Hedgehog Handmade High Carbon Steel Original Filipino Balisong Butterfly Knife with Brass and Kamagong Wood Handle | 24cm EDC Flipper Gift for Him | BF-57

The BF-57 Hedgehog is a 24cm high carbon balisong, 12cm blade, 180g, brass with kamagong. It is a good place to explain what high carbon steel actually is, because the phrase gets used as if it meant something impressive and it mostly just means old.

High carbon is a description, not a brand

Every steel we use has carbon in it. What “high carbon” means on a knife spec is plain carbon steel: iron, around one percent carbon, and almost nothing else. No chromium worth mentioning, no vanadium, no cobalt. It is the steel humans made knives from for a very long time before anybody worked out how to add chromium.

That simplicity is the entire story, good and bad. Nothing in the alloy is fighting the abrasive when you sharpen it, so it sharpens beautifully. Nothing in the alloy is protecting the surface from air and water, so it rusts.

What high carbon steel gets you at the edge of a balisong

Stainless steels get their corrosion resistance from chromium, and chromium forms carbides. Carbides are hard particles sitting in the steel, which is why stainless holds an edge, and they are also comparatively large, which puts a limit on how fine an apex you can grind before the edge starts crumbling at the microscopic level.

Plain carbon steel has a much finer grain structure. Grind it properly and the apex goes finer than anything stainless will reach. That is not marketing, it is the reason straight razors were carbon steel for two centuries and why woodworkers still argue about it.

We heat treat to 58-60 HRC. Harder would hold longer and chip on the first drop. Softer would roll under a hard cut. Fifty-nine is where a knife that gets thrown around your knuckles wants to be.

And what it costs you

That last row is the whole decision. If wiping a blade dry after you handle it sounds like a small ritual you would quite enjoy, buy this. If it sounds like a chore somebody has invented for you, our VG10 and D2 knives are genuinely better suited and we would rather point you there.

The 180 gram frame and the kamagong handle

Twenty-four centimetres open with 180g of brass and kamagong in it. Enough weight that a rollover carries itself and you get a moment to spot a mistake, not so much that a long session becomes an arm workout. This is the size and weight most owners settle on.

Kamagong is Philippine ebony, dense enough to sink in water and close-grained enough that it needs no oil, no wax and no attention at all. Between a blade that wants a wipe and a handle that wants nothing, the maintenance budget on this knife is about eight seconds a day.

The name

Hedgehogs are covered in spines and are otherwise entirely defensive animals, which is a slightly odd thing to name a knife after. The animal series ran to ninety-odd names and not all of them were carefully considered.

Ordering this high carbon butterfly knife

The trainer version has no edge ground on it, weighs the same 180g and costs, and is selected above the Add to Cart button. Same price because grinding an edge is one operation in a long build, and a discount for skipping it would be a gesture rather than a saving.

A fitted leather sheath is in the box. Carry the knife in it and store the knife out of it, because leather holds moisture and this is the one steel in our range that will punish you for that. Free US shipping, flat $49 to anywhere else for the whole order. Balisong law varies by country and by US state and is worth checking before you order.