hand forged balisong knife

What can a hand forged blade be, besides a butterfly knife you flip?

Most people land on this page expecting 37 flippers. Most of what they find is exactly that, but not all of it. Forging is a way of making a blade, not a type of knife, and the same hammer work that goes into a balisong also goes into a karambit and a chef knife. This tag holds all three, and the reasons you might want each are quite different.

What is in this tag, by type

Here is the count, taken from the product titles and the published specs on each page.

The five high carbon pieces are the ones that look most obviously forged, because they have been left that way. The karambits are BF-169, BF-182 and BF-185. The chef knives are BF-165 and BF-172.

Forge finish, and why it is left on

When steel is worked at forging heat, its surface oxidises into a hard blue black layer called forge scale. On most knives it is ground off. On these five it is left across the flats, and only the edge bevel is ground back to bright steel, because scale cannot sit where the edge is. The result is a dark blade with a bright line tracing its cutting edge. Every one looks different, because the scale forms wherever the hammer landed.

It is worth knowing how to tell the real thing from paint, since plenty of knives sell the look as a sprayed coating. A coating is uniform, sits on top of the steel and chips at the edges. Scale is part of the surface and wears slowly where your hand and the board touch it most. Look at the line where the dark flat meets the bright bevel. On a forged blade that transition shows the grind. On a coated one it tends to look like a paint line.

Care is simple but not optional. High carbon steel is not stainless. Dry it after use, give it a thin wipe of oil before storage, and expect the bright bevel to darken into a grey patina over time. That patina slows rust rather than causing it. Our rust and care guide has the routine.

Which hand forged knife suits which buyer

If you want to learn tricks or carry a knife daily, you want one of the 21 D2 butterfly knives. D2 holds its edge through real use and asks less of you than high carbon. If the pattern in the steel is the reason you are here, the 11 Damascus knives are where forging is most visible, because the folding and welding shows in the etch.

If you are curious about the karambit balisong, read our balisong vs karambit guide first. The karambit came from the Indonesian and Malay archipelago as a curved agricultural blade with a finger ring. It is a hybrid on a butterfly frame, and it flips differently. The full karambit balisong range has more than the three in this tag.

If the person in question cooks more than they flip, the two forged chef knives are the surprise of this page, and the kitchen knife range has the steak sets that go with them. For how any of these blades actually gets made, how a balisong is made walks through it from the forge onwards.

Hand forged knife questions