Bradley Kimura 6

I’ve thought balisongs were cool every since I watched my first Steven Segal movie. I even had a few as a young teenager. They were, of course, flea market junk and never lasted long. I haven’t owned one since I was about 14, but I’ve thought about picking up a quality balisong for many years.

Like many of you I don’t have a limitless flow of cash to drop on the more expensive knives on the market. This is what always deterred me from getting a balisong. It seemed like anything worth buying was at least a couple of hundred dollars. I was pleasantly surprised when I found the Bradley line of knives, as many of these are sold for around 80 USD on the Internet. I got an even better deal because I was able to pick up a cometically blemished model at a reduced price.

The blade came screamingly sharp and has stayed that way after going though lots of paper, tape, and plastic lanyards. As a total novice to flipping, I’ve found it very easy to just open and close the knife for use. I really thought that the very rectangular handles would make it harder to flip the knife, but the long voids cut out of the handle make it easy for me to get a perfect pinch grip.

This knife has no belt clip, so it’s been riding in the coin pocket of my jeans, where it fits snugly. One of the things I noticed right away is that, when folded, the Kimura is the perfect size to be used as a pocket stick. The tang of the blade ends in a point, making it a great surface for striking.  This means the Kimura is a self-defense tool that fills two roles well.

The fit and finish of the Bradley Kimura 6 has to be seen to be believed. Everything is just very clean and crisp, with no tooling marks or uneven grinds. I can’t say how this knife stacks up to it’s more expensive competitors, but judged on its own merits, it is one great knife that I would highly recommend.