Hornbill Handmade High Carbon Steel Original Filipino Balisong Butterfly Knife with Brass and Kamagong Wood Handle | 24cm EDC Flipper Gift for Him | BF-61

The BF-61 Hornbill is a 24cm high carbon balisong, 12cm blade, 180g, brass with kamagong. High carbon steel rusts. Here is exactly how that happens, how to stop it, and what to do when it has already started.

How rust actually starts

Iron, water and oxygen. That is the whole recipe, and plain carbon steel has no chromium in it to interrupt the reaction. Salt speeds it up considerably, which is why sweat is worse than tap water and coastal air is worse than both.

The places it starts are predictable and they are almost never the flat of the blade, which is the part people wipe. It starts in the corners.

• The choil, where the edge meets the tang. It holds a drop of water and nobody dries it.
• Inside the handle channels, where the blade sits closed.
• Around the pivot and the tang pin.
• Under a fingerprint that was left on overnight.

Prevention, which is eight seconds

Wipe the blade dry after you handle it. That is the requirement. Not weekly, not when you remember, but when you put the knife down.

Beyond that: a light oil film once a month, open the knife and dry the choil properly if it has been anywhere damp, and do not store it in the leather sheath. Sheaths are for carrying. A closed sheath holds moisture against steel and it is the single most reliable way to ruin a high carbon blade.

If it has already started

Almost everything on that list is recoverable. Only the last row of column three is not, and getting there takes real neglect over months rather than a wet weekend.

What not to do

Do not use a wire brush, a rotary tool, or any of the aggressive rust removers sold for car bodywork. They take off far more steel than the rust did and they will wreck the finish and the geometry. Oil and a fine abrasive, patiently, is the answer every time.

Also do not panic. A grey blade is a healthy blade. Most of the emails we get about rust turn out to be photographs of a perfectly normal patina forming.

The high carbon steel, and why we still sell a butterfly knife in it

Plain carbon steel: iron, about one percent carbon, no meaningful chromium. Everything above is the price. What you get in return is the finest edge we can grind, because the grain is much finer than any stainless at the same hardness, and a steel that comes back on an ordinary stone in minutes rather than fighting you.

We heat treat to 58-60 HRC, which is where it rolls rather than chips when it meets a floor.

The frame and the kamagong balisong handle

Standard 24cm at 180g, brass bolsters with kamagong inserts. Neither the brass nor the wood will rust or rot, so the blade is the only part of this knife with an opinion about weather. Kamagong is Philippine ebony and is dense enough to ignore moisture entirely.

Ordering this high carbon balisong

The unsharpened trainer costs.00 and is selected above Add to Cart. Everything on this page still applies to it, since a blunt high carbon blade rusts exactly as enthusiastically as a sharp one.

A fitted leather sheath comes with it, with the storage caveat above. US shipping free, flat $49 elsewhere for the whole order.

Hornbill pairs high carbon steel with a brass and kamagong wood handle, and at 24cm it sits comfortably in the hand. If the latch style on this build is new to you, our guide to balisong latch types explains how it compares with the other closures we use. You can browse the rest of the rest of our high carbon steel balisongs from here, and the Horse high carbon balisong is a close neighbour worth a look if you want a second option in hand.