writer's block is no longer kicking my ass for real this time, finishing up old drafts that were rotting for the longest time and i'm gonna be talking about the kraken soon
A few weeks ago, I did what some people in the balisong community consider a cardinal sin: I purchased a clone. More specifically, I bought a Benchmade Necron clone made by Baliplus. I bought it for a few reasons, but one of which is for me to get more perspectives.
For those unfamiliar, a clone in the balisong hobby refers to a balisong made by an overseas company copying the design of an already existing balisong to sell for far cheaper. Many in the community have at least an unfavorable position on clones—the r/balisong subreddit, for example, has banned any and all discussions, mentions, or pictures of clones, forcing Reddit users to turn to r/BalisongClones. Some community spaces are more lenient on clones, with places like the Will Hirsch and Balisong Community Discord servers allowing their discussion and depiction, but drawing the line at posting links leading to sites where they can be bought.
Why are clones one of the most touchy and polarizing subjects in the balisong community?
The idea of buying what is essentially a copy of a genuine product isn't new, and it's damn near a universal phenomenon across all hobbies. But with almost every relevant balisong manufacturer being based in the continental United States, how do clone manufacturers even get away with selling clones in the first place?
The short answer is that while there are some clones that are genuine 1-to-1 copies of the original knife (take Baliplus's Benchmade 42 T-latch clone, for example), most of the clones that can be purchased online today will have ever so slight alterations to them that differentiate them enough from the real product to allow them to be sold—DenDenBMX once compared it to guitar manufacturers producing guitars heavily based on iconic designs like the Gibson Les Paul, but making enough changes to it for it to be a standalone product that can be sold without fear of legal action.
While I understand where he's coming from as someone into both guitars and balisongs like he is, I don't think it's a full apples-to-apples comparison. While it's undeniable that something like the ESP Eclipse bears a really close resemblance to a typical Les Paul to the untrained eye, ESP often adds their own flair with features like a thinner neck profile and active pickups to gear it more towards a certain demographic of musicians instead of a jack-of-all-trades guitar that Les Pauls are often treated as.
As a whole, that isn't the aim behind most balisong clones. Whenever you purchase a clone, whether it be from Slash2Gash, BBKS, or even AliExpress, the descriptions of most clones are completely up front with you, reusing the name of the original knife and sometimes even flat-out telling you that it's a clone—hell, in the case of the Baliplus 42 clone, Baliplus even went as far as to sell the knife to you in a fake Benchmade box with fake receipts that are very convincing, and it could easily fool someone who doesn't know what to look out for when buying secondhand.
All of this is exacerbated by the fact that every relevant balisong maker is run by a small team of people with tried and true machining and engineering expertise at the absolute most. Squid Industries has around 100 or so employees in their factory, but that's as big as it gets. In many cases, makers are composed of individual people who may not even have the resources to machine their knives in-house and have to turn to outsourcing the parts for their balisong designs elsewhere.
This is precisely why clones are often frowned upon as much as they are; when you can put an exact name and face to a balisong you paid for, who is usually more than happy to answer questions about the knife or strike up a casual conversation about the hobby, it can easily be seen as a slap in the face to them to turn to clone companies churning out stolen designs with little care put into them.
Even so, there are still potential merits to buy a clone. What was perhaps the balisong hobby's biggest barrier to entry for most of its existence was cost. Until Lucas started making waves and building what would become Squid Industries, you'd be looking at spending at least $270 USD for a BRS Replicant if you wanted a balisong to start flipping with. If buying a clone was completely out of the picture for you, anything else either needed extensive modding to have a bearable flipping experience (like the old Bradley Kimuras) or would fall apart within months. It's easy to look at the Squidtrainer and think its overall value proposition is questionable given its specs and the competition, but when it came out in 2016 it was revolutionary in that it was the first sub-200 dollar non-clone option flippers had that didn't need much work out of the box.
An advantage of clones when it came to the overall hobby is that they more or less circumvent these high costs. Even nowadays, with sub-100 USD options flipping better than ever, clones still provide a way to get something that's cheap and a good flipper. This is especially true for people getting into the hobby outside the US, as high international shipping rates might lead people to shy away from genuine balisongs even if they're legal where they live (some makers even refuse to ship internationally for their own reasons). Additionally, any clone that's at least close to a 1-to-1 replica is going to flip similar to a genuine example. Take my personal Necron clone—when I talked to people about how it flipped compared to a real Necron, they mentioned that the only noticeable difference was that the scales were a little bit blockier and not as deeply textured as on a real Necron. Otherwise, it was a perfect 1-to-1 replica (provided you get the steel version). I liked the overall design of the Necron in spite of the very strong opinions I have about its specs for its MSRP, and hearing that a 60-dollar clone flipped nearly identical that was all the convincing I needed to buy one (mine specifically flips a bit different since it has titanium liners instead of steel liners, but that's besides the point). Another factor I don't see as much discussion around clones involves clones of discontinued or otherwise hard to find knives. Take any Benchmade 4x clone, for example—sure, a lot more 4x series knives were made than people think, but that doesn't change the fact that they've been discontinued for decades, and most people aren't willing to sink at least 500 USD to get their hands on one secondhand. You could even use buying a clone as a form of boycotting if you want. While I'm not looking to buy another knife anytime soon, I sure as hell am not gonna buy from BRS when they charge a shit ton of money for knives that barely have the slightest semblance of quality control (seriously, who the fuck thinks a knife with machining this bad should retail for over 400 USD?).
With all of this out of the way, you might wonder what my opinions are on clones are, and to be honest, it's not that exciting. I'm more or less indifferent towards clones, and I won't judge you if you buy one. If you're in the market to get started or just have a tight budget, I will try to steer you towards non-clone budget options like what Nabalis and LDY offer, but if you buy a clone for any of the reasons mentioned above I couldn't care less as long as you don't try to pass it off as the real thing.
