Damascus Balisong Butterfly Knife Original Traditional Filipino Butterfly Batanga Knife with Handmade Steel and Wooden Handle Raindrop Pattern Black Mamba Knives | DB-07

Description

Wood in the hand, forged steel in the blade

A timber handle changes more than the photograph. Wood is warm to pick up in a cold room, where an all-metal balisong is a small shock every time. It damps the ring on close, so the DB-07 sounds duller and softer than a knife with bare metal handles. And it is much softer than what it is bolted to, which means the handle takes the wear the blade would otherwise show. Across a season of practice the corners round off where your fingers land, the finish thins at the pinch points, and the knife starts to look like it belongs to you specifically rather than to a batch.

A long blade at 7.2 ounces

This is a substantial edge on a substantial frame, and two practical notes follow from it. First, the arc that edge sweeps is wider than almost everyone estimates on a first attempt, so give yourself the clearance you think is excessive and then add some more to it. Second, at this weight with timber scales a drop onto tile damages the handle before it damages anything else. The blade will be fine and the wood will not. That is the correct order for it to happen in, but it is still worth catching the knife.

Learn the moves closed

Long handles and a heavy blade are a forgiving combination for slow, wide, deliberate work and an unforgiving one for anything fast. Run through the basic rolls and fans with the knife shut until the timing is automatic, then open it up. Most of the knuckle damage people take from a knife this size comes from attempting a chained sequence live before the muscle memory is actually there.

Care is different from an all-metal knife

Never soak it and never leave it standing in water, because the two materials want opposite treatment. The blade wants a thin film of oil on it; the timber wants to be left dry and clean, with at most an occasional wipe of something that does not sit sticky on the surface afterwards. Forged-blade care in practice covers the steel half of that in detail. Keep the whole knife away from heat, because a dashboard in July will shrink a handle in a way that no amount of oil undoes.

The other way to have wood

If you would rather have timber protected by a metal frame instead of forming the entire handle, look at walnut burl inset into stainless, which puts the figure on display and puts the impacts on the metal. Every one of these is forged, ground, etched and assembled in Memphis, Tennessee, and every one is checked for a clean close before it leaves the bench. Please confirm your local balisong rules before you order.

Model: BMK-DB-07