Balisong: Iron Butterfly ( Video)

This book is a gem, that should be reprinted. The philosophy of Cacoy Hernandez, is worth much more than the original price of the book, many times over. Anyone can attack using a blade, but if you train enough you might get lucky to live through a knife fight, if ever you get into that situation. The Karate store nonsense that often instills a false sense of security isn't what this book is about. Good luck on obtaining a copy, and good luck on handling situations in a non hurtful way.

Herrnandez is someone who knows what he is talking about in this book. This book is not about the balisong knife exactly, but rather about Herrnandez's life and how much the martial art of the balisong and Arnis de Manao are a part of his life. To say he was a brawler would be an insulting understatement. Though written in a way that shows a minimum of education, it is insightful. This is the real thing, gritty and from the heart. Though not intended as an instruction book, it does lay down a few knife basics and provides some helpful street survival tips from Herrnandez's own life of fighting experience. Herrnandez sounds like Bruce Lee at times, in that fixed forms and positions do not a true fighter make and that if one wants to learn, one has to get in the water, so to speak. Practice, pain, dedication, and sense are what you will find about Herrnandez. You may like him, you may not, but this book holds truth.