Balisong Butterfly

What makes a balisong authentically Filipino

The word "Filipino" on a product listing does not make a balisong Filipino. Almost every butterfly knife sold in the United States is stamped out overseas from a template, assembled by people who have never handled a Batangas knife, and sold on the strength of the word alone. What separates the real thing is not the label. It is who shaped the blade, and how.

An authentic Filipino balisong is defined by three things. The blade is ground and heat-treated by hand rather than blanked in a press, so no two are truly identical. The handle is fitted around that blade individually: the tang, the pins and the bolsters are matched to the piece, not to a batch. And the pattern itself descends from Batangas: the long, slim profile, the pinned bolsters, the slight forward bias that makes a Batangas knife fall open the way it does. Change any one of those and you have a butterfly knife. You do not have a balisong.

Every knife on this page is made by Filipino smiths and metalworkers, many from families with generations at the bench, now working in the United States. That is why these knives carry a Batangas lineage and a US address at the same time: the tradition travelled with the people who hold it. If you want the longer version of that story, it is on our origin page.

The steels, and what each one actually costs

Steel is where most of the price difference lives, and it is the decision worth spending five minutes on. The numbers below are pulled from our own live catalogue, not from a supplier's brochure. They are what these knives cost on this site today.

If this is your first Filipino balisong and you want it to be a flipper rather than a display piece, high carbon is the honest recommendation. It is the traditional Batangas steel, it is the cheapest to keep sharp, and a scratch or a patina on a carbon blade is the knife telling you it has been used. If you know you will not oil it, buy 440C or VG10 instead and stop worrying.

Handles: kamagong, horn and bone

Handle material on a traditional balisong is not decoration. It sets the weight, the balance point and how the knife feels after twenty minutes in the hand.

Every knife ships with a fitted leather sheath, and every knife passes the same four-step check before it leaves the bench: hand inspection, smoothness and pivot testing, blade alignment, then durability and finish. A knife that fails any of the four does not go out.

What is in this collection right now

This collection holds 159 hand-forged balisongs across every steel we work in, from $109.45 to $549.45. Half the shelf sits between $133 and $192, with the median knife at $162.25. Individual knives are named for animals, Hare, Heron, Hornbill, King Cobra, Leopard Cat, Magpie, because each one is finished individually and the name is how the bench keeps track of it.

Every knife here can be ordered as a live blade or as an unsharpened trainer, and the trainer costs nothing extra. Same smith, same steel, same handle, same fittings: the trainer simply is not given a cutting edge, so you can learn the openings safely. Choose which one you want on the product page. To specify the steel, handle and finish yourself rather than pick from a shelf, use the custom balisong builder. For a name, a date or a logo cut into the bolster, that is personalised engraving. Text is $19, a logo is $29. Engraving is permanent, so engraved knives are final sale, and it adds one to three business days.

Ordering

Shipping inside the United States is free, with no minimum order. Most orders leave the bench in one to three business days and arrive in four to eight across the US. International orders ship worldwide with tracking and typically take eight to fourteen business days; the shipping rate is shown at checkout. If a knife is out of stock it is handcrafted to order, which takes two to three weeks. That is the cost of these being made rather than picked off a pallet. Please check your local law before ordering.

Questions people ask

More reading: our balisong guides, the knife care page for keeping a carbon blade from rusting, and the Balisong Prime collection if you are looking at the collector end.

Knives on this page that deserve more attention than they get

Every knife we make lives on this page, which means a fair few of them never get looked at. These are the ones that get skipped, sorted cheapest first, and there is nothing wrong with any of them. Fitted leather sheath included, trainer or live blade at the same price, 58-60 HRC, free US shipping.

• BF-40 Eel Vg10 Original Filipino Balisong butterfly Knife - $132.00
• BF-51 Glow Worm Vg10 Original Filipino Balisong butterfly Knife - $132.55
• BF-50 Glass Lizard Vg10 Original Filipino Balisong butterfly Knife - $133.10
• BF-49 Gerbil Vg10 Original Filipino Balisong butterfly Knife - $133.65
• BF-54 Green Bee-Eater Vg10 Original Filipino Balisong butterfly Knife - $134.20
• BF-39 Earwig Vg10 Original Filipino Balisong butterfly Knife - $134.20
• BF-48 Gecko Vg10 Original Filipino Balisong butterfly Knife - $134.75
• BF-43 Fire-Bellied Toad Vg10 Original Filipino Balisong butterfly Knife - $134.75
• BF-53 Golden-Crowned Vg10 Original Filipino Balisong butterfly Knife - $135.06
• BF-58 Heron High Carbon Steel Original Filipino Balisong butterfly Knife - $138.05
• BF-66 King Cobra High Carbon Steel Original Filipino Balisong butterfly Knife - $139.70
• BF-55 Hamster Vg10 Original Filipino Balisong butterfly Knife - $140.25
• BF-30 Crane Vg10 Original Filipino Balisong butterfly Knife - $162.25
• BF-07 Asian Palm Civet 440c Original Filipino Balisong butterfly Knife - $162.25
• BF-04 Banded Sugar Ant 440c Original Filipino Balisong butterfly Knife - $171.60
• BF-94 Pandayan Traditional Series D2 Steel Beautiful Butterfly Balisong Knife USA Made With Cool Handle - $176.00
• BF-29 Macaque Vg10 Original Filipino Balisong butterfly Knife - $176.00
• BF-31Crocodile Vg10 Original Filipino Balisong butterfly Knife - $178.75
• BF-115 Filipino Traditional D2 Steel Beautiful Blade Butterfly Balisong Knife USA Made Gift For Him With Rose Wood Handle Best Quality Knife - $181.50
• BF-114 Filipino Traditional D2 Steel Beautiful Blade Butterfly Balisong Knife USA Made Gift For Him With Rose Wood Handle Best Quality Knife - $181.50
• BF-113 Filipino Traditional D2 Steel Beautiful Blade Butterfly Balisong Knife USA Made Gift For Him With Rose Wood Handle Best Quality Knife - $181.50
• BF-106 Filipino Traditional D2 Steel Beautiful Dagger Blade Butterfly Balisong Knife USA Made Gift For Him With Rose Wood Handle - $181.50
• BF-122 Philippine Visayan D2 Steel Blade Butterfly Balisong Knife USA Made Gift For Him With Stag Horn Handle - $192.50
• BF-112 Filipino Traditional D2 Steel Beautiful Blade Butterfly Balisong Knife USA Made Gift For Him With Rose Wood Handle - $192.50
• BF-109 Filipino Traditional D2 Steel Beautiful Blade Butterfly Balisong Knife USA Made Gift For Him With Rose Wood Handle - $192.50
• BF-105 Filipino Traditional D2 Steel Beautiful Blade Butterfly Balisong Knife USA Made Gift For Him With Rose Wood Handle - $192.50
• BF-104 Filipino Traditional D2 Steel Beautiful Blade Butterfly Balisong Knife USA Made Gift For Him With Rose Wood Handle - $192.50
• BF-110 Filipino Traditional D2 Steel Beautiful Blade Butterfly Balisong Knife USA Made Gift For Him With Rose Wood Handle - $192.50
• BF-97 Pandayan Traditional Series Hunting Balde D2 Steel Beautiful Butterfly Balisong Knife USA Made With Rose Wood Handle - $192.50
• BF-103 Filipino Traditional D2 Steel Beautiful Blade Butterfly Balisong Knife USA Made Gift For Him With Rose Wood Handle - $206.25
• BF-102 Filipino Traditional Series D2 Steel Beautiful Dagger Blade Butterfly Balisong Knife USA Made Gift For Him With Rose Wood Handle - $209.00
• BF-101 Filipino Traditional Series D2 Steel Beautiful Blade Butterfly Balisong Knife USA Made With Rose Wood Handle - $220.00
• BF-100 Filipino Traditional Series D2 Steel Beautiful Tanto Blade Butterfly Balisong Knife USA Made With Rose Wood Handle - $220.00

Guides worth reading before you buy

We wrote these because the same questions keep landing in our inbox, and because most of what the internet says about balisongs is wrong.

• What is a butterfly knife? The anatomy, the real Batangas origin, and the 1710 myth that will not die.
• Butterfly knife tricks, in the order you should actually learn them.
• Balisong for sale: how to tell handmade from CNC, and what a fair price looks like.
• Karambit butterfly knife: what the curved blade changes.
• Butterfly knife trainers: the same knife unsharpened, same price, chosen above Add to Cart.

Buying for a wedding party? The groomsmen butterfly knife sets come as six matched knives, 15% less than buying them singly, and each one can carry its own engraved name.