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butterfly knife

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Also known as balisong, fan knife

type of folding knife

~20 min read

Encyclopedic overview

A balisong, also known as a butterfly knife, fan knife or Batangas knife, is a type of folding pocketknife that originated from the Philippines. Its distinct features are two handles counter-rotating around the tang such that, when closed, the blade is concealed within grooves in the handles. A latch sometimes holds the handles together, typically mounted on the one facing the cutting edge (the "bite handle"). An exceptionally large balisong is called a balisword.

Butterfly knives in closed and open positions

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “butterfly knife” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.