Damascus Balisong Butterfly Knife with Beautiful Brass and Ram Horn Handle Handmade Original Traditional Filipino Butterfly Batanga Knife Black Mamba Knives USA | DB-26

Description

The DB-26 is the smallest thing we build that still behaves like a real balisong. Brass channels, ram horn panels set between them, and a forge-welded blade of 1095 and 15N20 etched to show its figure — all of it compressed into a knife that closes to roughly the length of a pen. Small does not mean toy here. It is a hobbyist’s knife, and it rewards hands that already know what they are doing.

Small, and denser than it looks

6.2 inches overall on 3.1-inch handles is genuinely pocket scale, yet it weighs 6.5 ounces — close to what knives half again its length weigh. Packing that much mass into a short frame gives it a feel nothing else in the range has: it comes round quickly because the handles are short, and it lands hard because they are heavy for their size.

Short handles change the timing

A 3.1-inch handle offers two or three fingers of purchase, not four. Rollovers arrive quicker than you expect, and there is less handle projecting past your grip to take the hit when you misjudge one, so a knuckle takes it instead. Someone learning from scratch is better served by a full-size knife. If you already flip and want something you can work on a couch without clearing the coffee table first, that is the case for this one — just expect to re-time everything, since the sequences in the tricks guide assume standard proportions.

Pattern on a short blade

A 3.1-inch blade does not give a 352-layer stack much room to spread out, so the figure reads tighter and finer than the same steel does across five inches — closer to woodgrain than to broad sweeping bands. Plenty of people prefer it that way. Either way the etch that reveals it needs the usual discipline: dry, lightly oiled, never scrubbed, as set out in caring for a forged blade. The 8.6-inch brass and horn forged balisong is the next size up if this turns out too small in your hand.

Ram horn, panel by panel

Ram horn is dense keratin laid down in growth layers, and it machines and polishes better than most people expect from a natural material. On the pair photographed here the panels sit warm brown with darker banding running lengthwise, framed tight by the brass. Yours will not repeat that exactly, because the color depends entirely on where in the horn the panel was taken from. It wants nothing more than a wipe with a dry cloth and, once or twice a year, whatever oil you already keep for the blade.

What the bench work amounts to

Ours are cut, drilled, fitted and closed in Memphis, and on a knife this size the tolerances are the whole job. There is no room to hide a pivot that sits a fraction out of line: a full-length balisong will forgive it, a short one rattles. Handles are filed to their stops after assembly so both arrive together, and the pins are peened by hand and then dressed level. It arrives in a protective box, backed by a lifetime warranty. Please check the ownership rules for your state or country before you order.

Model: BMK-DB-26