1908 American Balisong

[eddymunster]

Great info.

[OldIsGold]

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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:

Great post my friend

[button_man]

.
Although the site says "Premium Online Members" can click on the link (the blue box that says "Billings & Spencer" in photo below) to read the article in Knife Magazine
[ May 2020 ] it seems that (for now, anyhow) it will work
for all of us!

The article ends in mid-sentence at the end of page 7.
Page 8 appears blank. Either a glitch, or page 8 might
only be visible to paying members....?

BTW - - - when the article loads, you find yourself looking
at what seems to be a blank page. Swipe DOWN and the printed page will appear. (Then swipe left for each succeeding page.)

Go to this site for the link:

https://www.knifemagazine.com/the-knive ... r-company/
.

[Billyfish]

I got another contender.
https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/21 ... milford-mi

[button_man]

.
That LiveAuctieers listing provided no evidence that
this particular model was actually made in 1905.

Looks like they simply tossed in the start-up date of the company, to make the knife seem as old as possible.

https://www.allaboutpocketknives.com/kn ... hp?t=76982

"Hemming Woodsman butterfly knife,
ca. 1910, made in USA.

One of the earliest (I believe the 2nd, after a Billings and Spencer model) butterfly knives made in the US, is the Hemming Woodsman. As best I can tell, the Hemming Brothers Cutlery company operated in New Haven, CT from around 1905 to the mid-1920s."
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