Birthday Gifts For Men

Brass or stainless: which handle frame suits the man you are buying for?

Look at the titles on this page and a pattern jumps out. Most say something like "with Brass and Kamagong Wood Handle" or "with Stainless Steel and Bone Handle". The first word is the frame. The second is the material set inside it. People buying a birthday knife tend to read straight past the first word, and it is the one that decides how the knife looks after ten years in his hands.

What the frame actually is

A traditional Batangas handle is built as a channel: a metal frame that cradles the blade when the knife is closed, with horn, bone or wood inserts shaped to sit inside it and pinned in place. The frame carries the pivots, takes the knocks and does most of the structural work. The inserts give the knife its colour and its grip. So when you choose a frame metal you are choosing the skeleton, and the skeleton is on show every time he opens the knife.

Brass: warm, heavier, and it changes

Brass is the traditional choice and the common one here. 75 of the knives on this page name a brass frame, across 440C, VG10, high carbon and D2. Brass is denser than stainless steel, so a brass framed handle carries a little more weight, and many flippers like the momentum that gives a rotation.

The part to be honest about is colour. Brass tarnishes. Handle it and it darkens from bright gold toward brown, faster where his hands touch it most. Some men love that, because the knife ends up looking like his. Others will reach for the polish every Sunday. If the man you are buying for is the type who details his car by hand, think about which camp he is in.

There is also one Catfish model, BF-21 in 440C, with a solid brass handle and no insert at all. It is the heaviest looking knife on the page and it will patina all over.

Stainless: it stays the way it arrived

Twelve knives here name a stainless frame, in 440C, VG10, high carbon and D2. Stainless keeps its grey finish with nothing more than a wipe, which suits a man who carries his knife rather than admires it. The contrast between a steel frame and dark kamagong or pale bone is also cooler and more modern to the eye.

Two D2 models, Mule BF-87 and Neanderthal BF-88, use both metals. The remaining 37 knives, our Filipino Traditional, Pandayan and Visayan lines in D2 and Damascus, do not name a frame in the title, so look at the photos and the product page before you pick one.

If you have settled the frame and are now stuck on the blade, our D2 vs Damascus vs 440C comparison is the quickest way through it, and the handle materials guide covers what goes inside the frame.

Frame questions buyers ask us