brass bolster butterfly knife

Brass bolsters are not decoration. They sit at the pivot end of the handle, which is exactly where a flipper wants mass, because weight near the pivot shortens the swing and brings the knife around with less wrist. Move that same weight out to the far end of the handle and the knife feels lazy in every rollover you try.

Twenty-three of the thirty-two knives on this page carry brass at the bolsters or through the whole handle, $173.25 to $549.45, in D2 tool steel and hand-forged Damascus.

Brass also does something people are not always ready for. It goes dull. It darkens, it takes fingerprints, and after a few months of pocket time it will look nothing like the photograph. That is patina, it is not a fault, and we are not going to apologise for it. A minute with metal polish takes it back to bright if you want it bright. If you want a knife that looks the same in year three as it did on day one, buy steel bolsters instead.

Heavier than aluminium, softer than steel, and the reason these knives feel planted in the hand.