BF-43 Fire-Bellied Toad Vg10 Original Filipino Balisong butterfly Knife

The BF-43 Fire-Bellied Toad is a 150g VG10 balisong at $134.75, brass handles, 12cm blade, 24cm open. The reason it carries that name is the handle: kamagong so dark it reads as black indoors, and then turns unmistakably warm and red when you take it into daylight. If you have only seen this knife in a photograph you have seen one of those two states and not the other.

Kamagong, which is not just “dark wood”

Kamagong is Philippine ebony, part of the Diospyros family, and the black heartwood is the only part anyone uses. The outer wood of the same tree is pale and unremarkable. That dark core takes decades to form, which is a large part of why the material costs what it does and why the tree is a protected species in the Philippines.

What you get in the hand is a wood that behaves more like a mineral than a timber. It is dense enough to sink in water. It takes a polish straight off the abrasive without any finish at all, which is why our kamagong inserts are bare rather than lacquered. Nothing is sitting on top of the wood. What you are touching is the wood.

Why it changes colour

Kamagong is rarely uniformly black. Most pieces carry streaks of deep brown, oxblood and occasionally a lighter grey through the grain, and those streaks are invisible under a bulb and obvious outdoors. Move the knife under strong light and the handle appears to shift. That is what the fire-bellied toad reference is doing here, and we would rather explain it than pretend it was chosen for something mystical.

The consequence for buyers is one we repeat often. Your inserts will not match the photograph exactly. Two pieces cut from the same billet will not match each other exactly. If that would annoy you, this is not the handle material for you, and we would rather say so before you order than afterwards.

Care, or the lack of it

• No oil needed. The wood is too dense to absorb much and it does not dry out the way horn does.
• No finish to wear through. Because there is no finish.
• Handling improves it. Skin oils deepen the colour slowly over months.
• It takes knocks. Kamagong dents far less readily than the brass around it, which is a strange thing to be able to say about wood.

Specification

How it flips

At 150g this is one of a dozen light builds in the VG10 range, alongside the Dog, Duck, Eel, Fly and Fox. Light means quick to start, easy to reverse and gentle on the wrist over a long session. It also means aerials ask more of your release, because there is less mass keeping the knife honest in the air. If you want the heavier feel with a similar handle, the BF-53 Golden-Crowned is the same materials at 180g.

The steel

VG10 is a Japanese stainless developed for kitchen knives, around 60 HRC and roughly 15% chromium. It sharpens to a fine edge, keeps it, and does not rust. It is also the cheapest steel band we sell, which people find counterintuitive given the reputation. Once truly dull it is slower to bring back than 440C. That is the only genuine mark against it.

Trainer, sheath, shipping

Order it unsharpened using the option above the Add to Cart button, same $134.75. Fitted leather sheath with every knife. Free US shipping, flat $49 to the rest of the world.