you ever think how weird it is we put barcodes on apples?
something so simple, from nature, plucked from its branch
just to be branded with a the red hot iron of corporatism
i mean, other animals don't put barcodes on their apples
they just eat the damn apples
This is what is hopefully the start of various different balisong reviews that I get my hands on as I progress through the hobby of balisong flipping. While my preferences won't speak for the balisong community at large, I hope to be as objective as I can while still offering my thoughts and opinions where they're appropriate.
Tonight's review will be on the balisong pictured above: the Squid Industries Nautilus. Without further ado, let's jump into it.
TL;DR:
The Good: Light, grippy, and flowy flipper that provides a unique experience few other balisongs can replicate. Has a lifetime warranty where Squid will fix any repairs or QC issues.
The Bad: How it flips is not for everyone. Plagued with QC issues which shouldn't happen at its price—buying one new is a gamble, and Squid isn't perfect with warranty repairs.
(Fair warning: there is a lot of jargon that can sound like word soup to anyone who doesn't flip. I'll try to explain it as best as I can and make another post detailing what everything means)
UNBOXING AND GENERAL INFO:
The Nautilus has a fairly standard unboxing experience. It comes in a simple but nice drawer-style box inside of a cloth pouch, and with it comes a set of replacement hardware (not pictured), a paper card with QR codes that lead to flipping tutorials and tuning guides, and a sticker. Simple and nothing amazing, but well-executed.
As for the price, it isn't exactly cheap. The retail price of the Nautilus varies depending on what versions you go for. On Squid's site, the base Nautilus goes for $230 USD, and it only gets more expensive from there. The Winter Nautilus with white G10 scales is priced at $245 USD. The Inked Nautilus, which has a diamond-like carbon (DLC) coating on the blade, retails for $255 USD, while the Carbon Fiber Nautilus, which ditches G10 scales in favor of carbon fiber, retails for $295 USD.
Like all other Squid Industries balisongs, the Nautilus comes with a lifetime warranty—for something as minor as routine maintenance to something as major as bad quality control, it can be sent to Squid to fix whatever might be wrong with it. For the first 30 days, all the owner has to pay is for parts, and after that the owner has to pay for shipping and parts (although the latter might not apply in the case of QC issues).
DESIGN AND SPECS:
Originally released on June 4, 2019, the Nautilus was released alongside the Krake Raken or Kraken, which I'll be using as a point of comparison for this design. Less experienced flippers often ask which of the two is "better", which is understandable given their similar prices, with the Kraken trainer starting at $215 USD, the Nautilus starting at $230 USD, and the Kraken live blade starting at $250 USD. However, as someone who owns both and flips both on a regular basis, they simply cannot be compared because of how different they are.
The only thing the two have in common is the use of channel construction handles with 7075 aluminum as the handle material. Here are some photos with the two side-by-side:
Below: Nautilus (black) and Kraken (purple)
The Kraken is overall beefier with full aluminum handles and a thicker everything, lending it to weigh a normal 4.2 oz. Everything on the Nautilus is smaller and thinner, from the the use of G10 laminate scales for grip to the small size of the channel to the thickness of the handles and blade, lending it to be much lighter at 3.6 oz. These design choices make for a unique flipping experience that I'll expand on later.
TUNING AND QUALITY CONTROL:
This is going to be a doozy for a multitude of reasons, and things might get confusing, but I'll try my best to explain everything:
The Nautilus runs on a bushing pivot system, which means that as long as the bushings aren't smaller than the blade, the pivot screws can be fully cranked down without them locking up. On top of this, when bushings are tuned correctly, tap (where the blade is touching the inside of the handles), blade rub, and handle play (side-to-side slop) can be fully eliminated for a solid and premium feeling flipping experience.
On paper.
The reality is that the inherent design of the Nautilus is a huge double-edged sword. Remember how I mentioned that everything on the Nautilus is pretty thin and small? That leaves a whole lot less room for error when tuning. Its use of G10 doesn't help much, either, as the scales have to be aligned as close to perfect as possible in order to have a good tune.
Squid Industries has taken a bit of a dip in quality control as of late, but the Nautilus has always been their biggest sore spot for QC because of its design, which many can attest to. Juice Tin, who I talked to on a somewhat regular basis, has had a QC nightmare—their Nautilus had blade rub out of the box alongside G10 scales that were unfinished at best and outright deformed at worst, and tap persisted even after changing the scales and sending it in for warranty (both of our Nauts also happened to be QC'd by the same person, and I had issues as well). Yet another victim of the Naut's bad QC was CamaroEE, who held the Nautilus as one of his dream trainers at the time but was plagued with tap and blade rub that Squid couldn't fix when it was sent to them for warranty repairs, leading him to ultimately sell it and call it "the grayest balisong" in his review for it.
I have also had QC issues on my end, albeit to not as much of an extent as others did. My Nautilus came straight out of the box with tap and blade rub, and it took an involved teardown and retuning that lasted over 2 hours to get the issue fixed. As of the time of writing this review, the tap is gone, and while it has a bit more play than I'm normally comfortable with, it's a lot better than before.
Here's the thing: I love fixing and working on my own stuff, and I had no problems with fixing the issues my Nautilus had out of the box. The problem lies within the facts that:
- I had to do it at all
- I expected and prepared for it
- I had heard about it from at least half the people I talked to who already owned one
These would be at least somewhat excusable if the Nautilus was cheap, but with a starting price tag of $230 USD, I am giving Squid far less leeway here. Someone without the know-how, finally happy they have the money to buy something nice, could very easily buy this without doing the proper research, only to get slapped in the face with issues that many balisongs half its price don't have.
But because I'm no Negative Nancy, enough about my QC tirade. Because it flips very good.
FLIPPING:
God damn, this is a fun flipper. The Nautilus has a heavy handle bias, meaning that if you were to balance it on your finger, the point of balance would be about halfway down the handles. Remember how I mentioned that it weighs 3.6 oz? For anyone not familiar with balisong flipping, that is absurdly light for a metal balisong since most balisongs on the market range from 4–4.5 oz, and it shows in how it behaves.
The light weight and handle bias make for an almost floaty experience that's difficult to put into words. Rollovers and chaplins are very smooth and take no effort at all. The handle bias means that fans aren't nearly as good as it could be, but the balisong can absolutely still fan—choker fans and Z-chokers are easy to land, and ladders take much less finger strength than on most other balisongs. To top it all off, the G10 scales provide an absurd amount of grip, and I've yet to have it slip out of my hands during flipping. This sort of flipping experience tells me that the Nautilus was built with uncompromising pedal-to-the-medal flipping in mind, and with the people out there who flip the absolute balls off of it, I can't be completely wrong.
With nearly everything being so effortless and smooth on the Nautilus, could it be the best flipper in its price range?
Well, no.
This hobby's so damn subjective that there really is no "best" balisong. The Nautilus has certain things about it that people could very easily dislike, the biggest of which is, funnily enough, the weight. As a small person with grubby little raccoon hands, the light weight and thin handles are perfect for me, but there are people out there who prefer heavier balisongs—one person I've talked to even likened it to a toy with how unsubstantial it felt in the hand for them. The other point of divide is the use of G10. The thing about G10 is that even when it's well-finished, it has a very chalky feel to it that most people don't like if it isn't given some oil (mink oil works great). Many times it can even feel a bit cheap even though it's quite the opposite, both to buy and to work with. Not to mention the balance; the handle bias on it is very noticeable, and there are plenty of people who don't like that much handle bias—hell, if it were heavier, I wouldn't have liked it as much. So, because of that, while it is my favorite balisong in my collection, it isn't a balisong that's as universally liked as much as something like a Kraken is.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
To close off, while plagued with hit-or-miss QC, the Squid Industries Nautilus is a light, flowy balisong trainer that offers a fun flipping experience that few other balisongs can offer. I want to recommend this balisong so badly because of how much fun I've had flipping it, but because Squid doesn't know how to QC them, I just can't unless you're not one to really care about tolerances. However, I do think you should at least give it a try because it is genuinely one of the most unique flipping experiences out here.
If you're interested in buying a Nautilus, it can be found here.
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