Filipino Traditional D2 Steel Beautiful Blade Butterfly Balisong Knife USA Made Gift For Him With Rose Wood Handle BF-103

The most expensive knife on this page is and it is this one. D2 tool steel, a symmetrical dagger point, brass bolsters and rose wood left unstained so the grain has to stand on its own. 24cm open, 220g. If you have been working down our traditional range wondering what the top of it looks like, this is it.

What the extra money is not buying

It is not buying better steel. It is not buying a longer blade, more mass or a rarer handle material, because plenty of knives in this line share all three.

We would rather say that up front than let you imagine a secret. Price on handmade work tracks the hours a piece took and how much of the batch survived the bench. Some shapes fight you. Some handle blanks split at the last operation and take an afternoon with them.

What it is buying

Finish, mostly, and the parts of finish that are boring to describe and obvious to hold.

• Bolster to scale transition. Run a thumb across where the brass meets the wood. On a rushed knife you can feel the step. You should not feel one here.
• Handle to handle match. The two halves close flush against each other rather than one sitting proud.
• A grind that reads clean under a light. A symmetrical point has nowhere to hide a wandering bevel, which is exactly why we use it as the top of the line.
• Grain that was chosen, not accepted. Unstained rose wood means whatever figure the blank had is the figure you get. That works out well only if somebody sorted the blanks.

None of that will show up in a photograph, and we are aware that makes it an awkward thing to sell you.

The D2 dagger point, briefly

Symmetrical, two edges, a centreline that has to run true through the middle. It is the shape that most rewards being made carefully and most punishes being made quickly, which is the argument for putting it at the top of a range rather than the bottom.

It is a good knife.

Specification for this D2 balisong

Who should actually buy this one

Someone who already owns a balisong and has worked out what they care about. That is a genuine recommendation and not a way of flattering you into a purchase.

If this would be your first, you will get more out of spending less and learning on it, because your first knife is going to get dropped. Everybody’s does. Ours did.

What this one is good for is the case where you know the pattern, you have flipped a few, and you want one that does not have a single corner cut in it sitting in the drawer for the next twenty years. D2 will still be holding an edge then if you keep it dry.

Trainer version, same price

Above Add to Cart there is an option to have it unsharpened. It is, the same steel, the same 220g, with the bevels left blunt. On a two edged knife that is not a small thing.

Buying an expensive knife as a trainer sounds odd until you consider that the weight and balance are what you are actually practising against. A cheap light trainer teaches your hands a rhythm that falls apart the moment you pick up 220g of brass and steel. Ours does not, because it is the same knife. More on that in the trainer guide.

Rose wood balisong handles, and leaving them alone

Unstained means it will change. Rose wood darkens with light and with handling, and the piece you unwrap will be a slightly lighter thing than the piece you own in three years. That is the material behaving normally.

Do not oil the scales weekly. Oil the pivots and wipe the rest. The care guide has the detail. It ships with a fitted leather sheath, free inside the US, flat $49 anywhere else.