cetan

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/9936120

That's right, I've been at it again.

(And if you want to fast forward through all the foreplay and get right to the action you can download the models package here. Merry Christmas, ya filthy animals.)

Here's a slightly more practical printable than the last one, which I'm calling the Sparrow.

This knife has the same design goals as before: Fully printable, with no external hardware except the Stanley utility knife blade, no supports, and mechanically as close to a real functional mechanism as is possible.

So it's a real working lockback folder. It locks up pretty good, too. Getting that working was one of those things that sounded really simple conceptually but actually turned out to be a pain in the ass to achieve. The mechanism owes a bit of credit to the Secret Of Show Business, via the wooden Spyderco kit we looked at a while back.

Oh, and making it in orange gives the the opportunity to do one of them there themed gear flat-lays that are so popular with the influencers nowadays.

The Sparrow is a pretty pocketable EDC size at about 3-5/8" long when closed. It's noticeably shorter than my CQC-6K, but it's longer than a Gerber EAB because I can't cheat and use smaller diameter steel screws. A noticeable portion of its length at the tail end is just to accommodate the printed screw, which I can't make much thinner if I'd like it to continue to, you know, work.

Of course, it has a reversible pocket clip available as well.

Sure, it's not as much fun to fiddle around with as a balisong knife. But I find the simple folding design a lot more practical for daily use. (I've been beating the shit out of my prototype, as is tradition, for a whole week at work before considering it "done.") Plus it's much less likely to draw the ire of the local constabulary if you happen to live in one of those countries with an unfortunate deficiency of bald eagles.

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Preemptive Burning Questions That Would Otherwise Inevitably Appear In The Comments

Q: Why are all the screws and pins separate parts? Don't you know you could simplify the design by making it all one solid lump?

Of course I know that. However, let's say you manage to break one of those titchy little 2mm pins. Would you rather re-print the entire monolithic handle liner assembly, or one 0.3 gram pin?

Q: But also making the handle scales separate was still totally pointless, right?

Sure, except this allows me to make a variety of scale styles available, including zooty skeletonized ones you can print in a complimentary color for two-tone aesthetics:

The possibilities practically suggest themselves.

Q: This is going to break instantly and you'll slice your fingers off. Printing something like this is so unsafe! I know this because I have done no math or testing whatsoever, but am an armchair expert!

Well, I clamped my prototype knife in my vise and yanked on it against its opening axis with a dial scale until it broke. You know, for science.

The major markings on that scale are 5 pound increments, by the way. It gave a noticeable warning creak at 37 pounds, and finally broke with the dial indicating 39 pounds. It was only made out of ordinary PLA. As you can see, I actually had to adjust my grip and I was bracing my foot against the bottom of my workbench to be able to put enough oomph into it to break it. If you torque your box cutter at nearly 40 pounds in day-to-day use I suggest you're probably using it wrong. Provided you don't try to use this knife as a crowbar or a piton I really don't think you'll have anything to worry about.

Q: What's with the dumb bird on everything?

He's a penguin. Don't be dissing my penguin, man.

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.STL Files Download: Here.

As before, the above is provided as-is and with no guarantees, and you are free to make your own or give printed knives away to friends or family or what have you, but prints of my models are not to be sold and not to be uploaded or reposted to any model repository or anywhere else outside of the Lemmy-sphere.

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Assembly Instructions and like a million pictures As Follows:

People with no interest in printing or assembling one of these can stop reading now. I promise I'll go back to my usual program of loquacious show-and-tell/point-and-laugh over various whackmobile novelty knives in my subsequent posts.

Anyway, you will need to print this small mountain of components.

The complete bill of materials is as follows:

• 1x Blade Holder
• 1x Top Liner, 1x Bottom Liner
• 1x Lock Bar
• 1x Spring Block
• 2x Female Screws
• 2x Male Screws
• 2x 2mm Pins
• 1x 4mm Pin
• 1x Top Scale, 1x Bottom Scale of your choice
• If you want to use the clip, you need 1x Pocket Clip, and replace 1x of the short female screws with the longer one included, labeled "for pocket clip."

Several components are quite close fits, and various pins and screws need to fit through their respective holes. If your printer produces parts with a lot of elephant's foot on the bottom you'll probably have to trim the inside edges of the holes with a utility knife blade, which is something I should hope you'll have to hand when embarking on this project...

Start with the bottom liner. You can identify it as the one with the chamfered holes for the pins, which you'll notice have flared heads.

Stick the 2mm pins and the 4mm pin through. They'll sit flush with the underside of the liner. If they don't, you have some trimming to do. Then sandwich your bottom handle scale underneath that. The scale will keep the pins from falling out.

Then identify your screws. There are two screw lengths, and if you're going to use the pocket clip you'll put the shorter one through the front where the blade goes on, and the longer one through the tail where the clip will go. If you're not going to use the clip, just employ two short screws instead, one on either end.

Either way, stick the female screws up through the entire sandwich.

Drop the blade holder on the front screw.

Then put the lock bar through the middle pin. Play with it a bit and make sure it drops cleanly into the notch on the blade holder. If anything is going to require tuning or sanding it'll be the interface between the lock bar and its notch there. It should also pivot freely on its pin. If it's a really tight draggy fit this will annoy you, and this'll make the lockup unreliable as well.

The spring block goes on next, and obviously the holes on it are for your last remaining pin plus the screw at the tail end of the knife. The prong on it goes below the end of the lock bar, i.e. on the inside. When you press the hump on the lock bar it should spring up and down satisfactorily.

Then the top liner goes on. All three pins should rest home in the holes in it.

Then the top scale and its (male) screw. You can drive the screws with a penny if you're too perverse to use a screwdriver.

If you're going to use the pocket clip, decide which side you want it on (of course it's reversible; I'm not an animal) and stick it through the slot on the tail end of the knife.

For strength, I recommend putting the female side of the tail screw through the clip, then through the rest of the assembly, and then put the male screw on the side that's not holding the clip. Depending on which side you chose to put the clip on you may have to take it out and stick it through from the other side.

FYI, if you don't use the pocket clip there is a hole in its mounting slot you can use to tie a lanyard through instead, if you're into that sort of thing.

The blade slides in from the front and rides in a track that holds it on both the sharp edge and the blunt spine. Press the blade locking pin flexture down to get the pins to clear.

The pins ought to click into the two notches on your blade quite nicely. If you noticed that this is the same blade holding mechanism is very similar to the one on my last knife, that's because you're right and it's exactly the same.

Fin.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/9725583

(dear gods... what have I done? )

Some of you may remember my Weird Knife Wednesday post from a few months ago about the 2022 Walmart crossbar lock (hilariously called "shaft lock") knife. It was a first for Ozark Trail. Here's a link: https://lemmy.world/post/5850196

That knife came out of nowhere and many of the budget-oriented knife communities took notice. If your local Walmart had them, it wasn't for long because they were selling out. I bought 2 (and gave one away as a part of a white elephant gift).

Skip to 2023 and Walmart has released not one, not two, but three different crossbar locking knives for this holiday season. (more on that later).

For those who don't know, Ozark Trail is the Walmart in-house brand (the Amazon Essentials of the brick and mortar world) for many, many things. Including knives.

For $5-6 US, these are knives built to a very specific price point and it shows.

Enough talk, time for some photos:

As mentioned these are 2 of the 3 released this year for the holidays. You'll find these two, along with a few liner lock, frame lock, and fixed blades, in an end-cap or center-aisle display if your Walmart has them in.

The textured G10 (?) one at the top looks suspiciously like the Sencut Scepter (which, is par for the course for Ozark Trail "designers"). The second one, with the blue pivot ring does not look familiar but I'm assuming eagle-eyed readers know its inspiration.

It's hard to see in these photos both knives have deep-carry clips that extend past the back of the scales. These are very deep carry indeed.

The action on these knives is really bad. As if straight out of the factory they decided to take them to the beach and bury them all in sand before shipping them off. The crossbar on both grinds against the back of the knife. The spring tension on the bar is not as strong as last years model but could still use some work. I'm sure that they will break in, even if it takes a year. You can't really flip them open (without also throwing your wrist around wildly and looking like a lunatic) and you're mostly going to have to 2-hand shut them.

On the other hand: these were $5 each. So if you have to slow-roll them open, maybe that's not so bad?

I had mentioned a 3rd "shaft lock" knife that seems to be mostly available online, though I did find a few stores listing them as in stock (but I'm not driving further than I already have for these). It comes as a part of a 3-pack of knives and some other tools.

I'm blatantly lifting this image off the Walmart website:

I don't think I'm going to buy the pack though because, while only $5 each, buying a couple of these gets me into "real" knife territory (the aforementioned Sencut Scepter being a great knife for the money) and I'd rather buy more of those than more of these.

Should you buy these Ozark Trail knives? I would hope not. I made this sacrifice for you. Don't repeat my mistakes, learn from them.

(dear gods... what have I done? )

Some of you may remember my Weird Knife Wednesday post from a few months ago about the 2022 Walmart crossbar lock (hilariously called "shaft lock") knife. It was a first for Ozark Trail. Here's a link: https://lemmy.world/post/5850196

That knife came out of nowhere and many of the budget-oriented knife communities took notice. If your local Walmart had them, it wasn't for long because they were selling out. I bought 2 (and gave one away as a part of a white elephant gift).

Skip to 2023 and Walmart has released not one, not two, but three different crossbar locking knives for this holiday season. (more on that later).

For those who don't know, Ozark Trail is the Walmart in-house brand (the Amazon Essentials of the brick and mortar world) for many, many things. Including knives.

For $5-6 US, these are knives built to a very specific price point and it shows.

Enough talk, time for some photos:

As mentioned these are 2 of the 3 released this year for the holidays. You'll find these two, along with a few liner lock, frame lock, and fixed blades, in an end-cap or center-aisle display if your Walmart has them in.

The textured G10 (?) one at the top looks suspiciously like the Sencut Scepter (which, is par for the course for Ozark Trail "designers"). The second one, with the blue pivot ring does not look familiar but I'm assuming eagle-eyed readers know its inspiration.

It's hard to see in these photos both knives have deep-carry clips that extend past the back of the scales. These are very deep carry indeed.

The action on these knives is really bad. As if straight out of the factory they decided to take them to the beach and bury them all in sand before shipping them off. The crossbar on both grinds against the back of the knife. The spring tension on the bar is not as strong as last years model but could still use some work. I'm sure that they will break in, even if it takes a year. You can't really flip them open (without also throwing your wrist around wildly and looking like a lunatic) and you're mostly going to have to 2-hand shut them.

On the other hand: these were $5 each. So if you have to slow-roll them open, maybe that's not so bad?

I had mentioned a 3rd "shaft lock" knife that seems to be mostly available online, though I did find a few stores listing them as in stock (but I'm not driving further than I already have for these). It comes as a part of a 3-pack of knives and some other tools.

I'm blatantly lifting this image off the Walmart website:

I don't think I'm going to buy the pack though because, while only $5 each, buying a couple of these gets me into "real" knife territory (the aforementioned Sencut Scepter being a great knife for the money) and I'd rather buy more of those than more of these.

Should you buy these Ozark Trail knives? I would hope not. I made this sacrifice for you. Don't repeat my mistakes, learn from them.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/9608937

NKD (well, week): The Kershaw Heist

This knife is a steal. There I said it. It's done. We can move on. No more puns from here on out. 😆

Earlier this year, Kershaw released their first crossbar locking knives. It would appear that the runaway winner of the 4 was the Iridium. It showed up in many reviews winning a lot of praise, and likely for good reasons. Kershaw knows how to build knives well and they appear to have knocked it out of the park with their version of the crossbar, which they call the "Duralock."

The Iridum is not really a knife for me though. With only a few exceptions, I'm not really into knives with scales made of metal. Too cold in the winter and too slippery in the summer.

When I saw the Heist, however...

IMHO, the Heist is what you get when you take a Benchmade Bugout and a Benchmade Freek and make a functional baby at 1/3 the cost. Hashtag KnifeBaby

I don't have a full-sized Freek, just the old-school Mini Freek but the comparison works, I think.

First off, the Heist is thin. As thin as the Bugout. Lightweight handles, but full-length liners so slightly heavier than the Bugout. The blade itself is far thinner than the Freek and thinner than even the Bugout thanks to the deeper swedge. So this is a very slicey knife indeed.

This is not a knife I would expect to be using for hours on end. Much like the Bugout, it's function is all about having a knife in the moment for quick needs without weighting you down. This is a knife I would not have a problem camping/hiking with at all.

Out of the box the knife did need a little breaking in. The action was a little slow but after a week of just handling it, it's just fine. The blade steel is D2 which helps keep the costs down. Kershaw is not a super budget brand though so at $50 it's on the higher end of D2 knives these days.

Pocket clip is great with the right amount of deep-carry for me. Scales are grippy but not aggressively so, and I don't feel like it's going to tear up the pocket.

Based on a week's worth of use, I would highly recommend this. The Duralock is well tuned, the knife sits in the hand comfortably for what it is, it's light, and best of all: it's not super expensive.

NKD (well, week): The Kershaw Heist

This knife is a steal. There I said it. It's done. We can move on. No more puns from here on out. 😆

Earlier this year, Kershaw released their first crossbar locking knives. It would appear that the runaway winner of the 4 was the Iridium. It showed up in many reviews winning a lot of praise, and likely for good reasons. Kershaw knows how to build knives well and they appear to have knocked it out of the park with their version of the crossbar, which they call the "Duralock."

The Iridum is not really a knife for me though. With only a few exceptions, I'm not really into knives with scales made of metal. Too cold in the winter and too slippery in the summer.

When I saw the Heist, however...

IMHO, the Heist is what you get when you take a Benchmade Bugout and a Benchmade Freek and make a functional baby at 1/3 the cost. Hashtag KnifeBaby

I don't have a full-sized Freek, just the old-school Mini Freek but the comparison works, I think.

First off, the Heist is thin. As thin as the Bugout. Lightweight handles, but full-length liners so slightly heavier than the Bugout. The blade itself is far thinner than the Freek and thinner than even the Bugout thanks to the deeper swedge. So this is a very slicey knife indeed.

This is not a knife I would expect to be using for hours on end. Much like the Bugout, it's function is all about having a knife in the moment for quick needs without weighting you down. This is a knife I would not have a problem camping/hiking with at all.

Out of the box the knife did need a little breaking in. The action was a little slow but after a week of just handling it, it's just fine. The blade steel is D2 which helps keep the costs down. Kershaw is not a super budget brand though so at $50 it's on the higher end of D2 knives these days.

Pocket clip is great with the right amount of deep-carry for me. Scales are grippy but not aggressively so, and I don't feel like it's going to tear up the pocket.

Based on a week's worth of use, I would highly recommend this. The Duralock is well tuned, the knife sits in the hand comfortably for what it is, it's light, and best of all: it's not super expensive.

Recent discussions around purchasing knives got me thinking maybe a thread of online stores would be good. I'm going to assume that a lot of new-to-knives people are starting on Amazon which is often not the best place.

I'll list a few that I use or have experience with (and maybe some background). I have no affiliation with these places other than being a happy customer. None of the links or codes are going to make me money or give me free stuff. Just thought I would throw together some options for people who are new to knives.

My list is going to be US-centric. If you are not in the US and have recommendations, please add them here!

http://www.whitemountainknives.com One of my favorite retailers. Great prices, free shipping, and offers a variety of coupon codes for 10% off. Most of these are tied to individuals who get rewards for people using them. I use one that is, as far as I know, generic: WMK The site has a ton of stuff on sale (especially now).

http://www.indianaknives.com Small retailer in southern Indiana. Great, great customer service, excellent prices and free shipping. A more limited selection but often has 1 or 2 things that larger retailers sell out of quickly because this store flies under the radar.

http://www.knivesshipfree.com As the URL says: knives ship free! Lot of fixed blades, especially Bark River knives. Not a super limited selection of manufacturers but it feels like a very well curated list.

http://www.knifeworks.com Mentioned in a recent thread here. A ton of options and the exclusive home to Doug Ritter-designed knives (manufactured by Hogue). Used to have Benchmade under MSRP but I don't know if they still do that. $100 purchase requirement for free shipping.

https://www.knifecenter.com One of the OG stores. Huge selection, and fantastic YouTube presence. Their website allows you to filter searched by a ton of different options not found in many other stores. Tons of really cool Exclusives as well. $95 min purchase for free shipping.

http://www.bladehq.com For a long time a more commanding presence than KnifeCenter in social media but I think they've fallen back as maybe has their customer service. Always a ton of Exclusives especially all the "Dessert Warrior" options. Free shipping at $100.

Others I have limited experience with but are good:

http://www.smkw.com Smokey Mountain Knife Works

https://www.cutleryshoppe.com/ Another shop with a ton of exclusives. I got a exclusive ALOX SAX from them.

https://www.knivesplus.com If you want a customized Spyderco or Benchmade without going with a random person off Etsy or Ebay, these guys are great.

I know I left stores off the list (mostly for time) so fill in the gaps. Who have you purchased from that's been great?

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/9496597

I had posted on a FFF (Front Flipper Friday) that one of my go-to office carry knives was the CJRB Malieah. A great 5th pocket carry that is not worrisome to non-knife people and fits within the 2.5" blade length limit of the city where the company office resides.

I think the CJRB has been replace by the Civivi Baby Banter. At least, it seems to have been for the past 6 ot 7 visits.

The Baby Banter is even less worrisome to non-knife folks (some have said it is "cute" which I'm sure it bristles at).

The knife is my go-to for food slicing at work and (once cleaned) boxes, tape, or as in today: velcro cable straps so I could jerry-rigg a second wireless lavaliere mic receiver to a small video camera.

It's small and unassuming but has performed really well. If you're looking for a knife with those properties on the budget side, I highly recommend it.

I had posted on a FFF (Front Flipper Friday) that one of my go-to office carry knives was the CJRB Malieah. A great 5th pocket carry that is not worrisome to non-knife people and fits within the 2.5" blade length limit of the city where the company office resides.

I think the CJRB has been replace by the Civivi Baby Banter. At least, it seems to have been for the past 6 ot 7 visits.

The Baby Banter is even less worrisome to non-knife folks (some have said it is "cute" which I'm sure it bristles at).

The knife is my go-to for food slicing at work and (once cleaned) boxes, tape, or as in today: velcro cable straps so I could jerry-rigg a second wireless lavaliere mic receiver to a small video camera.

It's small and unassuming but has performed really well. If you're looking for a knife with those properties on the budget side, I highly recommend it.

As requested by @[email protected] :

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/9305807

A day late and a dollar short as they say. So much for "Thursday." I tried to get this post up yesterday but the fates were against me.

I admit this is a bit of a stretch for Throw Back Thursday because I'm old and 2011 was, near as I can tell, last week.

At least I think 2011 is the right year because my Google-fu is weak today.

The CRKT Drifter has come in 2 major varients: G10 scales with a liner lock and stainless steel scales with a frame lock. I think this was introduced in 2011 but that could also be the liner lock version. If someone wants to correct me, operators are standing by.

This is one of only 2 frame locks I own and also one of only 2 combo blades I own. I own a lot of knives, so this might give you some indication as to what I think of frame locks and half-serrations... Edit: I just remembered that I have 3 other frame locks. So, I'm a complete idiot.

This knife was purchased in 2019 which was yesterday near as I can tell. It was a very early knife purchase and I had not yet figured out what I did and did not like. Another huge factor was the fact that BladeHQ was basically giving this away in the discontinued section for $15.

Aesthetically this is a good looking knife (IMHO). The matte grey and smooth lines go well with the polished blade. However, the reason the lines are smooth is because the pocket clip is single position, tip-down. The horror...the horror.

But, there's actually a clever trick here: the pocket clip also serves as the overtravel stop for the frame lock! Now, me not being a frame lock guy, maybe I'm just ignorant here, but that's not something I remember seeing on other knives. This photo is not of great quality due to the lighting I had to work with but you get the idea I think. So while it takes 3 screws to hold the clip down and while it's sort of obnoxious looking, it's also functional and I can respect that.

The combo blade, I figured out fairly quickly, is not for me. Give me a knife with full serrations or give me a plain edge blade but not both. It will fail to meet my needs for most things. But thankfully it only took $15 to sort that out.

If it's not for you, why keep it you ask? Well because it does remind me of the journey this silly hobby has taken me on but also because I don't get rid of anything and in all likelihood the authorities will find my body buried under a mountain of knife boxes years from now. So what's one more?

A day late and a dollar short as they say. So much for "Thursday." I tried to get this post up yesterday but the fates were against me.

I admit this is a bit of a stretch for Throw Back Thursday because I'm old and 2011 was, near as I can tell, last week.

At least I think 2011 is the right year because my Google-fu is weak today.

The CRKT Drifter has come in 2 major varients: G10 scales with a liner lock and stainless steel scales with a frame lock. I think this was introduced in 2011 but that could also be the liner lock version. If someone wants to correct me, operators are standing by.

This is one of only 2 frame locks I own and also one of only 2 combo blades I own. I own a lot of knives, so this might give you some indication as to what I think of frame locks and half-serrations... Edit: I just remembered that I have 3 other frame locks. So, I'm a complete idiot.

This knife was purchased in 2019 which was yesterday near as I can tell. It was a very early knife purchase and I had not yet figured out what I did and did not like. Another huge factor was the fact that BladeHQ was basically giving this away in the discontinued section for $15.

Aesthetically this is a good looking knife (IMHO). The matte grey and smooth lines go well with the polished blade. However, the reason the lines are smooth is because the pocket clip is single position, tip-down. The horror...the horror.

But, there's actually a clever trick here: the pocket clip also serves as the overtravel stop for the frame lock! Now, me not being a frame lock guy, maybe I'm just ignorant here, but that's not something I remember seeing on other knives. This photo is not of great quality due to the lighting I had to work with but you get the idea I think. So while it takes 3 screws to hold the clip down and while it's sort of obnoxious looking, it's also functional and I can respect that.

The combo blade, I figured out fairly quickly, is not for me. Give me a knife with full serrations or give me a plain edge blade but not both. It will fail to meet my needs for most things. But thankfully it only took $15 to sort that out.

If it's not for you, why keep it you ask? Well because it does remind me of the journey this silly hobby has taken me on but also because I don't get rid of anything and in all likelihood the authorities will find my body buried under a mountain of knife boxes years from now. So what's one more?

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/9193980

I'm going to go out on a limb and assume you've all seen this.

Do you want one for yourself? I assume you do, because you clicked on this. Well, here's the deal: In order to spread some Ninja Cheer (and to do what I think the cool kiddos are calling "drive engagement") I'm going to give away one each of these three colorways of my Harrier Utili-Song:

Here's all you have to do: Post yer durn knives to this community, and talk about them. That's it.

High effort, low effort, what you post and how much you post does not matter. Any user who makes an actual on-topic contribution to this community between right now at this very minute and December 15th will be put on the list, and I will pick three winners from that list at complete random.

I'll pick one at a time and whoever wins first can pick their choice of design, the second winner can choose from the two that are left, and the last poor bastard gets what's left over. If nobody posts, I'll keep all three of them for myself. See if I care.

Or who knows, maybe someone this will decide this is against the rules and we'll all get banned. But I read the entire ToS and I don't see anything prohibiting this, so let's roll them dice!

The Fine Print

I'm opening this to US residents only because I'm not made out of friggin' money and shipping stuff all overseas and everywhere will probably bankrupt me. Plus, it's likely that anywhere outside of here in Freedom Land, you'll find it's illegal to import a balisong or balisong-like-object anyway. Winners must attest that they are at least 18 years of age, and it is your responsibility to determine whether or not a balisong is a legal object to possess where you live; that's not my problem. Also, I will ship these without blades included. You'll have to provide your own.

Winners must agree that I take responsibility for nothing. Offer has no cash value and you can't sue me for anything. What you get is what you get, and if your Harrier lasts you a thousand years or breaks instantly makes no difference to me because I'm not going to do anything about it either way. Winners further agree to hold me harmless for any event or condition which may transpire in any manner subsequent to receiving the aforementioned item. If you don't agree, you can sod off and I'll pick someone else in your place.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/9160400

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/9035683

And you'll never guess what kind of knife it is. Go on.

...

Yes, of course it's a balisong box cutter. Because it just is.

Update: And the .STL files are released! Get them here, along with assembly instructions, and other sundry bumf.

Okay, so it's not exactly an exciting custom collaboration with a big name manufacturer made out of a supersteel with rich exotic handle materials in a fancy matte box. That would require being considerably more involved with the industry than I am. Which is not at all.

Rather, this is a 3D printable utility/fiddle toy that's ~~ripped off from~~ just a smidge inspired by the Gerber EAB we were talking about the other day. Why doesn't anyone make a flipper like that?

So as our resident balisong expert, I just had to ask myself the other day just how hard developing a working balisong knife could be.

The answer is more than you'd think at first blush. I'm not at all ashamed to report that the production and assembly of one of these takes no less than 26 individual components if you include...

...The optional but fully functional pocket clip.

And yes, it even has a fancy kickerless design with "zen" pins like your big dollar brand name balisong model.

"But does it actually work?" I hear you cry.

You're damn skippy it does.

My design goals were: 1) Make a functional balisong knife that 2) is completely 3D printable without reliance on outside hardware -- other than the blade, obviously -- that 3) plays to the strengths and avoids as much as possible the weaknesses of filament deposition printing and 4) does not require using any supports.

(And yes, you could print the blade, too. If you wanted it to be laughably ineffective.)

Even the assembly hardware is 3D printed, and you can install it using nothing but a penny.

I know you all have been holding your breath until I posted this picture. There you go. You can breathe out now.

Oh, and also: Would you like to use this as a fidget toy that won't get you in too much trouble in polite company, or at the office, or in some backwater hellhole where balisong knives are illegal?

You're in luck. Because there's a blunt trainer blade for it, too.

The Burning Questions I Know You're Going To Ask:

Q: What are the sizes and weights?

42.1 grams. 1.48 ounces. This thing is the second lightest balisong knife I currently own. I designed it in metric, but in keeping with tradition around here it is almost exactly 5" long when closed, 7-1/2" long open (with a typical Stanley style blade installed), 1-1/8" of usable blade edge, and 5/8" of an inch thick (not including the pocket clip, which you can leave off).

Q: That's very funny, but the tolerances on this plastic piece of shit are terrible, right? What does the wiggle test look like, smart guy?

Bam. Stick that in your pipe and smoke it.

Q: But, it's made out of plastic. Isn't it going to break or erode into nothing, like, instantly?

I've been messing around with the above pictured example for about a week now and I've probably flipped it somewhere between six thousand and a zillion times by now. I've been using it to cut up boxes at work all week, too. It's as perfect as the day I minted it.

Q: Isn't cold creep in the PLA going to turn it into a banana eventually?

Maybe! Probably! We're sure as hell going to find out.

Q: Are you going to sell these or something?

I'm not ruling it out, but that wasn't my goal here. I might give a couple away at some point, though.

Q: Then can you shut up and give us the fucking STL files already?

Soon. In order to prevent this post from being longer than it already is, I'm going to release the files and assembly instructions separately. After I'm good and satisfied the design is well tuned enough to inflict upon the unwashed masses, anyway.