King Cobra Handmade High Carbon Steel Original Filipino Balisong Butterfly Knife with Brass and Kamagong Wood Handle | 24cm EDC Flipper Gift for Him | BF-66

The BF-66 King Cobra is the most expensive high carbon knife we make. Twenty-four centimetres, a 12cm blade, 180g, brass with kamagong, and a spec sheet identical to a knife in the same run costing eighteen dollars less. So this page is about where money goes on a handmade knife.

The spec sheet is not the price

Every knife in this high carbon run is 24cm open with a 12cm blade at 180g, brass bolsters and kamagong inserts, in the same steel at the same 58-60 HRC. Prices run.55 to this one.

If you assume price tracks materials, that spread makes no sense at all. It tracks hours, and hours are the actual cost of anything made by hand in small numbers.

Where the hours go

That last row explains more price differences on this site than anything else, and it is the one nobody ever mentions. A model we made twenty of costs less per knife than one we made six of, and nothing about the object is different.

So is it worth eighteen dollars more

Held next to the BF-63, this one has more shaping in the handle and more finishing on the brass. You can see it and you can feel it. Whether that is worth eighteen dollars depends entirely on whether you are buying a tool or an object, and both are reasonable things to be buying.

If you are buying a tool, buy the cheaper one. It cuts identically, holds an edge identically, and will still be good in a decade. We would rather write that sentence and sell you the right knife than take the extra money quietly.

What we will not do

We will not invent tiers with names. There is no Signature Series here, no Master Grade, no numbered edition of forty when we made forty because forty was how many blanks arrived. Those labels exist to justify a price rather than explain one.

Everything we sell is made by the same hands in the same workshop to the same standard. The price differences are hours and run sizes, and now you have the table.

What high carbon steel does on a butterfly knife

Plain carbon steel: iron, about one percent carbon, essentially no chromium. It takes a finer edge than any stainless we sell because the grain is finer, and it comes back on an ordinary stone in minutes. It will spot if left wet, so the blade wants a wipe when you put it down.

Heat treated to 58-60 HRC. Harder holds longer and chips on the first drop, softer rolls under a hard cut, and this is the window that suits a knife that lives in the air.

Brass and kamagong balisong handles at 180 grams

The standard frame at the weight most owners settle on. Kamagong is Philippine ebony, dense enough to sink in water and stable enough to ignore a dry winter, and it needs nothing from you. The brass will go brown across a couple of years, which on this knife in particular is a slight shame given how much finishing went into it, and there is nothing anybody can do about it.

Ordering this high carbon balisong

Unsharpened trainer, selected above Add to Cart. A fitted leather sheath comes with it. US shipping is free and everywhere else is a flat $49 for the whole order, so it is worth consolidating an international order rather than buying one knife at a time.