High Carbon Steel Filipino Balisongs Butterfly Stainless Steel with Dye Bone Inserts Black Mamba Knives World Class Knives | BMK-606

Description

A traditional Filipino balisong with pale bone inserts pinned into polished steel bolsters, assembled and finished by hand in Memphis.

Made for: collectors, and people learning to flip who would rather hold a natural material than a molded scale. The handles are long enough to roll properly, and the fitting is done one knife at a time.

How bone ages

Bone is not a uniform material. The inserts here run cream to light amber, and the fine lines you can see under the polish are the grain of the piece they were cut from. Skin oil darkens them slowly. After a year of regular handling the scales usually sit a shade warmer than the day they arrived, and the spots where your fingers land pick up a low sheen. Most owners like that. What bone will not forgive is dryness followed by heat, so a car dashboard in July is the one place this knife should never live.

What the length gives you

Open, it measures 9.1 inches, with 4.4 inches of that in the blade. That sits in the size band most flippers settle into. The handles carry enough mass to finish a rollover without being forced, and the knife still clears your forearm on an aerial. If your hands are on the small side, a 4.7 inch handle feels like a lot on day one and ordinary by the end of the week.

Where it falls down

Bone chips. Drop this on a concrete floor mid-trick and you can crack an insert, which is a risk a steel handled practice knife simply does not carry. If you are still learning basic rollovers and expect to drop the knife fifty times this month, learn on something you do not mind marking and come back to this one afterward. It rewards maintenance rather than tolerating neglect.

Keeping it right

The blade will not shrug off moisture. Dry it with a cloth after every session, because sweat left on the flats overnight is what starts the first rust freckle. A drop of light machine oil at each pivot every few weeks keeps the swing even, and which oil to use covers the choices. Keep oil away from the bone itself, and never soak the knife or run it under a tap, because water travels under the inserts and stays there. The bolsters show fingerprints and clean up dry.

Questions people ask

Do I need to flip already? No. Read butterfly knife tricks for beginners and get the basic opening clean before anything leaves your hand.

Can I take it apart? The pivots are pinned rather than screwed, so this is not a knife you tune with a hex driver. Oil is the adjustment available to you.

What if I want a darker handle? The brass and buffalo horn version trades bright bolsters for brass and pale bone for dark horn.

Model: BMK-442