1908 American Balisong

[button_man]

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Just paid a small fortune for this, but simply couldn't walk away from it. All steel construction. Remarkably clean for its age. Interesting detail: the securing tab is spring-loaded, and has to be pulled out before the tab is swung up to release the handles.

Obverse blade markings:
Billings patent.
March 10 1908

Reverse blade markings:
Billings & Spencer
Hartford, Conn

I've done some digging in the time since I first posted this, and some information has turned up.

This is the "Billings' Improved Sportsman' Knife" and has been written up in Knife Magazine (May 2020). (Unfortunately, you have to have a paid subscription to read the article.)

A fellow called ole_muddy posted a photo of a Billings back in 2010 on AAPK, and said that in about 20 years of doing knives he's only seen four of them. He mentioned that it's listed in Levine's Guide / 3rd edition / page 287.
He (and a couple other sources) state that it is the very first American-made butterfly knife.

A similar Billings was listed for sale at Arizona Custom Knives back in January. It had heavy wear, staining, and oxidation; and the securing tab was missing entirely. Nevertheless, it sold in that condition for $500.
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[eddymunster]

Awesome Knurling!

[sammy the blade]

Nice looking old knife

[Tom19176]

Nice one !

[TMD]

Very nice! Ive never seen one before. Is it sandwitch construction? I belive so as it has double tang pins.
The knurling is beautiful and it locks like it can be flipped?

[button_man]

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Not quite sure of the exact parameters of "sandwich construction" but it's built like every other butterfly knife that I've ever seen: channels in both handle sections, with the blade resting inside these channels when the knife is closed.

It would be awkward and tricky to flip it open, because of that spring-loaded button on the end of the tab that swivels open. Once the tab is no longer holding the handles together, then sure.... the knife can be flipped open like any other Balisong. But you would need to spend a lot of time practicing how to hold the knife in your hand whilst using the fingers of that hand to pull out the button (against the force of the spring), then flip the tab out of the way, and then flip the knife open -- otherwise, you really need two hands to open the knife.

I'll see if I can post detailed pictures of the button when
I get back home later today.
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[QGofLake]

That sure is COOL! I enjoy butterfly knives and appreciate how unique that one is.

[button_man]

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Thanks to everyone for all the compliments!
You can understand why I couldn't walk away from it,
despite the hefty price tag!

Okay, here are close-up pix of the little rectangular "button" on the end of the retaining tab (although "arm" is probably a better word than 'tab' ). Since the button is held in by a spring, I had to pry it up and hold it up by putting a small screw in the gap, in order to take these pictures.

The button must be pulled open both to swing the arm out when you are opening the knife, and to push in the arm to hold the handles together when you are closing the knife.
I wouldn't want to have to open it one-handed in a big hurry when my life depended on it! (I've tried to open it one-handed and simply can't do it.) Hard to believe that tiny spring is still so strong after almost 120 years!

In the OP, I mentioned that the Billings that was listed for sale at Arizona Custom Knives had the retaining arm missing entirely. After completely failing to open my knife one-handed, I believe that somebody deliberately removed the arm, so the knife could be opened fast, with only one hand. It must have been a challenge to carry the knife in a pocket safely; but if it was laying horizontally in a coat pocket, it probably would have been okay.

If the owner of that knife belonged to a street gang or was otherwise involved in criminal activity, this could have been extremely important. It probably happened to more than a few of these knives. All the more impressive to find this one in such good condition.
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[portlandmike]

Very cool bali .. I’ve never seen one like it
I sure wish there was more information about these knives out there. There’s not even a single book I can find

[button_man]

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portlandmike ~~ I couldn't find much either.... basically just that reference to the Knife Magazine article, and the sale of the broken knife by Arizona Custom Knives.

Think of all the decades that passed since this knife was made -- business records were lost, thrown away, donated to the scrap drives of World War I and World War II...... there wasn't even a concept of "knife collecting" as a serious endeavor for about 60 years after these knives were made. By the time that knife collecting became recognized as a legitimate hobby, almost everything pertaining to the Billings had been lost to history; and
very few of the knives themselves remained.

Yet one more incredible find that came out of the same dusty little flea market where I've gotten so many great knives over the past few years.
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[button_man]

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just checked out your post in the Balisong section, really interesting piece you got there. The craftsmanship looks solid from the photos. Do you have any info on where it was made or the maker's mark? Sometimes the pivot design or latch style can help narrow it dbown if it's custom or a lesser-known production model.

Online sources inform us that Charles Billings and Christopher Spencer founded the Roper Sporting Arms Company in 1869; then reorganized as Billings & Spencer in 1873. The company manufactured drop-forged tools.

In 1908, they added milling machines. Patent number 881.294 (for the butterfly knife) was filed by C.E. Billings
on Nov. 11, 1907 and issued on March 10, 1908 -- the date stamped on the knife.

The company was best known for its production of wrenches. Mr. Billings was a gifted inventor who not only created new tool designs, but who also was a pioneer in drop-forging technology. Knives seem to have been
a minor interest of Mr. Billings; they certainly were a vanishingly tiny part of company production.

There was one previous pocket knife patented by Mr. Billings: on March 15, 1892 patent number 470.777 was issued for a pocket knife. Patent information, including an intriguing picture of a knife with a slide-out OTF blade, can be seen here: http://www.google.com/patents/US470777

At first I thought that the addition of milling machines in 1908 was necessary for the handles of the butterfly knife; however, the 1892 slide-out knife also has an engine-turned handle. So, either the new machines weren't crucial for the engine-turned parts; or they farmed out some (or all) of the slide-knife manufacturing to another company.

Patent information for the Billings & Spencer butterfly knife can be seen here: http://www.google.com/patents/US881294

The name changed slightly to "The Billings & Spencer Company" in 1915. The Crescent Niagara Co. of Buffalo, NY purchased Billings & Spencer in 1962.

There's a decent amount of information on the Billings & Spencer company itself -- they were around for a long time, and were a significant individual presence. However, other than the patent filings, there is very little documentation on their knives.

CORRECTION: I thought that knurling was a form of engine-turning; but it's been nagging at me, so I just
looked it up. They are distinct from one another.

Engine-turning usually has overlapping circles, or other intersecting geometric forms. The Billings & Spencer knives have handles that are knurled.
.

[button_man]

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TIMELINE

1962 = The Crescent Niagara Co. purchased Billings & Spencer

1968 = Crescent Niagara was acquired by Cooper Industries

2010 = the tool divisions of Cooper Industries and Danaher Corporation formed a joint venture, Apex Tool Group, LLC

I have just phoned the Apex Tool people in the slim hope that ancient company records may still be slumbering in a dusty filing cabinet sitting in the shadowy corner of a basement storage room. No such luck. The Apex lady spoke with a supervisor, then came back and told me that they had nothing. Her exact words were, "we wouldn't know where to begin".

My goal was to discover for how many years the two knives were made; and how many were made during those years. We may eventually turn up an occasional clue to the former question, if either knife appears in old catalogs. We will probably never have even an educated guess on the latter question. All I can surmise is "not very many".
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[rock-n-roll$$$$$$]

very sweet find.

[Bill DeShivs]

Food for thought- Bontgen and Sabin in Solingen, Germany was making butterfly knives about that same time.
I have never seen a Bonsa with knurled handles, but you never know...

[button_man]

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Continued online searching has turned up more information -- not a lot, but some.


https://forum.spyderco.com/viewtopic.php?t=9688

The Spyderco forum has an interesting post on early balisongs, including this theory that this knife was not invented in the Philipines:

"Because Manilla is a harbour. And the sailor used Butterfly knives made in Germany, France and the US.

Then Filipinos people has developped technics and made their own.

The utility of that knife is to be concealed. And the Boom was during WW2 when knives were prohibited.

There is three big production center in the Philipines Manilla Batanga and Balisong.

Balisong come from broken horn, but again, there is many books around that nmae (Imada or Coco Hernandez)

In 1904 in US Billing and Spencer has patented the Butterfly knife but it was allready patented since 1872 !!!

In Europe… In France and Germany many brend were allready making Balisong.

The first trace has been found in 1780 in France with a knife called "Le Pied DU Roy". (The King's foot)

Circa 1800 the butterfly knives were common.

It's easy to find some butterflies from that time.
They were made in Paris and Thier (Center of France).
There is a beautiful collection of that old Butterfly
Knives in the Thiers Museum."

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A similar sentiment is expressed in this article,
which shows some intriguing balisongs from
circa 1910 to 1940s:

https://balisongcollector.com/controversy.html

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Also found an advertising piece -- almost certainly an ink blotter -- showing the 1908 Billings & Spencer: