

Very very nice. I like the fact that you chose kamagong wood (AKA ironwood) inserts.

Who made it?

That is seriously very very cool.

Ever shaved with a straight razor before? I wanna see you try. Post a vid dude!

very nice

Thanks ya'll, glad you like it!




I have not shaved with a straighty before and haven't tried it with this bali either. It's sharp, but unfortunately I'm not sure it's quite honed to the type of edge I'd need to deal with my grizzle. I dunno, maybe I'll try at some point for kicks, but I don't have video camera so the best I could do was still shots if I get around to it.


Thnaks...yeah the kamagong is nice. Barrio balisong made it.

Wow, that is such a cool knife! Thanks for showing it off!

great looking piece!
I'm sure I would cut the crap out of my face if I were to shave with that

That's a nice looking Bali.

The most important question of all... How does it flip?

When I first got the knife it came tight as a drum and took quite a bit to break in the pivots. After breaking it in it flips pretty nice.

The straight razor style tang tail obviously negates the practicality of most rollovers and such. I've been playing around a bit to figure out if there is any special moves I could actually utilize the the tail for in flipping...haven't come up with anything too spectacular as of yet, but we'll see.

The balance is a bit blade biased (say that 10 times fast ) because there is so much blade and the handle construction is aluminum. Wondering if perhaps I should have had them make the bolsters brass, but I'm not sure how much that would have made a difference anyway and besides, I like the way the aluminum looks.

Admittedly I designed this piece mostly on aesthetics, because I wanted something kinda unique and I just thought the idea of a hybrid lovechild of a balisong and a straight razor would be badass. So anyway, it flips pretty decent, but isn't the first knife in my collection I turn to for doing all my tricks.

I tried to get some made a few weeks ago and the makers I work with said they'd rather not make one again. I guess it was a lot of work for them. I'll try asking different makers in a few weeks, but I was surprised they weren't up for it!

that is wicked awesome!
i want one