Talk:Butterfly knife

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Two thoughts: One, the article should be renamed to Balisong, as "butterfly knife" also refers to a sword used in Hung Gar (IIRC), which should have its own article. Also, I'm altering the line about Kali, because the balisong is generally not a prominent weapon in the art. --Lazyhound 14:32, 8 August 2005 (UTC)

Isn't the Hung Gar weapon called Butterfly sword

--131.207.161.152 07:10, 25 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Dejingoisation

Well, first of all I separated Canada from the US states and made UK being higher as it is culturally, historically, linguistically and alphabetically(mind only the latter :p). So it would be really nice if someone elaborated the Canadian laws... --Turkmenbashy 23:21, 10 July 2006 (UTC)

Butterfly knives have been illegal in Britain since the blanket " Offensive weapons act" of 1988, which came into force in 1989. I have altered the reference to the UK law to refelct this. Whereas in the UK it IS legal to own a (for example) Bowie knife in your own home it is NOT legal to possess a Butterfly knife. 21:27, 19 October 2006 (Dangerdave 21:27, 19 October 2006 (UTC)) Signed Dangerdave

[edit] Contradiction

There are three points, one after the other, in the introductory section that all relate to when the knife was invented, and they all contradict each other. The problem is that none of them lists any sources, so who knows which one is right (possibly none of them).GBMorris 12:19, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

Agreed. The first idea cites a book and that is a valid source. The other two ideas are nothing more than rumors or widely held misconceptions.

In the third idea, the fact that American servicemen returning from the Philippines, after WWII, popularized the balisong in the U.S. is true; but that doesn't lend any credence to an idea that it was invented around 1900. Nothing in the article supports invention around 1900 . There is no basis in the article or the cited eskrima article to support the second "idea" either.

All we can document about the origin of the Balisong knife is that (1) someone published a drawing of a balisong knife in France around 1710, and (2) many American servicemen returned to the U.S. from the Philippines with Balisong knives after WWII. From (2) we can make a logical deduction that (3) the knife was widely available in the Philippines sometime before American servicemen arrived in there during WWII. Anything else, unless documented, is speculation and does not belong in an encyclopaedic article. Sam 17:55, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

A few points I'd like to make:

• I don't think it's a problem that there's a contradiction; the article just lists the possible origins and clearly states that "The history of the butterfly knife is uncertain, though three main ideas persist". We don't know the actual origin, so why not list the current theories?
• I definately agree that we need citations.
• Just because there's a drawing in a French book doesn't mean that it couldn't have been independently invented, or copied, in the Philippines in the 1900s.
• There are a few Philippine references to balisongs (eg here and here).
• If there is a choice between obviously speculative information and no (or less) information, i'd chose the former. It's not like it's speculation clothed as fact.

--User24 16:00, 10 November 2006 (UTC)

Balisong (butterfly) knives are NOT illegal in Nevada. It is most certainly not a felony to carry one. Reference: Nevada Revised Statutes (2005) NRS 202.350 In fact, you can even apply for a permit to carry switchblades in Nevada.

Where did this erroneous "fact" come from?

Taoshaman

I was going to start a new section addressing this, but it's already here it seems. I was always told the butterfly knife was a French invention, yet had heard it was heavily embraced by Phillipino culture. Not a big step there, France, Spain, Phillipines. Perfect, logical sense. However, we have no references for that. Given the facts we do have however, I am first going to redirect Balisong to butterfly knife, as the English nomenclature isn't only the most predominant usage, but probably more apt (unless we call it whatever it translates to in French); secondly I will ammend the article accordingly to address the fact it's a french invention.

There are many 'references' cited which are just some random dudes websites that say along the lines of "X culture used Y tool in the neolithic timez d00dz." and nothing more. Quite dissapointing. Whilst I'm sure it's trendier to pretend this form of switchblade has some esoteric martial arts root in some exotic asian culture, unfortunately, from all the hard evidence presented it's a Frenchy thing.  :P 211.30.75.123 03:29, 12 March 2007 (UTC)