High Carbon Steel Filipino Balisongs Butterfly Brass with Stainless Steel with Bone and Rose Wood Inserts Black Mamba Knives World Class Knives | BMK-567

Description

A Filipino-pattern balisong with a wavy kris blade, stainless channel handles and alternating bone and kamagong inserts pinned in copper.

Aimed at: collectors who want a balisong that reads as an object from across a room, and flippers who like a blade with some visual movement to it.

The wavy blade is not only for looks

A kris profile lengthens the cutting edge without lengthening the knife, because the edge follows every curve while the blade measures straight. It also means each wave presents at a slightly different angle as you draw, which is why these profiles cut fibrous material well. On a balisong it does something else: the changing width shifts mass along the blade, so the knife has a slower, more deliberate swing than a straight-ground one of the same length. That suits some hands and frustrates others. Our guide to blade shapes sets it beside the alternatives.

Bone, kamagong and the channels that hold them

Kamagong is Philippine ironwood, dark to nearly black and heavy enough to sink in water. It is paired here with pale bone in alternating blocks, seated in stainless channels and held by copper pins. The channel construction matters: the handle is a folded metal trough with the insert dropped in, rather than two slabs bolted around a liner, and that is what gives these their characteristic ring when the handles close. If the difference is new to you, we set out channel against sandwich and skeletonized builds.

Looking after it

The blade is a forge-welded carbon Damascus, not stainless, so it wants drying and a wipe of light oil after handling. Skin oil is mildly acidic and this is a knife made to be picked up, so the wipe matters more here than on a knife that lives in a drawer. Bone and kamagong both dislike extremes: do not leave the knife on a sunny windowsill or in a hot vehicle, where bone can check and the dark wood can shrink away from its pins. A drop of oil at each pivot every few months keeps the action even. Never soak it, and never put oil on the bone.

Questions

Will the waves make it harder to sharpen? Somewhat. A round rod or a narrow stone follows the curves; a flat bench stone will only touch the crests.

Do the inserts come loose? They are pinned, not glued. If a pin ever seats proud, it can be tapped back.

Is there a plainer version? The BMK-610 with brass and kamagong keeps the wood and drops the pattern.

Model: BMK-415