That's right, it's time to bust out the motor oil to grease my hair up, pull out the 80's leather jacket and become a goon who gets mowed down by one line spouting action hero, baby. I recently decided that I wanted to get back into the balisong game, so I moved a few things for some spare cash and picked up this sweet blade, the Kershaw Lucha. I was super into balisongs in my early 20's, though I never really pushed into learning more than a few tricks at the time. Over time I sold pretty much my entire knife collection to help cover things that kept popping up over the years. Thankfully, I've not had to do that for the past 2-3 years, so I figured it would be a great time to try and get back into my old hobby. Except now I'm actually going to learn some cool fucking tricks and not be a sloth about it.
In regards to this specific blade, after having it for a couple of days and playing around with it, I have to say it is a great entry level balisong. This runs for $119 on average, which is literally the only readily available butterfly knife that is actually good quality for under $200. All the other sub $100 options are typically actual crystalized dog shit that will either break into pieces or just not open/flip very well. When I first got into balisongs back in 2015/2016, you either had to drop $300 for a good quality balisong, or you had to just settle with flipping a used diaper attached to strings. So, I'm very happy to see this knife exists at its current price point.
So, what do you get with the Lucha? For the price, you can't expect any super steels to be used for the blade these days, but, that's okay. You get a 4.6" Sandvik 14C28N stonewashed blade, which while not being the highest quality, will definitely handle any EDC style task you throw at it. It's also super easy to sharpen, and because of what blade steel it is, Kershaw offers $10 replacement blades should you break the tip of it from dropping it while doing tricks. I'm definitely totally happy with the blade design and can't really bitch about it. Now, had I paid $200-300 I'd expect some S30V or something a bit higher quality, but for $119 I think the Sandvik works fine.
The overall length of the knife puts your mothers dildo collection to shame, with this bad boy coming in at 10.25 inches when the blade is deployed. Now, if you have smaller hands you might have a bit of trouble with this knife at first when trying to learn tricks. I can't really speak on if that improves or not the more you practice, since I've got big old meaty man hands. But, you might wanna try to find a used Benchmade Morpho 51 or something on the smaller side. And, I definitely think this knife stock without any mods is probably not the best choice, if you want a butterfly knife for everyday carry. As, this knife is not only lengthy, but, it's a god damn thicc boi.
The handles are stainless steel with a bead blast finish, internal stop pins and a horrible, god forsaken latch which I'm going to be removing soon. The amount of times the latch fucks up tricks and just gets in the way is endless. If you need a latch on your knife, I'd highly recommend making your own paracord latch in whatever gauge works for you. I'm considering just going latchless and adding a small piece of tape around the handle to distinguish the bite handle from the safe handle. But, I guess we'll see what happens. Anyways, these handles aren't too bad or anything. But, I do find them to be a bit too heavy for my taste. The knife weighs about 6.1 ounces, which is kind of fat when it comes to balisongs.
Thankfully, an afermarket company named FlyTi make aluminum and titanium channel handles which reduces the weight by almost 2 ounces. And, they look pretty fucking boner inducing to boot. I'm considering picking up an aluminum set when they restock later this month, should I have the funds. And, will report back to the 2 of you reading this about how much they actually improve the knife. But, even without doing that, I'd rate this knife as a great flipper for the price. 1-10, I would put this at a 8 for ease of flipping. It would work perfect for anyone new to the balisong game. Or, for some loser like me who had to get rid of all his good shit and has been itching to get back into it.
These are just my initial thoughts, I'm planning on coming back to make another post a few months down the line once I've improved my skill level with flipping and modded the knife to my liking. Though, I might decide to milk it a bit and make a post showing the progress towards modding it, since there's tons of shit I could do. But, yeah. I'd recommend the fuck out of this knife if anyone has ever wanted to try out a balisong. Though, you might be better off getting a trainer blade instead so you don't end up like me. With my hand looking like I got into a fight with a meth head's cat who got into their supply. I'd recommend Squid Industries for any trainer knife should you wanna go that route.
Aight, take it easy until next time, slutterbutts.
Later!
