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I'm more into Randall's tho

I have a couple cheapie butterfly knives, and a few nice ones. Learned to spin them, open one handed, etc. Looks flashy but it wouldn't be my first choice for self defense.

Hypothetically, IF I were to carry an edged implement for self defense as a backup to a firearm, I'd carry something with a bit more heft to it than a Balisong.

Both gravity and spring type switchblades have been used by paratroopers:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UG00hqPm0o

You're right. Something I didn't know until today, was that they were issued to U.S. paratroopers in the Second World War. Wiki page:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Switchblade

Here's a link to a page with some good photos:

http://www.autoknife.info/American_3.html

Not so sure they were standard issue to paratroopers, I know for a fact they were issued to the Air Force because my dad had one when I was growing up and he told me all pilots used to have them all the way up to at least Vietnam. Todays paratroopers are not "issued" squat, I know this to be 100% true for I am a paratrooper. Now we do randomly get issued stuff, like I have a benchmade 9050 auto knife but it is nothing to do with being a paratrooper(Airborne), or even the I was Special Operations, but that is where I was issued mine, normal every day soldiers got them once in a while too if their supply got them. Their is a standard knife that the jumpmasters will buy and it's a fixed blade because it is most reliable in a towed jumper emergency and they tape it to their boot for quick access to cut a static line or equipment to free them.

As far as a butterfly knife it is a horrible knife for an EDC as even with practice when it comes time to deploy it can get unlocked in removal and everything goes nuts when you are nervous. Unless it is a good one the locking pins are straight crap for support, and even the expensive ones if you use in a non-defensive way you can break them easily. Then their is the legal ramifications determined by state which is minute, some won't allow them at all and most are pushing the 3-4 inch mark which some states over 3 and others over 4 is considered illegal to carry, something to think about. I've got a couple because they are fun to play with, at one point I was looking into a one motion open and throw but I busted the knife at the handle, luckily it was a 5.00 flea market special. The only thing they have going for them is they are recognized and people think they are cool, other than that they are not really that useful as a tool. As a soldier a butterfly knife is the last thing on earth I would ever consider carrying for any occasion I would come into. Even my benchmade, which I carry in uniform always, is only used when I need a folding knife, if I am deployed I usually have a fixed blade on my kit that is my go to knife.

Again they are still cool to play with and I think any knife collector should own at least one, but like every knife it shouldn't be a cheap one. Knives are the one of the things that you always get what you pay for, though you can definitely overpay.

Something like this?



It is made with a HSS blade insert and has an unbelievably sharp Moran (convex) edge.






This is the Benchmade Rukus (the big one). It won the knife of the year (2006 I think). They don't make them any more.



The action is buttery smooth but no hint of slop anywhere. Truly a precision machine. VG30 steel and will cut your eyeballs just by looking at it.