High Carbon Steel Filipino Balisongs Butterfly Stainless Steel with Bone Inserts Black Mamba Knives World Class Knives | BMK-438

Description

A long clip point with a sawback spine, drilled flats and pale bone inserts between steel bolsters. One of the loudest looking knives in the Filipino line.

Aimed at: the buyer who wants a balisong that reads as a knife from across the room. If your taste runs to plain and understated, one of the quieter models will serve you better.

Reading the blade profile

The belly runs long and shallow before rising to a fine upswept point, which is a slicing geometry rather than a piercing one. The false edge along the top and the row of teeth behind it are ornament. They are shaped, not sharpened, and they exist because this pattern has looked like this since the knives were being made in Batangas for tourists and locals alike. Blade shapes explained sets it against the drop points and tantos you will see elsewhere in the catalog.

Holes, weight and swing

The drilled flats behind the ricasso are the only place mass has been removed, and they take it from exactly where you feel it least in a rollover: close to the pivot. The knife still swings blade heavy, which is what most people want in a balisong, because a blade heavy knife tells your hand where it is without you looking. Nothing about the drilling weakens the blade in normal handling; the holes sit in the thickest, least stressed part of the steel.

Reasons to pass on it

The point is fine and the steel behind it is thin, so this is a tip you can snap by prying. The sawback catches on a pocket lining and on the inside of a soft pouch. And bone, while it looks like nothing else, will crack under a hard drop where a synthetic scale would only scuff. This is display and practice hardware, not a work knife.

Keeping the rust off

A bright finish over steel with no meaningful corrosion resistance is the combination that shows a fingerprint fastest and a water mark faster still. Dry it and wipe it down before it goes back in a drawer, and pay attention to the drilled holes, because water sits in them and works outward. If a bloom does appear, it lifts easily while it is orange and never once it is pitted. Removing rust from a blade covers the method.

Before you buy

Are the sawteeth sharp? No. They are cut and polished for looks and will not saw anything.

Does the bone match the photograph? Closely, but not exactly. Every insert is cut from a different piece.

What is the quiet version of this? The brass and water buffalo horn model keeps the size and drops the ornament.

Model: BMK-438