Asian Palm Civet Original Filipino Balisong butterfly Knife BF-08

The BF-08 is the smaller of our two Asian Palm Civets: 24cm open, a 12cm 440C blade, 165g, brass bolsters with carabao horn inserts. It is one of the lightest full-frame knives we make and the horn is the reason to want it.

Carabao horn, and where the word balisong comes from

Carabao is the Philippine water buffalo, and its horn is the original balisong handle material. Not a traditional option among several. The original one.

The most widely accepted etymology of the word is baling sungay, meaning folding horn, which describes the handle and the mechanism in a single phrase. Every synthetic scale and every machined aluminium handle sold today is a substitute for this material, and the knife is still named after it.

Carabao horn is black to charcoal, occasionally with amber banding where the horn ran thinner. It is harder and denser than deer horn, it polishes to a real gloss rather than a sheen, and it warms in the hand within a minute in a way that no metal handle manages.

The light one of the pair

Two knives, one animal on the label, and genuinely different objects. The BF-07 is the heritage size and the presence that comes with it. This one is the knife you would actually pick up every day, at twenty-eight dollars less.

What 165 grams feels like

Light for a full 24cm frame. Most of our knives at this size sit at 175g or 180g, and ten grams is more noticeable than it sounds because it comes off the handle rather than the blade.

The knife turns quickly and stops when you stop it, which suits chained work and suits anybody who flips for an hour at a time. The trade is that it gives you less momentum to hide behind, so timing errors show up as timing errors rather than being carried through by the weight.

440C, and why we put it in a carabao horn balisong

An American high-carbon stainless: around one percent carbon and seventeen percent chromium. The chromium is the corrosion resistance, the carbon is what allows a proper hardening, and the letter C is the part that matters, because 440A and 440B do not carry enough carbon to be worth the grinding. A listing that says “440 stainless” and stops there is telling you something by omission.

Ours run at 58-60 HRC. It sharpens on any ordinary stone, holds a working edge for a long time, and is entirely indifferent to weather, which pairs well with a natural handle that is not.

Living with a carabao horn balisong handle

• Out of long direct sunlight. Horn dries and fades exactly as it did on the animal.
• Do not store the knife wet. The blade does not care. The horn absorbs water slowly and gives it up slowly.
• No oil needed. A light wipe once a year keeps the black deep.
• The two inserts may not perfectly match each other, and neither will match the photograph. That is horn. A crack or a loose insert is not, and we will fix it.

Trainer, sheath and shipping on this carabao horn butterfly knife

The unsharpened trainer is the same knife, chosen above Add to Cart. Same horn, same 165g, same balance, no edge. The price is identical because grinding an edge is one operation in a long build and a discount for skipping it would be theatre.

The sheath is fitted leather, cut to this frame, and it travels with the knife. Delivery inside the States costs nothing. Outside them it is $49 no matter how full the box is. Knife law is local and it changes, so read your own statute rather than a blog post about somebody else’s.