Take apart your new balisong without damaging it and how to proceed if you do.
Make sure your have the correct tools.
The easiest way to ruin your balisong is to use the wrong driver size.
Most balisong utilize torx based pivots and using the wrong size or low quality torx drivers can easily lead to stripped pivots or hardware. WIHA brand drivers are considered the gold standard. This spreadsheet is a great resource for determining what hardware your balisong has.
Dealing with Blue or Red Loctite
Determine whether or not your balisong hardware has been loctited and if so what type. You can typically determine this by researching or asking the community. Most manufactures will send their balisongs with blue loctite that should be able to be overcome with simple application of torque.
If you purchased your balisong on the secondary market it is possible that it has been red loctited. If you balisong has been loctited with Red you will need to use heat to break the bond. Some people like to boil the balisong, others utilize a soldering iron or lighter on the pivots or hardware.
Obviously you can’t use an open flame or soldering iron on balisongs with G10 or other non metal construction.
If your pivots or hardware spin while you turn the male side of the pivot you generally can solve the issue with two solutions.
1. You can squeeze the handles aggressively against either the tang or zen pins to create some tension on the blades in an attempt to fix the pivots from spinning freely.
2. You can put down a rubber mat like one used for opening a jar and then hold press the pivots down into the rubber to grip the female portion of the pivot while you turn the male screws.
Great I stripped my Balisong Screws Now What?
Fear not your probably not all that screwed.
Step 1:
Find out what size hardware you need and acquire some replacement hardware. It’s a good idea to buy extra and keep this on hand.
Step 2:
If your screw is stripped but not completely messed up the first thing to do is step away. Stripped screws happen usually because people lose their patience and keep trying to make a screw that isn’t budging budge. See above and make sure that it hasn’t been red loctited.
Step 3:
Make a game plan – if you bought from a reputable manufacturer you can probably send it in for service. This is the option I’d recommend but you’ll be without your precious buttefly knife for a period of time. If you can’t handle that option you may want to proceed with some other more drastic options.
I’d recommend making sure you have a few tools for this job:
- Drill bits capable of drilling metal (this is a last case option)
- Superglue or some other form of adhesive
- Various sizes of torx drivers.
First try is utilizing a bigger Torx driver.
Sometimes you can remove a slightly stripped screw by grabbing a slightly larger torx driver – the next size up and see if you can tap that into the stripped pivot screw. Make sure you apply generous amounts of downward pressure when turning the screw.
The next thing you can try is super gluing the torx driver to the screw.
Obviously you might be sacrificing the driver depending on the adhesive but likely you can remove the screw from the driver after extracting with some concentrated heat. Make sure not to get any adhesive outside of the pivot or you risk making it worse and gluing the pivot into the handle slabs.
The final and most drastic step is to actually drill out the pivot.
If you are going to attempt this I’d recommend a vise for holding the handle steady and drill press or a very steady hand. Utilizing a HSS, titanium or other metal drilling bit you should be able to chew threw the screw relatively easily. Be super careful not to damage the handle itself.
See here for a more detailed breakdown of the particular steps associated with removing and cleaning balisong pivots
