Crocodile Handmade VG10 Super Steel Original Filipino Balisong Butterfly Knife with Brass and Carabao Horn Handle | 29cm Full Size Collector Gift | BF-31

The BF-31 Crocodile is the most expensive knife in our VG10 range, and one of only three built on the full 29cm frame. The other twenty-seven are 24cm knives with 12cm blades. This one opens to 29cm, carries a 14cm blade, weighs 220g and wears carabao horn instead of wood. It is for someone who already flips and wants the full traditional size rather than the pocket-friendly compromise.

29cm is not a random number

In Batangas the classic balisong is the veinte y nueve, twenty-nine, meaning 29 centimetres open. That is the size the trade settled on generations ago and the size most of the old knives you find in Taal actually are. The 24cm frame that dominates the modern market exists because it carries better, not because it flips better.

Set the Crocodile beside any of the 24cm knives and the extra five centimetres read as more than five centimetres. The arc your hand traces is wider. Rollovers take longer. Everything is slower and heavier and, once you have adjusted, considerably more satisfying.

Carabao horn, which is where the word probably comes from

The most convincing origin story for “balisong” is baling sungay, folding horn, after the carabao horn the early handles were made from. The Crocodile is one of only two knives in the VG10 range wearing carabao horn, the other being the BF-30 Crane.

Horn is not wood and refuses to behave like it. It is lighter than kamagong, warmer to the touch in cold weather, and every piece is marbled differently through blacks, greys and translucent amber. We cannot show you the exact piece you will get because we do not know yet. Two handles cut from one horn will not match. If you want two identical knives, buy something that came out of a mould.

Horn also moves a little with humidity across years, and it can dry out if the knife lives somewhere hot. A fingertip of mineral oil once or twice a year settles that permanently.

220g changes how you flip

This is among the three heaviest knives we make in VG10. Only the BF-29 Macaque and the BF-30 Crane outweigh it, both at 225g on the same long frame. Weight is not a spec you can skim past on a balisong.

• Momentum carries the handles round for you, so basic rollovers feel unusually smooth once you find the rhythm.
• Direction changes are slow. A knife this heavy does not want to reverse and it will tell you so.
• Your wrist notices after an hour. Build up to long sessions rather than starting with one.
• Dropped on a bare foot, 220g is a different event from 150g. Wear shoes.

The long VG10 dagger blade

14cm of VG10, two centimetres more than every 24cm knife in the range and matched only by the other two long-frame builds. VG10 is a Japanese stainless built for kitchen knives, around 60 HRC and roughly 15% chromium, so it takes a fine edge and does not rust. A longer blade means more edge to maintain and a little more mass out at the tip, which is part of why the knife feels as deliberate as it does.

Specification for this VG10 carabao horn balisong

Who should not buy this one

Beginners. Not because it is dangerous in some special way, but because a long heavy knife punishes lazy technique in ways a 150g knife quietly forgives. Start on something like the BF-33 Dog or the BF-37 Duck, get your rollovers clean, and come back for the Crocodile when you actually want the size rather than the idea of it.

Trainer, sheath and shipping on this VG10 balisong

The option above the Add to Cart button gives you the same 29cm knife with no edge. Plenty of experienced flippers choose the trainer deliberately for a knife this heavy, and we think that is sensible rather than timid. The fitted leather sheath is cut for the longer frame. Free US shipping, flat $49 worldwide.

the VG10 is taken to 58-60 HRC, the same hardness we use across the whole shelf.

With brass and carabao horn on a 29cm frame, the Crocodile needs the same basic upkeep as the rest of our horn handled knives, and how to prevent rust and keep a patina under control covers preventing rust and managing the horn’s natural patina over time. It sits within the full Balisong Butterfly collection. The BF-30 Crane shares the same VG10 steel, brass bolsters and carabao horn handle.