Macaque Handmade VG10 Super Steel Original Filipino Balisong Butterfly Knife with Brass and Visayan Philippine Deer Horn Handle | 29cm Full Size Collector Gift | BF-29

The BF-29 Macaque is the most expensive knife in our VG10 range, and the only one with Visayan deer horn on the handle. Twenty-nine centimetres open, a 14cm blade, 225g. It is a full-size traditional frame with a Japanese steel in it.

Veinte y nueve

Twenty-nine centimetres is not a number we picked. It is the traditional Batangas size, called veinte y nueve by the smiths who set it, and it is what a balisong was before the export market decided everything should fit in a jeans pocket.

What the extra five centimetres actually change is timing. A longer handle sweeps a longer arc, so the knife rotates more slowly for the same wrist movement. Beginners often assume a big knife is harder. In practice the opposite is closer to true: the slower rotation gives you more time to see a mistake coming and more time to do something about it. What a 29cm knife punishes is a weak grip, because there is more of it to control and 225g will find out whether you are actually holding on.

Deer horn, and why no two are alike

The inserts on this knife are Philippine deer horn from the Visayas. Horn is not a manufactured material, so it arrives with its own opinions: colour runs from pale cream to a smoky brown, the grain wanders, and there are usually darker streaks that follow the growth of the animal rather than anything we did.

This is the part people email us about, so we will say it plainly. Your knife will not match the photograph. It cannot. We photograph one example and cut the rest from different pieces, and if you want two knives that look identical you want a material that came off a machine.

The left column is horn. The right column is our problem and we will fix it.

It is the top of the VG10 range and the reason is the handle, not the blade. What costs money is the 29cm frame using more of everything, and horn inserts that have to be selected, matched as well as horn can be matched, cut and fitted individually rather than sliced off a sheet.

If your interest is the steel and the flipping, buy a cheaper knife in this range and spend the difference on nothing at all. If your interest is owning a full-size traditional balisong with a natural handle, this is what that costs.

What VG10 steel is doing in a butterfly knife, and the hardness

VG10 is a Japanese stainless from Takefu: about one percent carbon, fifteen percent chromium, small additions of cobalt and vanadium that keep the grain fine. It takes a very keen edge, holds it for a long time, and resists corrosion well enough that you can stop worrying about it.

We run it at 58-60 HRC. On a 14cm blade that number earns its keep, because a longer blade flexes more and a harder heat treat would turn that flex into a chip rather than a spring. Sharpening wants ceramic or diamond and takes a while on a blade this length, but you will be doing it once or twice a year at most.

Living with a deer horn balisong handle

• Keep it away from long direct sunlight. Horn fades and dries, the same as it would have on the animal.
• It does not need oil, but a wipe with something light once or twice a year does no harm and keeps the colour deep.
• Do not put it away wet. The steel does not care. The horn does.
• It will pick up a shine where your fingers sit. That is the good kind of wear.

Trainer, sheath and shipping on this VG10 balisong

The trainer is the same knife with no edge. On a 225g knife that is a serious recommendation rather than a beginner’s option, because a 14cm blade coming through a badly timed rollover has a great deal of momentum behind it.

A fitted leather sheath comes with it, cut for the 29cm frame. Sheaths sold separately are almost always cut for the 24cm standard and will not close over this one. Free US shipping, flat $49 everywhere else for the whole order. Check your local knife law before you order.