I know that was a very popular term When they were big, it's hard to find them now though. And I usually saw it in conjuction with the benchmade symbol(the little butterfly) So I assumed it was a trade name or something. I know when you said Ballisong, people associated it with the benchmade knives. I thought that used to be the name of the company in the 80's. I don't recall seeing the benchmade name until about 5 or 6 years ago.

Oh well, shows what I know. Awsome knives at any rate. You hand me a Benchmade, Kershaw, or Gerber and I will be a happy man with any of them. I also like the Spyderco's, but have had three of them stolen, so I gave up on carrying them!