Traditional Filipino Balisongs

Before the balisong was a flipping hobby, it was a working knife from Batangas province. Our traditional Filipino balisong collection covers the three classic patterns — Pandayan, Filipino Traditional and Visayan — 37 knives built the way they have been built for generations.

The three patterns

Pandayan — named for the Tagalog word for a smithy, pandayan. Heavier bolsters and a fuller handle profile than the standard line.
Filipino Traditional — the classic Batangas build: sandwich construction, hand-fitted inserts, and a latch that seats with an audible click.
Visayan — from the central island group. A slightly narrower handle and a more pronounced blade belly than its Batangas cousins.

What “traditional” actually means here

Sandwich construction: the handle is built from layered pieces around a frame rather than milled from a single billet. It is slower to make, it is how the originals were made, and it is why the handle inserts on these knives are hand-fitted panels of natural material rather than moulded scales.

Handle materials in this collection run to stag horn, black horn, narra burl and rosewood. Blade profiles include tanto, dagger, hunting and shark. Weights sit between 7.0 oz and 7.8 oz, and open lengths between 9.4 in and the full 11.4 in — the proportion the Philippines still calls veinte y nueve, twenty-nine, after its 29 cm open length.

Who these suit

Buyers who want the real article rather than a modern reinterpretation. Priced $250 to $400, these are the knives to start a serious collection with — recognisably Filipino, hand-built, and unmistakably not mass-produced.

For the upper tier of finish and materials, see Balisong Prime. For small-run and one-off builds, see Limited Edition.