Bird Handmade 440C Stainless Steel Original Filipino Balisong Butterfly Knife with Brass and Bone Handle | 24cm EDC Flipper Gift for Him | BF-16

The BF-16 Bird pairs a brass frame with bone inserts, which is the reason to buy this one over its neighbours. 440C blade, 24cm open, 175g. If you have only handled wood-inlaid balisongs, bone is a different object in the hand, and this page is mostly about that difference rather than about flipping mechanics you can read anywhere.

Bone is not wood with a different colour

People treat handle material as decoration. It is not. It changes the temperature, the grip, and the way the knife ages, and bone differs from kamagong on all three.

The slickness matters. A polished bone panel is a touch more slippery than wood, which some flippers love because the knife rotates freely through a loose grip, and which others hate for exactly the same reason. We would rather tell you that up front than have you find it out on day two.

No two panels match, and they are not supposed to

Bone is a structure, not a material we pour. It has pores, density variation, and small dark flecks where the marrow channels ran. Cut two panels from the same piece and they will be cousins, not twins.

If your Bird arrives with one panel slightly creamier than the other, that is the correct outcome. A perfectly matched pair of “bone” panels usually means a polymer that has been moulded to look like bone, and there is quite a lot of that on the internet at prices that should worry you.

Looking after it

• Keep it out of long soaks. Bone is porous and does not enjoy being wet for hours.
• A little mineral oil once or twice a year keeps it from drying out. Not much. A drop on a cloth.
• Skin oil is good for it. Flipping the knife is maintenance.
• Do not put it near heat to dry it. Bone that dries too fast can check, the same way wood does.

Specifications for this 440C dagger butterfly knife

The 440C steel underneath the pretty part

440C, hardened to about 58 HRC. Easy to sharpen, tough enough to be dropped, stainless enough to forgive a sweaty hand. It gives up some edge retention to D2 and that is a trade we make on purpose for flipping knives.

We mention it here because bone-handled knives tend to attract buyers who are shopping with their eyes, and a beautiful handle wrapped around a bad blade is the oldest trick in this business.

Weight and balance

175g in a 24cm frame is the middle of this series. Bone is lighter than the brass around it, so the mass in the Bird lives in the frame and the pivots rather than in the panels. The knife turns cleanly and does not feel panel-heavy in a roll.

Trainer version

Pick the trainer option above Add to Cart and you get this exact knife, bone panels and all, with an unsharpened edge. Same weight, same balance, same price. Some people buy a bone trainer purely because they want to carry something handsome and have no interest in an edge, which is a perfectly reasonable way to spend money.

Shipping and sheath for this bone handle balisong

Free within the United States, flat $49 everywhere else no matter the order size. The fitted leather sheath is cut for this model, which for a bone-handled knife is worth having: it keeps the panels off keys and coins.

the 440C comes out of the quench at 58-60 HRC. Harder than that and it chips; softer and you are sharpening it every fortnight.

The Bird pairs brass bolsters with a bone handle rather than horn or wood, and how the handle materials we use compare sets out how bone compares with those other materials for grip and long term wear. It is part of the stainless steel balisong knives. The BF-19 Cat carries the same bone handle over brass if you want to compare two bone builds side by side.