D2 Tool Steel Filipino Balisongs Butterfly Stainless Steel Buffalo Horn Inserts Black Mamba Knives World Class Knives | BMK-465

Description

Water buffalo horn against polished brass, which is the entire visual idea of this knife and the reason it keeps selling. The panels are near-black with a little tan marbling in the relief, the bolsters are bright, and the satin blade carries jimping filed into the spine ahead of the pivot with two holes bored through the flat.

Near-black, and evenly so

Buffalo is the darkest horn fitted anywhere in this line. Where antler and ram horn show streaking and grooves that draw the eye, buffalo tends toward a solid near-black broken only by occasional lighter marbling, so from a few feet away it simply reads as a dark handle and only gives up its grain when you bring it close. Set beside brass that has been polished bright, that flat darkness is what makes the contrast work. A busier panel would fight the metal instead of framing it.

An old format, not a new idea

Horn set into metal handles is close to what smiths in Batangas were genuinely building: local, durable, unglamorous materials chosen because they lasted and because they were there, not because they photographed well. The blade sitting slightly shorter than the handles that carry it comes out of the same practical tradition, since a blade that overshoots gets damaged and a blade that hides is safe to carry closed. Where the balisong came from fills in the background if the shape interests you more than the specification does.

Keeping it dark

Horn dries out. Carried through a winter in a dry-heated house it can shrink very slightly against its brass surround, which shows up as a hairline at the edge of a panel rather than as a crack across it. Oiling two or three times a year prevents that outright, and which oils are appropriate is worth reading before you reach for whatever is under the sink, because a few common household products will haze horn permanently.

The brass will age unless you stop it

Left alone, polished brass goes honey and then brown, and a lot of owners deliberately let it, because aged brass beside black horn looks older than it is in a way that suits the knife. Metal polish on a soft cloth takes it back to bright whenever you want, provided you keep the compound clear of the horn and out of the pin heads.

Ground and fitted in Tennessee

Profile, drilling, heat treat, panel fitting, pinning, sharpening and the final open-and-close test all happen in our Memphis shop, and the knife leaves with a black leather belt carrier, stitched and riveted by hand. For the same buffalo horn against a plain high carbon blade at a similar price, there is the high carbon buffalo horn balisong. Please satisfy yourself about local law ahead of ordering. The guarantee has no end date.

Model: BMK-465