Liyab Handmade Karambit Balisong Butterfly Knife | Black Coated High Carbon Blade | Copper Handle with Titanium Ring and Leather Sheath BF-180

The BF-180 is a karambit balisong with a solid copper handle, a black coated blade and an anodised titanium ring. Three strong decisions on one knife, which either lands or it does not.

Copper as a whole handle, not just a bolster

Most knives that use copper use a little of it, at the bolster, where it is decorative and structurally minor. Making the entire handle from it is a different proposition.

Copper is soft and it is heavy. Both matter here. Soft means the handle takes dings that a steel frame would shrug off, so this knife will collect small marks in a way the micarta ones will not. Heavy means the balance sits further out than you might expect, and on a karambit balisong that is not automatically bad: extra mass at the ring end makes the swing feel more deliberate and less flighty.

It is skeletonised through the middle to keep that from becoming absurd. Without the drilling this would be a genuinely tiring knife to hold.

The patina is the whole point

Copper does not stay pink. It moves to a deep rose, then a red brown, then something close to chocolate, and it does it fastest where your hand sits. Within a month the knife looks used. Within a year it looks like it belongs to somebody in particular.

Nothing about this is damage. The oxide layer is stable and it protects the metal underneath. If you would rather keep it bright, a copper polish takes it back in a minute and the clock restarts. We would leave it, but it is your knife.

One warning. Do not let acid sit on it. Citrus, vinegar and sweat left for days will strip the patina unevenly and leave a blotched surface that only a full polish corrects. Wipe it and this never comes up.

Why black against copper

Because copper needs something to sit against that is not also warm. Put a copper handle next to a bright polished blade and you have two reflective surfaces of similar value competing, and the knife reads as busy metal.

A black blade gives the copper somewhere to be the only warm thing in the picture. The coating is applied over the steel rather than grown into it, so it will wear at the high points over years, and when it does the bright steel underneath picks up the highlight the polish would have given you anyway.

The ring, and the argument about it

Anodised titanium, and the colour is grown rather than painted. An oxide layer of controlled thickness makes light interfere with itself, so the shade depends on how thick the layer is and nothing sits on the surface that can chip away.

Whether a rainbow ring belongs on a copper knife is a fair question and the honest answer is that it is a taste call. It puts a third strong element on a knife that already had two. Our view is that the ring is small enough to read as a highlight rather than a competitor, and that a knife this committed to being noticed should not hedge at the last step.

Specifications for this copper karambit balisong

Ordering the BF-180

Sharpened, tuned and checked by hand, with a fitted leather sheath and a gift box.

Or take it as a trainer instead. Identical frame, identical weight, no cutting edge, and the price does not move.

Laser engraving is $29, chosen on this page. Copper takes an engraving beautifully and the patina will darken into it over time, which is worth knowing before you choose where it goes. Free shipping inside the United States, flat $49 worldwide.

The anodised titanium ring on the Liyab is explained in more depth in our guide to titanium balisong handles, including why the colour cannot chip away the way a coating would. The Liyab sits in our karambit balisong range. The Kalansay takes a related skeletonised approach in bare steel rather than solid copper.