Description
The scales on this folder are cut from shell, so what looks like a color is actually light bouncing off thousands of stacked mineral layers.
| Overall length | 7.5 inches |
| Blade length | 3.5 inches |
| Handle length | 4 inches |
| Steel | 1095 + 15N20 Damascus |
| Hardness | 58–60 HRC, oil tempered |
| Handle | Sea Shell Brass Bolster |
| Included | Hand-stitched leather sheath |
Given as: a gift, most of the time. A 7.5 inch folder with mother-of-pearl scales and brass bolsters is a dress knife — it goes in a jacket pocket, comes out at a table, and is admired before it is used.
Why shell looks the way it does
Nacre has no pigment. The pinks, greens and golds shifting as you turn the knife come from interference — light reflecting off aragonite layers about as thick as a wavelength of visible light. That is why the color moves with the angle and why no photograph quite catches it, and it is also why the effect cannot fade: there is nothing in there to bleach. Shell can chip, though, which is why this is a pocket knife rather than a work knife.
Living with shell scales
Treat the handle as you would a watch crystal. It is hard — harder than most people expect — but brittle, and a drop onto tile can take a corner off a scale in a way no polish will fix. Keep it out of a pocket with keys and coins. Heat is the other risk: shell is bonded to the liners with adhesive, and a summer on a hot dashboard weakens that bond. Otherwise it is inert. The brass bolsters dull to a soft gold and brighten with polish; keep the polish off the shell, where it lodges in the surface.
The blade at 3.5 inches
A slim clip point with a nail nick rather than a thumb stud, opened two-handed as a traditional folder is. Three and a half inches is generous for a gentleman’s knife and it makes this one genuinely useful — enough edge for food at a table, for cord, for opening anything. The narrow grind slices well and dislikes sideways load on the tip. Our guide to pocket knife bevels explains why a thin grind cuts better and chips sooner.
Care for a carbon blade in a folder
A patterned high carbon blade inside a closed handle is the hardest thing to keep dry, because moisture wicks into the pivot and sits against the tang out of sight. Fold it only when the blade is dry; if it gets wet, leave it open somewhere warm for an hour first. Keep a trace of oil on the steel and one drop at the pivot, wiping the outside so it does not transfer to a pocket. Never wash it under a running tap. Sharpen lightly and often on a fine stone — a thin blade like this responds to stropping and rarely needs coarse grit. For the same knife in rose wood with pearl set into the bolster instead, see the Royal Pearl rose wood folder.
Questions buyers ask
Does it lock? It is a back-lock folder, so the blade locks open and is released by pressing the spine bar.
Is it a good present? It is one of the most-gifted knives in the range — our Christmas knife gift guide covers what to think about when buying for someone else.
Will two knives look the same? No. Every shell scale is a different piece of a different shell.
Model: BMK-680
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