Pangolin Handmade D2 Tool Steel Original Filipino Balisong Butterfly Knife with Brass, Kamagong Wood and Micarta Handle | 24cm EDC Flipper Gift for Him | BF-92

The BF-92 Pangolin is a 24cm Filipino balisong with a 12cm D2 tool steel blade, brass handles layered with kamagong wood and micarta, 180 grams. It is the least expensive knife in this run, and it is for someone who wants real D2 and real handmade construction at the bottom of the range rather than a cheaper imitation of it. Trainer version at the same price above Add to Cart.

The cheapest knife here, and what that does not mean

This is the lowest price in this group of sixteen knives. It is also the same D2 tool steel, the same 24cm frame, the same 12cm blade and the same 180 grams as knives on this site costing forty dollars more.

So the price is not a signal that the steel was downgraded, because it was not. What moves price across our range is frame size, how many materials go into a handle, and how much hand-fitting each of those materials takes. This one sits at the bottom because its handle build is efficient, not because the knife is a lesser object.

We are saying this out loud because the cheapest item in any knife range is usually the one the seller quietly hopes you will not buy, and that is not the situation here.

• D2 tool steel, properly heat treated. High-carbon, high-chromium, run near 60 HRC. The same steel as the top of the range.
• Hand fitting. The pivot is set by a person, not by a jig running to a tolerance nobody checks afterwards.
• A brass frame with real weight in it. 180 grams that carries a handle through a rotation instead of stalling halfway.
• Kamagong and micarta inserts. Philippine ironwood and phenolic laminate, both chosen because they do not move.
• Batangas construction. Made the way these have been made in Taal since Perfecto de Leon’s day, shipped from the USA.

And what a $40 balisong is paying for

Since price is this page’s subject, the comparison is fair game.

The forty dollar knife is stamped, not fitted. The blade steel is described as “stainless steel” with no grade, which is the industry’s polite way of saying the grade would not help the sale. The pivot is set to whatever came out of the machine, and it goes oval inside a year of real flipping because the tolerances were never tight to begin with.

Some of those knives are perfectly serviceable for six months of learning, and if that is your budget then buy one and enjoy it. It is a different object.

The one claim we will not tolerate is the $40 “Damascus” balisong. Anything under about forty dollars advertised as Damascus is acid-etched pattern on plain steel. That is not a grey area.

Overlapping layers, which is where the name came from

A pangolin is armoured in overlapping keratin scales, and this handle layers kamagong and micarta into the brass frame. That is the whole extent of the metaphor and we are not going to stretch it further.

What the two materials actually contribute is worth more than the name. Kamagong is Philippine ironwood, dense and dimensionally stable, so it holds its position against the pivot through humidity swings that would move ordinary timber. Micarta is fabric in phenolic resin, waterproof by design, and its grip improves rather than degrades as your hands get damp.

Between them you get a handle that is warm to hold, secure when you are sweating, and not going to shift over the years. The brass will darken with handling, which is patina and not a fault.

D2 versus the high carbon butterfly knives we also make

Short version, because you have read a lot of page already.

D2 holds an edge several times longer and resists corrosion well. It is stubborn to sharpen and wants a diamond plate rather than a ceramic stone. High carbon takes a finer edge than D2 ever will and comes back on any stone in minutes, and it will spot with rust if you leave it wet.

Enjoy sharpening and want the keenest possible edge: buy high carbon. Want to sharpen twice a year and otherwise not think about it: buy this. There is no third answer and neither steel is the premium one.

Ordering this D2 butterfly knife

Unsharpened trainer at the same price, selected above Add to Cart. Same steel, same weight, no edge, and the correct first purchase if you are still learning.

A fitted leather sheath comes with it. Price that in against the $40 knives above, where the sheath is either missing or a nylon pouch, because it is one of the small places the difference in cost actually goes.

International is a flat $49 for the whole order, so consolidate if you can.

the D2 is taken to 58-60 HRC, the same hardness we use across the whole shelf.