Dog Handmade VG10 Super Steel Original Filipino Balisong Butterfly Knife with Brass and Kamagong Wood Handle | 24cm Lightweight Flipper Gift | BF-33

The BF-33 Dog is a 150g VG10 balisong, one of the cheapest of the light knives in our VG10 range, and the one we hand people who have never flipped anything. Brass handles, kamagong wood inserts, a 12cm blade in a 24cm frame. If you have been reading about balisongs for a month and want to stop reading and start dropping one on your kitchen floor, this is a sensible place to begin.

Why this one for a first knife

Three reasons, and none of them are poetic.

• 150g is kind. Light enough that an hour of practice does not wreck your wrist, and light enough that the knife stops when you decide it should.
• The Dog sits near the bottom because it is plainer, not because it is lesser.
• Nothing on it is precious. No carabao horn, no bone inlay. Kamagong is dense enough to ignore a bad landing, and brass polishes back.

The name suits it, and we are not going to strain the metaphor. It is the dependable one.

Your first fortnight, honestly

Learn the safe handle first. Hold the knife closed and work out which handle sits against the edge, because everything else depends on knowing that without looking. Then latch drop, then basic opening, then the closing. That is a fortnight for most people, less if you are stubborn.

Do not start with aerials. Do not film yourself in week one. Do practise sitting down over a bed or a sofa, because the knife will leave your hand more often than you expect and floors are unforgiving to brass.

Order the trainer, please

Every knife on this site can be ordered unsharpened using the option above the Add to Cart button, at the same price. We do not charge more for the edge and we do not charge less for its absence.

A trainer is not a toy version. Same VG10 blank, same 150g, same pivots, same everything except the grind. It will still bruise you. What it will not do is teach you a trick and take a fingertip in the same afternoon. Most people we respect own both, and started with the blunt one.

Kamagong handle and the rest of the specification

About VG10 steel on a butterfly knife, since it is your first

VG10 is a Japanese stainless made for kitchen knives, around 60 HRC with roughly 15% chromium. Two practical consequences. It takes a genuinely fine edge, which is why we sharpen it properly rather than leaving it half done. And it does not rust, which matters when your first knife is going to live in a warm hand for hours at a time.

It is also the least expensive steel we offer, which trips people up. VG10 has a reputation built by kitchen brands, so buyers expect a premium. The one real downside is that a truly dull VG10 edge takes more work on a stone than 440C. You are unlikely to reach that point in your first year.

What it will not do

It will not make you good in a week, and it will not do anything a knife costing three times as much does not also do. The Dog is a plain, well made, honestly priced tool, and the limiting factor is going to be your hands for a long while yet. That is true of every balisong we sell, but it is worth saying out loud on the cheapest one, because the internet keeps insisting that the next knife up is the thing standing between you and a clean rollover. It is not. Practice is.

Sheath and shipping on this VG10 balisong

A fitted leather sheath is included, cut for this frame rather than pulled off a shelf. Shipping is free within the US, and a flat $49 to anywhere else in the world.

the VG10 comes out of the quench at 58-60 HRC. Harder than that and it chips; softer and you are sharpening it every fortnight.

On the Dog, brass bolsters sit against kamagong wood, and how the handle materials we use compare is a fair overview of how that wood compares with the horn and bone handles used across the rest of the catalogue. It is listed in the full Balisong Butterfly collection. The BF-34 Donkey uses the same VG10 steel and brass and kamagong wood combination.