Balisong Construction Explained

Guide4 min readUpdated August 2026

Written by Russ Burke, staff writer at Black Mamba Knives, Memphis, Tennessee.

Short answer: a balisong is built one of two structural ways. A channel handle is machined from a single solid block with the blade's resting groove milled directly into it. A sandwich handle is assembled from two flat scales fastened around spacers, leaving an open gap for the blade. Everything else — tang pins, pivots, bushings or bearings, the latch, the kicker — is the same set of parts doing the same jobs regardless of which structure holds them.

The two structural families, briefly

Before the parts glossary, the one thing worth knowing up front: almost every balisong on the market is either channel or sandwich construction. We cover the tradeoffs between them — weight, feel, maintenance — in a dedicated comparison: channel vs sandwich vs skeletonized. This guide is about what's actually inside the handle, part by part.

Anatomy — the parts glossary

Bite handle — the handle that closes over the sharpened edge when the knife is folded shut. It gets its name because it's the one you don't want your fingers between during a bad flip.
Safe handle — the handle on the spine side, safe to grip through most flipping and manipulation.
Tang — the flat, unsharpened base of the blade between the edge and the pivot holes. Both handles attach here.
Tang pin — a small pin fixed into the tang that limits rotation and defines the open and closed stop points.
Zen pin — does the same stopping job as a tang pin, but mounted in the handle instead of the blade, held by a small screw. More common on sandwich builds since the handle is easier to drill into.
Pivot pins — the screws at the base of each handle that the handle actually rotates around. On sandwich construction these are usually adjustable, which is how a flipper tunes the tension of a flip.
Bushings — simple metal sleeves fitted into the pivot holes that the handle spins on. Durable, low maintenance, moderately smooth.
Bearings — caged ball bearings used in place of bushings for markedly less friction and a faster, freer spin. Preferred by advanced flippers; can feel too loose for a beginner still learning control.
Latch — the mechanism that locks the knife closed, or open, for safe carry. Spring latches, channel-style latches, and latchless friction-fit designs are the common types.
Kicker — a small protrusion on the tang that stops the sharpened edge from striking the inside of the handle channel during a flip.
Choil — a small unsharpened curve near the kicker that gives a sharpening stone somewhere to run out to.
Blade channel — the internal cavity, whether milled into a solid block or formed by the gap between two scales, that the folded blade actually rests inside.

Exploded diagram of a balisong butterfly knife showing the bite handle, safe handle, tang and pivot points — Bite handle, safe handle, tang and pivots — the same parts whether the handle is channel or sandwich built.

How a channel handle is machined

Each handle starts as a solid bar of material — aluminum most often, sometimes steel or titanium — and the blade channel is milled directly into it as a single continuous groove. Nothing is fastened together inside the handle itself; the pivot hardware and any latch components are the only things that attach afterward. That makes a channel handle simple and hard to break, at the cost of being heavier for its size and impossible to disassemble for a deep clean.

Cutaway diagram of the milled channel construction inside a balisong handle — A channel handle cut away to show the milled groove that houses the folded blade.

How a sandwich handle is assembled

A sandwich handle is built from two flat scales — G10, titanium, aluminum, or carbon fiber — fastened around internal spacers and standoffs, with the pivot hardware running through both layers. The gap between the scales is the blade channel; there's no milling involved, just parts stacked and screwed together. That construction is lighter and fully serviceable — spacers, scales, and pivots can all be swapped or cleaned individually — but it's also more parts that can work loose over time.

What actually changes the flip

Two things affect flip feel more than anything cosmetic: how much the handles weigh (heavier channel handles swing with more momentum and a more contained feel; lighter sandwich handles move faster and looser), and whether the pivots run on bushings or bearings (bushings feel more controlled, bearings spin freer). The construction style sets the starting point; pivot hardware is what most flippers actually tune once they own the knife.

Questions people ask

Is one construction type inherently safer?

Not meaningfully — safety on a balisong comes from the latch and from practicing with a trainer before a live blade, not from channel versus sandwich. Both hold a blade securely when built and maintained properly.

Can a sandwich handle be taken apart at home?

Yes, that's part of the design — most sandwich builds use standard hex hardware. A channel handle generally cannot be disassembled beyond removing the pivot and latch hardware.

Why do some balisongs feel "looser" than others of the same construction?

Almost always pivot tension and bushing versus bearing choice, not the handle structure itself. A worn or over-loosened pivot will feel loose on either a channel or a sandwich handle.