Benchmade stopped manufacturing their production Balisongs a few years back because of technical cost benefit problems, this phenomena has sent many Balisong entheusiasts in a frenzy and many newcomers into dismay for a knife that has both form and fuction when they can't bear to continue to abuse their now scarce BM or can't afford a secondary market BM.
As such the Balisong fan world has been separated into two hemispheres. It seems that the best Balisongs readily available in the market are the Taiwan made JAGUAR and the USA made BEAR MGC.
However, the quality control on both these brands are pretty much equal. Do not let the [Made in the USA] mark on a Bear MGC fool you. A made in Taiwan JAGUAR is just as good as a BEAR MGC, or should I say a BEAR is just as bad as a JAGUAR.
Do not get me wrong, both these knives are good, but you know, your perspective on life drastically changes when you flip a BM. Personally I am more of a JAGUAR fan, since my BEAR MGC experiences have been less than nice. Do not let that influence you too much though. Each of these knives have their own good points and bad points.
Jaguar Balisongs
Jaguar Balisongs are manufactured and imported from Taiwan (mass production & piracy capital of the world). There is next to no quality control standards and basically you get a mix of good knives and bad knives in a shipment. Personally when it comes to these kinds of knives I prefer going to the local Pittsburgh mall so I can flip one around and choose the best pick from a lot. Mail order is say on average 25% cheaper than retail but I would pay that much to reduce or eliminate the risk of getting shipped a 'bad apple'. All in all JAGUARs are relatively fine pieces in terms of quality. In the mall, less than 20% of the available Jaguars are faulty in terms of stiffness, alignment or overall aesthetic appearance/consistency.
JAGUARs are said to be direct copies of the BM 239 and 259 series as well as the older Pacific Cutlery International series. Whether the weight and choice of materials is identical is to be further reconfirmed on my part when I get a more trustworthy source, or get the said BM and PC originals.
o Jaguar Model 239 copy.
o Jaguar Model 239b copy.
o Jaguar Model 259 copy. Images stolen without consent from the KNIFEZILLA site.
Apart from the above versions, there is also a Benchmade 259b copy which is black inserts on black handles. Also serrated versions of each model is also available. These are, to my experience the highest end Jaguars there is.
(9/8/99)I recently got my hands on a secondary market Benchmade 239. The economoy grade Benchmade series were made of Zamak (zinc content) handles. I do not trust any of the webpages out there but it seems that many pages insist that the handles are made of aluminum. The Benchmade 239 is chrome plated, while the Jaguar copy has a dull finish. I have yet to perform the mechanical shop tests to see if Jaguar handles are indeed aluminum or Zamak. I can't tell. My best guess is a dull finished Aluminum mainly from weight comparisons. If you have stable info I would love to hear them.
Oh BTW I bought a Jaguar 259 copy and like it's weight. I was also given a 239s copy as a gift ^_^. I switch preference between both knives but I do prefer the 259 copy.
One problem that comes to mind with both BEAR MGC and JAGUAR is the latch quiality.
* A good latch on a Balisong must catch tight (which implies that the knife will not 'Auto latch/lock' during maniplation, and...
* that you need to squueze the handles together before you can latch. The case is usually that the latch closes tight either when the Balisong is open (blade exposed) or when it is closed (blade hidden).
This has two functions: The latch should catch tight when the Balisong is closed so it is safe in your pocket or when you are doing closed Balisong finger exercises, the other is it should latch tight when the Balisong is open when you are actually using your knife during grip changing exercises as well as when you are using your knife for 'practical' purposes. Considering this 50% trade-off with these lower grade Balisongs I prefer a tight closed Balisong rather than a tight open Balisong.
What I like about JAGUARs is the blade to handle ratio. I have stated earlier that I like heavier handles for my Balisongs. This is considering both 'what feels good' and 'what is safer to manipulate'. The best JAGUARs are the $30.00 retail priced BM/PC copies (there are many many cheaper JAGUARs circulating in the market). The Blade is quite good, the more expensive JAGUARS are stamped 'surgical steel' (how true this is we will never know) and the cheaper ones 'ROSTFREI' (Stainless steel in German - These cheaper models are NOT made in Germany and as usual a cheap marketing ploy, but hey we Chinese are shrewd businesspeople). The surgical steel blades have retained their sharpness despite the abuse I subject the blade to - I have the scars on my fingers to prove it too. ^_^.
However, considering the weight of the handles, the pin strength integrity is in question. (I can go into the added abuse caused by bending moments and torque as opposed to lighter BEAR handles but you wouldn't want that ^_^. I am a Civil Engineer so this comes naturally to me, not something I looked up.) After heavy manipulation the pins come loose and pop out, causing your 'disassembled' JAGUAR to go flying into the face of your nearest spectator. Not good. Which is why I always inspect my JAGUAR before I go into an abusive routine. It is suggested you fuse the pins after it becomes lookse or replace the pins with solid nails (as documented In BalisongXtreme's 'Tip of the Week' archive).
Bear MGC Balisongs
Somehow I expected more from the proud and the free [Made in the USA] stamp that the cheesy ass Bear MGC box had bannered on the front. I guess everyone is the same. Out to abuse and exploit a good name. It IS the fundamentals of marketing I suppose. I have not owned a BEAR MGC long enough to test it's pin integrity, but I have heard that the brittle handles break faster than the pins though.
The quality control on these knives are less than expected, considering BEAR MGC put PROUDLY made in the USA on the boxes. Like the JAGUARs defects are common, which gives people the impression at both JAGUARs and BEARs are just as good/bad as a $9.00 Butterfly. Trust me that is not the case and there exist gems in a shipment, you just know how to choose if you have that opportunity.
I had bought 2 BEAR MGC Balisongs. The 114D which is a damascus clip point blade with 'stardust' cast handles and a 116 which is a 440 blade with black powdercoat handles. Personally I prefer heavier handles when I flip Balisongs, and somehow the 114D just didn't cut it for me. This is the main reason I do not like BEAR MGC Balisongs. The damascus blade was very nice but it's weight offsetted the light handles and the movement just didn't move well to a point that it was dangerous to manipulate this Balisong because the balance was so weird. For $60.00 retail I wasn't prepared to keep this knife.
The latches are also a problem with the BEARs (as with JAGUARs), but it is expected, you best bet is to go to a mall if you can and pick out the best latch.
The 116 had significantly heavier handles and seemed to have a better blade to handle weight ratio, however the knife I got refused to flip, and I was so disappointed that I didn't bother to waste the time to break it in and loosen the pins. The mall doesn't carry any 'cheaper' BEAR MGCs so I was not able to do any more tests. I don't claim to be an expert in the field of Bali testing and wouldn't go out of my way to buy any more BEARs just so I can do a quality control or a functionality test. The BEAR MGC fans flash me a weird eye whenever I talk about this topic, I guess I just got a bad deal since they assure me that they are happy with their BEARs. Incidentally I find it amusing that BEAR fans are avid JAGUAR haters =).
As an aside I have also had the privellege of test running the 114AD which is the chisel ground armour piercing damascus tanto. Now this takes the cake for best innovatively bad design. I am sorry but I don't want to even bother putting 'in my humble opinion' in this paragraph cause this knife is BUTT UGLY! Ofcourse It has it's own pool of fans but I don't know how anyone can stand it. I thought the blade to handle weight ratio of the 114D was bad, this blade is around 50%-100% more massive than the damascus clip point. To add to it stupidity, the handles were not redesigned and the same 114 handles were used despite the fact that this tanto blade is three handles wide, thus it gives it a 'bucktoothed' look to it. It is probably why you NEVER see a 114AD closed in a mail order page cause it is GODDAMN UGLY. Anyways I stop now. Thank you for your understanding =). Now if you still like your armour piercing 114AD then by all means stab some cars. I want to know how long it'll take for the handles to snap under the bending moment and shear stresses.
I like my JAGUAR. I don't fancy the idea of thicker handles, but it is the price we have to pay. Thicker handles are cheaper to make apparently, so it is probably the tradeoff between materials and production costs. According to Economis Long run total costs equal variable costs over time so JAGUAR should've invested on a better manufacturing process and over time come out with a better more affordable product. But man this is a f#cking Taiwan deal. You don't do econonomics in this business - JAGUAR prolly never knew they would become a 'fan fave'. Sad. Very sad.
If you have any favourite Balisongs to replace your beloved Benchmade please tell me, I would love to hear about it, ofcourse this blade has to be readily available in the market, not some Taylor or Frost antique. If you would like to send over or trust me enough to let me 'borrow' some samples I would be more than happy to test em out.
