"Everything returns to simplicity Nothing was meant to be complex when it is loved..."

A very interesting collection indeed. Here we have a quintet of Pacific Cutlery, Parker Gypsy and Custom made Kelgin Balisongs. Ken Largin of Kelgin Cutlery broke into the scene with his custom made Balisongs back in the old days. And his hand made 'cheapies' now go for at LEAST 3 times their original price. As the story goes, he made his name on an idea, and once he sold the idea of making custom made Balisongs he had 6 months or so to learn how to make knives. The results were astonishing.

# Balisong 1 and 4 from top: Here are a pair of 3 inch and 4 inch clip bladed Parker Gypsies. What makes these blades (and Parker Gypsy in general) stand out from the crowd is their innovatively ergonomic handle designs. A design that has never lost it's charm because it was never 'pirated' by the taiwan cheapeies.

# #2 Here is a 4 inch Pacific Cutlery model 403, that sports the immortal Jody Samson (sp?) weehawk. This knife was sent to Ken Largin as a sample to make two prototype Balisongs. (shown as blade #3 and #5)

# #5 Skipping down to the last blade in the batch. This was the first prototype custom made by Ken Largin. If you notice the handles are exact copies of Benchmade/Pacific Cutlery's custom mirror finish line. As the story goes, Les DeAsis (BM CEO) commisioned (or received as gifts) some Kelgin Balisongs and as 'payment' Mr. DeAsis gave Kelgin permission to use the BM custom designed handles (or gave Ken Largin a number of unfinished BM custom handles) to use for a small number of knives.

The result is a straight bladed weehawk copy of the PC 403 with filework on the spine and genuine Elephant Ivory handle inserts. The handles proved to be a hard material to maintain since it warped easily.

# #3 The owner, decided that he wanted a PC 403 copy Balisong with a more usefull belly. And this was the reult. A well loved deep-bellied 'modified' PC 403 copy with genuine Elephant Ivory handle inserts.

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