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The [Franken-Bali] Project
Eversince I got into this Balisong/Knife collecting business I've always wanted one thing... A double edged Weehawk or Bowie. My dream blades. So if I couldn't have it, I'd MAKE ONE DAMN IT!! I was bored one day and went into the Civil Engineering Machine shop. There I saw an anvil and a couple of bench grinders. I couldn't stop thinking about it so I ended up spending an hour for a few afternoons illegally and unsupervised in the machine shop.

The result... As Master Clay would put it.. a 'Franken-Bali'.

In the name of science... well okay, in the name of fanatical boredom, I took my Jaguar Balisong and 'Franken-Styled' it. As a kid I used to collect Japanese model cars and gas guns. The best part about it (as with many asian model hobbies) was 'Hopping them up' with all the overpriced hop up features that wold otherwise make your crappy stock model into a work of art.

The most exciting part is ofcourse, using your own imagination and customizing BEYOND buying market available replacement parts. Making it a 'true' Hop-Up/Custom.

I have never forged, ground, or otherwise worked with knives or blades before so please excuse the crudeness of my knife. All in all I spent many an hour on this project and eventhough it does look like crap I still love it. I hope you see it as a challenge and a tribute to pioneering and self taught improvement.. or something.

I hopped up this Jaguar Balisong by custom grinding a sharpened false edge and replaced the pins. I also 'flushed' the pins into the handle very crudely to give the Balisong a 'Hidden Pin' look famous in Benchmade Production Balisongs. Moreover I 'polished' the aluminum handles on the knife to give it an 'antique' feel. (okay I am bullshitting here I just screwed up with my mirror polishing attempt ^_^;;)

First of all I ground down the swedge on the Jaguar until it was a very crude false edge, then I proceeded long hours using my Spiderco sharpener to get rid of as much of the bumps as I can since I didn't know how to replace the grinding wheels on the Bench grinder to anything finer. I 'brushed' it with a polishing wheel and tried to mirror polish it to no avail. Finally I sharpened the already concave edge once again until it was razor sharp.

Using Clay's method of replacing pins in BALISONGXTREME's TIP OF THE WEEK I replaced the pin on the 'Bite handle'.

# It seems that, for me, the first to go is the pin on the 'Bite Handle'. Unlike many horror stories I hear about pins ocming free and handles resultantly flying, all I ever experienced are the 'caps' on the pins, popping out.

# Jaguar pins are hollow in that case they bend easily (inside the handle). This leads to MISALIGNMENT of your handles which in turn screws up the otherwise smooth flow of your Balisong.

I never really believed Clay before, and thought of his replacing the pins method as being a last ditch method, which would be as good as the original Jaguar pins.. HOWEVER..

REPLACING the original Jaguar Pins GREATLY IMPROVES your Jaguar's performance, it isn't just a 'fix' it is a HOP UP. Once I replaced the pins I have had such smooth performance that I can't think why I didn't replace the Jaguar pins to begin with.

I use round end screws instead of finishing nails, as suggested by Clay. First of all I think they look cooler and are more rust resistant.

I couldn't remove the pin on the 'Safe handle' (and had a HELL of a time hamering out the pin on the 'Bite handle' because they were so bent out of shape that they were basically stuck in the handles. The screw I used is solid unlike the original pins which were hollow. As such my safe handle is a bit wobbly but my bite handle is rock solid.

I ended up just hammering in my old pin to death. I ground down the head of the round end screw (replacement pin) and polished both pins down as much as I dared until I got a pseudo 'Hidden pin' look to them.

If you have any [Franken-Balis] of your own please send em in I would love to see them. Who knows.. Maybe I could start an unofficial Balisong Hobby here =).