BF-60 Hoopoe High Carbon Steel Original Filipino Balisong butterfly Knife

The BF-60 Hoopoe is a 24cm high carbon balisong, 180g, brass and kamagong, $129.25. If you have never sharpened a knife properly and would like to learn, this is the steel to learn on and this page is the lesson.

Why high carbon is the right teacher

Sharpening is a skill with a slow feedback loop, and slow feedback is what makes people give up. High carbon shortens the loop. It gives ground quickly on an ordinary stone, you feel the burr form within a couple of minutes, and you can see the result immediately.

Try to learn on D2 and you will spend forty minutes wondering whether anything is happening at all. That is not a criticism of D2, it is a criticism of learning on it.

What you actually need

You do not need a guided system, a diamond plate, a strop, or anything with a brand story attached. On this steel, none of it earns its price.

The actual method

1. Find the existing bevel. Lay the blade flat on the stone, then lift until the bevel sits flush. That is your angle. Do not invent a new one.
2. Push the edge along the stone as though you were slicing a thin layer off it. Light pressure. The stone does the cutting, not your arm.
3. Work one side until you can feel a tiny wire of metal on the opposite side of the edge. Run a fingernail off the edge, not along it. That wire is the burr and it means you have reached the apex.
4. Do the same number of strokes on the other side until the burr flips over.
5. Move to the finer grit and repeat with even lighter pressure until the burr falls away.
6. Dry the blade properly and put a light oil on it, because you have just exposed fresh steel and fresh carbon steel is enthusiastic about rust.

That last step is the one everybody skips and then emails us about.

What people get wrong

• Too much pressure. You are abrading steel, not sanding a floor.
• Chasing a thinner angle. A thinner edge is sharper and chips sooner. We ground it where we ground it for a reason.
• Stopping before the burr. No burr means you never reached the apex and the edge is polished but blunt.
• A pull-through sharpener. These tear the edge rather than grinding it. On a knife like this it is genuinely vandalism.

The steel and the frame

Plain carbon steel, around one percent carbon and essentially no chromium, heat treated to 58-60 HRC. Fine grain, keen apex, no corrosion resistance whatsoever. It will spot if left wet and it will develop a grey patina if you simply wipe it, and the patina is the good outcome.

The frame is our standard 24cm at 180g, brass with kamagong inserts. Kamagong is Philippine ebony, dense and stable, and it needs nothing from you at all.

Ordering

Trainer version, unsharpened, same $129.25, chosen above the Add to Cart button. There is an argument for buying both eventually: practise flipping on the trainer and practise sharpening on the sharp one, and neither skill costs you a knuckle.

A fitted leather sheath is included. Store the knife outside it rather than in it. Free US shipping, flat $49 worldwide for any order size.