Bushing

A bushing is a small cilynder, usually made out of some form of steel. For balisongs, some form of stainless steel is the standard.

1 Bushing systems

Bushings for balisongs usually come in one of two types: "traditional" bushing system, or "floating" bushing system.

1.1 Traditional

In a traditional bushing system, the bushing goes inside the blade and gets sandwiched by two washers on each side. It is generally agreed that the Traditional bushing system is the superior one.

2 Sizes

Bushings have 3 measurements: outer diameter, inner diameter, and height.

2.1 Inner Diameter

Often abbreviated to ID.
The ID of most bushings will usually be the same, around 4.7mm-4.9mm (0.188in)

2.2 Outer Diameter

Often abbreviated to OD.
There are 4 different outer diameter bushing sizes:
6.29mm-6.3mm
6.35mm-6.36mm
6.9mm-7.0mm
7.0mm-7.1mm
(Yes there is a difference between 6.9-7.0 and 7.0-7.1 bushings)
For a list of what balisong uses what bushing, check out the parts list.

While some of those differences may looks small (for example: 6.9-7.0 vs 7.0-7.1), they can still dictate whether a bushing might or might not fit inside the bushing hole of a blade. You can use a small bushing for a larger bushing hole (for example 6.9-7.0 inside a blade that needs 7.0-7.1) but the handle will "click" back and forth while flipping. In other words: the handles goes "forwards and backwards", not left to right as if it had an oversized bushing.

3.3 Height

The last axis of the bushing is the height. It is the only flat part of the bushing. There is no real standard in bushing height since every blade will have a different thickness.

4 Tuning

For an explanation on what tuning is and how it impacts the performance of a balisong, please read the tune article.

4.1 Tuning traditional bushings

In order to have a decent tune, you need to sand the flat part of the bushing so that it is only slightly higher than the blade. If your bushing is 0.025mm (0.001in) shorter than your blade, you have an undersized bushing and your balisong will most likely bind. You must also be careful to not sand your bushing at an angle because this will make your balisong bind, but only in specific handle positions. Some community members tend to call uneven bushings "lopsided". To counteract uneven bushings, makers have created tools to help mitigate this problem. Nabalis has created the Bushing Buddy and Knife Dogs have created the Pivot Lap.

5 Conversion

It is possible to convert different types of bushing systems.

5.1 Floating -> Traditional

A floating bushing system can be converted to a traditional bushing system. Currently the instructions are missing on how to do this, but a community member called Taktyc has created a video in which he announced that he will make a tutorial about this.