Centipede Handmade 440C Stainless Steel Original Filipino Balisong Butterfly Knife with Brass and Philippine Deer Horn Handle | 24cm EDC Flipper Gift for Him | BF-22

The BF-22 Centipede is the most expensive 440C knife we make, and it costs more than every VG10 knife in the shop except two. Twenty-four centimetres, a 12cm blade, 175g, brass with Philippine deer horn. This page explains that price, because it deserves explaining.

Why a 440C knife costs more than a VG10 one

It should not, if you believe price tracks steel. It does not track steel. It tracks hours.

The blade on this knife is 440C, which is a slightly cheaper bar than VG10. Everything else on it is where the money went: deer horn inserts that have to be selected from a batch, matched as closely as horn ever matches, cut, fitted and finished individually, against kamagong blanks that come off the same jig every time.

A horn handle takes us roughly twice as long to fit as a wood one, and a proportion of blanks get rejected outright for cracks that only show once you start cutting. That waste is priced in, because it has to be.

If your interest is a sharp knife that flips well. It has the same steel and the same heat treat and we will not think less of you. If your interest is a piece of finished handwork, this is what that costs and we are not going to apologise for it.

Philippine deer horn as a balisong handle

Cream through smoky brown, with darker streaking that follows the growth of the animal rather than anything we did. It is softer and warmer than carabao horn, it takes a soft sheen rather than a gloss, and it varies more than any other material we work with.

That variation is the whole point and it is also the thing people email us about. Your knife will not match the photograph. It cannot. We photograph one example and cut the rest from different horn.

• Normal: colour lighter or darker than the photo, dark streaking, two handles that do not match each other, fine grain you can feel.
• Not normal: a loose insert, a crack running through, a gap you can catch a fingernail in, anything that moves when you flip it. Those are ours and we fix them.

440C at 58-60 HRC, and what that buys you on a butterfly knife

An American high-carbon stainless: roughly one percent carbon and seventeen percent chromium. The chromium is why it ignores damp and the carbon is why it hardens properly. The letter matters, because 440A and 440B do not carry enough carbon to be worth grinding, and a listing that says only “440 stainless” is being economical with the truth.

At this hardness it sharpens easily on an ordinary stone, keeps a working edge for a long stretch, and needs nothing from you between sessions. It is the low-fuss steel, which pairs sensibly with a handle material that does need a little attention.

175 grams

The middle of our 24cm range and where most owners end up. Enough weight that a rotation carries through and you get a moment to correct, not enough to tire your arm across a long session.

Trainer, sheath and shipping on this deer horn balisong

The unsharpened trainer is the same knife, selected above Add to Cart. Same horn, same 175g, no edge. A fair number of people buy this particular knife blunt, because the appeal is largely the handle and a trainer is easier to hand round a room.

A fitted leather sheath is in the box. Keep the knife out of it for storage, since leather holds damp and horn would rather stay dry. US shipping is free, flat $49 everywhere else for the whole order.

The Centipede pairs brass bolsters with Philippine deer horn, and how the handle materials we use compare is a solid overview if you are choosing between horn, wood and bone across the rest of the catalogue. It is listed in the stainless steel balisong knives. The BF-23 Chicken uses a similar deer horn handle on the larger 29cm frame.