Glass Lizard Vg10 Original Filipino Balisong butterfly Knife BF-50

The BF-50 Glass Lizard is a 185g VG10 balisong, and it is the heaviest 24cm knife in our VG10 range and the only one anywhere in that range with two different insert materials in the same handle: bone and kamagong wood, set into brass. A 12cm blade, 24cm open. It is for someone who wants a knife with some visible thought in the handle and does not mind the extra mass that comes with it.

Two materials in one handle

Every other knife in the range picks one insert material and repeats it. This knife runs pale bone against near-black kamagong, which is about as much tonal contrast as you can get from two natural materials without dyeing either of them.

Fitting two materials flush into one brass frame is more work than fitting one, and they do not behave the same way under an abrasive. Bone is harder and more brittle. Kamagong is dense and oily and takes a polish from the wood itself rather than a finish. Getting both level in the same handle is bench time, and that is what you are paying for on this knife rather than any difference in steel.

Two materials means two ageing rates

• Bone warms. It moves from cream towards honey with handling, over months rather than weeks.
• Kamagong darkens. Slowly, and from an already very dark starting point, so the change is subtle.
• Brass browns. Fastest of the three. Within a month the frame is duller than the inserts it holds.
• The contrast shifts. A year in, this is a visibly different knife. That is either the appeal or the objection, and only you know which.

185g, the heaviest of the short frames

Only the three long-frame knives outweigh it: the BF-29 Macaque and BF-30 Crane at 225g, and the BF-31 Crocodile at 220g, all of them 29cm rather than 24cm. Against the 150g builds, 185g is a third more mass and it is obvious in the first ten seconds.

Rollovers become very smooth, because the momentum does the work for you and keeps the handle moving through the arc. Aerials hold their line well. What suffers is anything asking for a quick reversal, and your forearm keeps a running total. If you want to flip for two hours, buy one of the 150g knives. If you want a knife that feels like a serious object in the hand, this is the short-frame answer.

Specification for this VG10 balisong

What we will not promise you

That your knife will look like the photograph. Bone varies piece to piece, kamagong varies piece to piece, and this knife has both. The pattern of grain and the exact tone of the bone are decided by the material, not by us. Nobody making handles from natural materials can promise otherwise, and the ones who imply they can are usually working with something that came out of a mould.

The steel, and why VG10 suits a butterfly knife

VG10 is a Japanese stainless developed for kitchen knives, roughly 15% chromium at around 60 HRC. It takes a fine edge, holds it, and does not rust. It is also the cheapest steel band on this site, which reliably confuses people who have seen the name used as a premium badge. The genuine downside is that once the edge is properly gone, VG10 is slower to bring back on a stone than 440C.

Trainer, sheath and shipping for this butterfly knife

The option above the Add to Cart button orders this knife unsharpened. At 185g we would not argue with anyone who took it. Fitted leather sheath included. Free US shipping, flat $49 worldwide.

the VG10 is hardened to 58-60 HRC, which is the window where it holds an edge without turning brittle on you.