2) It may break fairly quickly, then you'll have to buy another. The whole time you're flipping somthing which sucks at flipping. You end up spending $60 for 2 or 3 in a row when you could have spent $100 for a good one, it lasts a lifetime, it flips the way a real bali should, and when you're done you can sell it for what you paid.
3) It's alot easier to cut yourself with a cheap bali. A good bali is made to respond to your hand, a cheap bali may not listen when you tell it to do something. With quick and precise maneuvers involving a blade, using a bali that isn't tuned for performance can be dangerous.
4) Dynamics
meaning, pivot dynamics. Good flippers have good dynamics, bad balis don't. Dynamics is one important factor that allows the knife to respond accurately and responsively to your hand. Without it, you can cut yourself or develop bad habits. At the least, your flipping experience will be far less enjoyable if your bali has bad dynamics.
5) Handle to Blade weight ratio
This is sometimes called 'the point of balance.' Just like the best off-road trucks are evenly weighted, a good balisong should have a weight ratio of handles to blade within a certain range. If the balisong isn't properly balanced it makes tricks harder, especially aerials.
6) Fit (Assembly Quality)
Not only do you want a balisong that will last a long time as you enjoy its superior action, you need a balisong that has proper fit, so that all the parts flow together the way they should and there are no 'snags' that can lead to injuries or be simply annoying. Cheap balis often have trouble in this department.
Some of the other differences:
a good warranty that will fix or replace the knife if it breaks or wears out.
BFC post on this subject on 11/27/05
Hell I'll take an old wood and bone knife over a cheap plastic M-Tech any day! We here on the forum are balisong enthusiasts. Because of that we know full well the difference that proper dynamics, proper fit & finish, proper weight ratio and balance, and proper assembly make on a flipper. Some of those are safety issues, some of them define how a balisong should move, and some develop either good or bad habits in your practice. Now I can't expect you to be aware of all this as a NooB since you're probably only aware of whether the knife has two handles, whether you can flip it in some rudimentary way, and whether you can somehow keep it from falling apart while you're flipping. But these criteria are what define a true balisong as a flipper, and the fact is that some knives have it and some don't.
You're right there is a continuum for judging flippers, but most CCC's fall so far below those standards they're not even worth mentioning, like your M-Tech. A Jag Classic, for example, has fairly good weight ratio and balance but poor fit & finish, will loosen with use, and has poor dynamics. Despite all its misgivings we still recommend it to NooB's looking for a cheap balisong. Of course it costs $15 wholesale as opposed to the $ .99 your M-Tech cost, so expect to pay $30 for it instead of $10.
Dragonflies have good fit & finish, are well made, have good dynamics, but a terrible weight ratio. That means they are not popular with the flippers although they are a good knife for everyday cutting chores.
If you learn on a cheap-ass bali, the kind that fails the criteria for a proper flipper so badly that it isn't even considered worth owning in our book (save up the extra $20 for at least a decent CCC), then you may cut yourself because the knife doesn't move as it should, and you may also have trouble adjusting to a real bali once you get one. Remember your hands have memory, and you want them to adjust to a bali that can accurately follow their command.
Hey I grew up on CCC's too, but in my day the Pakistani and Valor CCC's were darn good comapred to today's plastic and Elmer's glue crap. As soon as I could I scrounged up the money for a Benchmade and it was worth it.
You're entitled to your opinion, but I think if you stick around you'll learn a few things about what makes a real balisong flipper, as opposed to a piece of crap pretending to be one.
