Glow Worm Vg10 Original Filipino Balisong butterfly Knife BF-51

The BF-51 Glow Worm is a 24cm VG10 balisong at 175g. Polished brass against near-black kamagong, which is the entire reason this one has the name it does. We are going to spend this page on how it looks, because that is a legitimate reason to buy a knife and pretending otherwise is dishonest.

Buying a knife because you like looking at it

Most balisong pages perform a kind of seriousness where every choice has to be justified by performance. The truth is that a great many people buy a handmade knife because it is a good-looking object they can carry, and there is nothing wrong with that at all.

So: brass, polished, against kamagong that reads black in most light and shows a faint brown streak in direct sun. High contrast, warm metal, cold wood. It photographs badly and looks considerably better in the hand, which is the opposite of most things sold online.

What it will look like later, which is the part that matters

Brass does not stay shiny and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling you a polish. It oxidises with air and hand oil, and the pattern it takes is specific to how you hold it.

You can polish it back with a cloth and a little metal polish and it will look new for about a fortnight. Most owners do this once, decide it was a mistake, and let it go.

175 grams, which is the useful middle

Our VG10 knives run 150g, 175g, 180g and 225g. The 175g knives sit where most people end up: enough mass that a rollover carries through on momentum and you get a moment to correct, not so much that a long session leaves your forearm complaining.

If you are choosing purely on feel and you have no strong opinion yet, this weight class is the safe bet.

The steel, and what VG10 gives a butterfly knife

VG10 comes from Takefu Special Steel in Japan and was built for kitchen knives: around one percent carbon, fifteen percent chromium, with cobalt and vanadium keeping the grain fine. That gives a keen edge, a long time between sharpenings, and enough corrosion resistance that you can stop thinking about it.

We heat treat to 58-60 HRC, slightly under kitchen-knife hardness. That is deliberate for a knife that will meet a hard floor: the edge rolls on impact rather than chipping, and a rolled edge comes back on a stone.

Sharpen on ceramic or diamond, hold the angle we ground, and expect to do it once or twice a year.

Kamagong, briefly, as a balisong handle

Philippine ebony. Dense enough to sink in water, close-grained enough that it takes almost no oil and needs none, and stable enough that it will not crack or shrink through a dry winter. It will take a soft polish where your hand sits and that is the only change you will see in it.

The name

Glow worms are not worms and they do not glow in the way people imagine, so the name is about as accurate as most names in this series. Bright thing against a dark thing. That was the whole thought.

Trainer, sheath and shipping on this kamagong VG10 balisong

The unsharpened trainer is the same knife, selected above Add to Cart. Same brass, same kamagong, same 175g, no edge. Given that the appeal of this one is largely how it looks, a fair number of people order it blunt and never miss the edge.

A fitted leather sheath comes with it. US shipping is free, flat $49 to anywhere else for the whole order. Check your local knife law before ordering.