Crab Vg10 Original Filipino Balisong butterfly Knife BF-28

The BF-28 Crab is the only VG10 knife we make with a stainless steel handle instead of brass. 24cm open, a 12cm blade, 155g. Everything interesting about it comes from that one substitution.

What changes when the balisong handle is kamagong and not brass

Brass is the default on this range and it is a good default. It is heavy, it machines cleanly, it feels warm almost immediately, and it goes a rich brown over a couple of years. Stainless does none of those things, which is either the reason to buy this knife or the reason to buy a different one.

The honest summary is that brass ages and stainless does not. Some people buy a knife because it will look like theirs in a decade. Other people want the thing on the shelf to look the way it looked in the photograph. Neither is wrong and we sell both.

155 grams is an unusual number

Our VG10 knives cluster at 150g, 175g and 180g. This one lands at 155g because the stainless bolsters weigh less than brass ones would on the same frame, and the kamagong inserts stay the same.

Five grams over the light knives is not something you will feel directly. What you will feel is where the weight sits. Stainless is less dense than brass, so there is more of it doing the same job, and the mass ends up spread slightly further along the handle rather than concentrated at the bolster. The knife turns a fraction more evenly and stops a fraction more slowly. It is a small difference and we would be lying if we called it transformative.

The steel is the same as the rest of the series

VG10 is a Japanese stainless out of Takefu, built for kitchen knives and borrowed by everybody else because it takes a fine edge and does not rust when you look at it. Around one percent carbon, fifteen percent chromium, with cobalt and vanadium in small amounts refining the grain.

We run it at 58-60 HRC. On this knife in particular that pairs nicely with the handle, because you now own a balisong with no component on it that corrodes. Blade, bolsters and pins all stainless, kamagong dense enough to ignore water. If you live somewhere humid, or you have ruined a knife before by putting it away damp, this is the one in the range that forgives you.

Sharpening VG10 on a butterfly knife, briefly

• Abrasive: ceramic works, diamond works faster. It is more stubborn than 440C and considerably less stubborn than D2.
• Frequency: for normal use, once or twice a year. It holds an edge well past the point most owners bother to check.
• Angle: keep to whatever we ground it at rather than chasing a thinner one. VG10 rewards a consistent bevel more than an aggressive one.

The name, since it is going to come up

Crabs are armoured, they fold their claws in, and one of those two facts is at least loosely relevant to a knife that folds into itself. We were not going to write four hundred words about crustacean symbolism. It is a good knife with a stainless handle.

Trainer, sheath and shipping on this VG10 balisong

The unsharpened trainer is the same knife, chosen above the Add to Cart button. Same steel, same 155g, no edge. It costs the same because grinding an edge is one step out of many and knocking money off for skipping it would be a gesture rather than a saving.

A fitted leather sheath comes with it. US shipping is free, everywhere else is a flat $49 for the whole order. Balisong legality differs by country and by US state, and checking the rule at your own address is your job before ordering rather than ours after.