7 Easy & Simple Butterfly Knife Tricks
Butterfly knife flipping looks complicated at first sight and you’re probably telling yourself that you don’t have the necessary skills to do those tricks.
However, learning how to flip a knife is a rewarding and easy process. All that is required is a few fundamental handling techniques. Indeed, butterfly knife flipping may take a lot of skill to perform but anyone can quickly learn how to do it like a professional.
In order to help you get the most out of your butterfly knife, we made this comprehensive guide that will show you short and simple tricks that you can learn and use to impress your friends and family.
Easy Butterfly Knife Tricks
1. Vertical Open and Close
Open and close is the easiest trick in the book. All that is required is that you hold the bite handle and let the safe handle loose. Then perform a quick hand movement to open the safe handle. Immediately, move your hand in the other direction to close the bite handle once again.
In so doing, you create the illusion that the butterfly knife is opening and closing very rapidly, in pretty much the same way that a fan moves. This is very easy to do and it should take you only about a few minutes to learn how to do it the right way.
2. Quickdraw
Quickdraw is also known as a fast opening. It is a basic and yet essential balisong trick that anyone who owns a butterfly knife should learn to perform.
To start with Quickdraw, start by holding either the bite handle or the safe handle. While holding one handle between your thumb and index finger, swing the other knife up so that it opens.
While you are swinging up, reposition your hand such that your thumb is retracted and your handle can latch again, thus closing the butterfly knife. Essentially what you are doing is simply opening and closing the butterfly knife, but unlike the vertical open and close trick above, Quickdraw is done horizontally.
3. Fanning
Fanning with the butterfly knife is a way to transition between an open and close move. All you have to do is simply open the butterfly knife by holding it in a horizontal manner.
Then hold the safe handle firmly and rotate the knife in either a clockwise or counterclockwise direction so as to simulate the movement of a fan. Always hold the safe handle and not the bite handle when doing fanning for safety purposes.
Moreover, you can perform fanning at various speeds. The good thing about the fanning technique is that since the butterfly knife has 2 handles, it is an ideal trick to do with it. Additionally, fanning is also very easy to do by even absolute beginners
4. Latch Drop
Latch drop is another beginner trick for butterfly knives. To perform the latch drop, simple hold the butterfly knife closed and upside down with your index finger and your thumb. Then simulate a rocking motion backward with your hand so that the safe handle falls and the bite handle remains in your hand.
For this technique to work effectively, you need to hold on to the latch on the bite handle and the rocking motion needs to be perfectly timed. It will take a few minutes, if not hours of practice to get the latch drop technique right. It may look complicated, but it’s easier than you think.
5. Back Hand Twirl
The backhand twirl is a beginner trick and less complex than the full twirl below.
To perform this knife action, you first need to start holding the knife in reverse (hence the term backhand). Hold the safe handle and then throw both the blade and the bite handle down while you simultaneously rotate your hand on the safe handle.
While you are rotating the knife, you need to hold it with your index finger and middle finger so that you have a pivot to rotate the knife with ease.
6. Full Twirl
The full twirl is an intermediate butterfly knife trick. For this trick to work, you start out holding the safe handle between your index finger and your thumb.
Then, perform a basic horizontal movement, similar to the fanning trick above. This is to get the butterfly knife open and the handles apart. Once the horizontal movement has been performed, you want your index finger to be located between the blade spine and the safe handle, such that the blade is literally touching your index finger.
Then scissor the safe handle with your middle finger, in a manner that the safe handle is sandwiched between your index finger and your middle finger. Then rotate the knife counterclockwise. Once you are there, place your ring finger between the safe handle and the spine handle while removing your index finger.
Perform this action in slow motion at first to get the hang of it. Once you are confident with the finger movements, do it faster and you will get a full twirl trick.
7. Helix
The helix trick is a flashy rollover move that looks complex but is actually quite simple. It is performed using mostly your fingers. This move is comprised of 3 parts.
The first part is rotating the butterfly knife around your thumb in a horizontal position. The second is rotating it around your palm and index finger, while the last part is rolling it again in the same way as the first part, but counterclockwise.
When the helix is performed fast enough, it imitates the movements of a helicopter rotor in motion which is quite cool to watch.
Conclusion
As we have seen, it does not take much to learn a few handy tricks using the butterfly knife. After all, this knife was invented so as to perform tricks in the easiest way possible.
However, when performing tricks with the butterfly knife, practice is always key. You will not get anywhere if you do not practice enough. We recommend that you spare at least an hour every day to practice a few of the tricks we have described above.
Sooner or later your hands will start moving in a natural manner and you will become an expert in performing butterfly knife tricks.