Deer Vg10 Original Filipino Balisong butterfly Knife BF-32

The BF-32 Deer is one of the cheapest knives in our VG10 range, and at 180g one of the heavier ones. That combination is unusual, and it is the whole reason to look at this knife. Brass handles with kamagong wood inserts, a 12cm VG10 blade in a 24cm frame. If you want a substantial balisong and you do not want to pay for the privilege, start here.

Why 180g at this price is worth noticing

A dozen knives in the VG10 range come in at 150g. Eight sit at 180g. The Deer is the second cheapest of them. Only the BF-27 Cow, also 180g, gives you the same mass for less.

Nothing clever is going on. Kamagong and brass are our house materials and the Deer is a plain, unfussy build with no horn, no bone and no two-tone inlay. Plain costs less. It does not flip worse.

What 180g actually feels like

Weight is the spec that changes a balisong most, and it is the one product pages skip.

• Rollovers smooth out. The extra mass carries the handle through the arc, so the motion feels continuous rather than something you have to keep pushing.
• Timing gets more forgiving. A heavier handle is still moving when a lighter one has stalled, which covers a lot of early clumsiness.
• Reversals get harder. Anything that asks the knife to change direction mid-move takes real effort at 180g.
• Sessions get shorter. Your forearm will tell you when. Listen to it rather than working through it.

Our honest read: 180g is the better weight for learning basic rollovers and aerials, and the worse weight for fast trick chains. Most people spend their first year on the former.

The steel, and why VG10 on a butterfly knife costs so little here

VG10 is a Japanese stainless developed for kitchen knives. Roughly 15% chromium, hardened to around 60 HRC. It holds a fine edge, it does not rust, and it is the cheapest steel band on this site. People find that hard to believe, because the internet has spent a decade selling VG10 as an exotic. It is not exotic. It is very good and very available, and we pass that on.

One real drawback. When VG10 finally goes properly dull it takes more patience to bring back than 440C does. Hard steel is slow steel on a stone. For a knife that spends its life flipping rather than cutting, we think that trade is easy.

Specification

Living with a brass balisong handle

Brass handles darken. Within a month the Deer will be a duller, browner knife than the one in the photograph, and after a year it will look like it has been somewhere. We like this. If you do not, a soft cloth and a little metal polish resets it in about two minutes, and you can keep doing that forever.

The kamagong inserts need nothing. It is one of the densest hardwoods in the Philippines and it does not care about your hands.

Trainer option and shipping on this VG10 balisong

Above the Add to Cart button you can order the Deer as an unsharpened trainer. Same steel, same weight, no edge. At 180g we would genuinely suggest this if you are new, because a heavy knife that gets away from you is a heavy knife either way.

A fitted leather sheath comes with every knife. US shipping is free and everywhere else is a flat $49.

the VG10 comes out of the quench at 58-60 HRC. Harder than that and it chips; softer and you are sharpening it every fortnight.