Moorhen D2 Tool Steel Original Filipino Balisong butterfly Knife BF-84

The BF-84 Moorhen is a 24cm Filipino balisong with a 12cm D2 tool steel blade, stainless steel handles set with bone, weighing 180 grams. It is the size and weight most people should actually buy, in a combination that asks almost nothing of you in maintenance. The unsharpened trainer is the same price and is chosen above Add to Cart.

Why 24cm is the size most people should buy

The traditional Batangas balisong is 29cm open. We make those, they are excellent, and they are not what we would hand a person who asked us for one knife.

Twenty-four centimetres with a 12cm blade at 180 grams is the size that most flipping technique was actually developed around in practice. There is enough length for the rotation to be readable and enough mass to carry a handle through it, without the extra arc that makes a 29cm frame unforgiving when a movement starts badly.

It also fits a wider range of hands. A 29cm knife rewards long fingers and a settled grip. This one does not particularly care.

None of that makes it the beginner’s compromise. Plenty of people who have been flipping for a decade never move off this size, and the ones who do usually keep one anyway.

Stainless and bone, which is a cooler handle in both senses

Most of the range is brass. This one is not, and the difference is worth understanding before you order.

• It will not patina. Brass darkens permanently with handling. Stainless stays essentially as it arrived. If you have looked at a two-year-old brass knife and thought it looked tired rather than characterful, this is your frame metal.
• It rings rather than knocks. Steel handles give a brighter, sharper sound on impact than brass does. Some people prefer it, some find it harsh. It is a real difference and nobody mentions it.
• It resists dings. Stainless is harder at the surface than brass, so the handle edges take knocks better over the years.
• Bone brings the warmth back. A bare steel handle is cold and slick. Bone sits at hand temperature within a minute and has a slight tooth to it that helps a damp grip.
• Bone is natural, so it varies. Colour and figure differ between knives, and bone yellows slowly with handling. Yours will not be identical to the photograph.

The lowest-maintenance knife we make

Run down the materials list. D2 blade, stainless handles, bone inserts. Not one of those is going to rust, tarnish, or need seasonal oiling.

D2 is a high-carbon, high-chromium tool steel at around 60 HRC. The chromium buys the corrosion resistance, and the hardness buys edge retention several times longer than the high carbon blades in this same series. Bone wants nothing more than to be kept out of a hot windowsill.

Compare that against the high carbon knives we sell, which need the blade wiped dry after every session and will spot if you forget. Those are wonderful knives and they are a relationship. This one is an appliance, in the good sense.

What D2 steel asks in return on a butterfly knife

Sharpening. That is the whole bill.

D2 at 60 HRC does not respond well to ceramic stones. It will respond, eventually, in the way a wall responds to a spoon. Use a diamond plate, take your time, and accept that the session is longer than it would be on a softer steel.

You will also not reach the edge that high carbon reaches. High carbon has a finer grain and takes a thinner, keener apex, which is why we still make it. What you get here instead is an edge that stays good for a very long time without you doing anything at all.

Neither steel is better. High carbon is for people who enjoy maintenance and want the sharpest thing available. D2 is for people who want to forget about it. If you have read this far and still cannot tell which you are, you are probably the second one.

Trainer, shipping and the legal bit on this D2 balisong

Every knife here can be ordered unsharpened as a trainer at the same price, this one included. Same steel, same 180 grams, same balance, no edge. Grinding an edge is one operation in a much longer build, so removing it does not make the knife cheaper to make and we are not going to pretend it does.

A fitted leather sheath is included, as it is with everything we ship. On the lowest-maintenance knife we make, it is close to the only accessory the thing actually needs.

US shipping is free. Flat $49 to everywhere else, for any size of order. Balisong legality varies by country and by US state, and checking the rule at your own address before ordering is your job rather than the courier’s.

the D2 comes out of the quench at 58-60 HRC. Harder than that and it chips; softer and you are sharpening it every fortnight.