High Carbon Steel Filipino Balisongs Butterfly Brass with Walnut Burl Wood Inserts Black Mamba Knives World Class Knives | BMK-432

Description

Solid brass bolsters, a warm reddish-brown burl panel down the middle of each handle, copper pins peened flush, and a broad satin blade that runs almost straight to a shallow drop. Of everything on this shelf, this is the model people pick up first, and it is the figure in the wood that does it.

What a burl actually is

A burl is a tree’s answer to injury or infection. It is a knot of confused growth where the grain gives up running in one direction and spirals back in on itself instead, and that confusion is exactly what you see: clusters of tight eyes, ripples, sudden shifts of color inside a panel no bigger than a finger. It is also why burl costs what it costs. Yield is terrible. A slab of it cuts into far fewer usable scales than the same volume of straight walnut, because the most interesting regions of a burl are usually the regions with voids running through them, and voids get thrown away.

Stabilized, and what that buys you

Raw burl has no business on a knife handle. It drinks water and then cracks across the figure. Stabilized burl has had resin drawn down into those open cells under vacuum, so what sits under your palm is closer to a wood-and-resin composite than to timber in its natural state. The practical upshot is that these panels will not swell against their brass surround the way an untreated scale would, they do not need feeding, and wiping them with a dry cloth genuinely counts as maintenance rather than as a ritual you perform to feel useful. The steel is the opposite case. It does want oil, and it wants it on a schedule.

The trade you are making against a plain wood

Figure costs money and buys nothing mechanically. A straight-grained scale is strong along its length because the fibers all agree on a direction; a burl scale has grain pointing everywhere and therefore has no strong direction at all. Nobody has broken one flipping, and the brass frame is carrying the loads regardless, but if what you want is the toughest timber in the range rather than the prettiest, plain chico wood is the more sensible buy. And if you like the burl but would rather have a steel frame than a brass one, there is a stainless walnut and burl version for less money.

Brass ages, and you get a vote

Polished brass darkens. Left alone it goes to a soft honey and then to something browner, which many owners prefer because it makes the wood look warmer beside it. Bring it back whenever you like with metal polish on a soft cloth, keeping the polish off the timber. Neither choice is wrong.

Forged and finished in Memphis

Blade blanks are cut, ground, hardened and tempered in Tennessee, then handles are fitted, pinned, shaped and sanded to the steel before the edge goes on and the action is tested by hand. Layered billets on this bench are folded and drawn out at the forge the old way, if you want to see how that part of the shop works. Each one leaves with a riveted black leather carrier. Read up on how your state treats butterfly knives before you buy. The guarantee is for life.

Model: BMK-432