Handmade Karambit Balisong Butterfly Knife | Matte Stone Washed D2 Tool Steel | Black Micarta Handle with Leather Sheath BF-176

The BF-176 is a karambit balisong in stone washed D2 with black micarta panels, $235. Everything about it is chosen so that using it does not make it look worse.

What stone washing actually is

The finished blade goes into a tumbler with abrasive media and is left to knock around until the surface carries a dense field of small random marks. No two blades come out identical and that is the point.

Because the surface is already covered in random marks, a new one has nowhere to stand out. Set a stone washed blade next to a satin one after a year of the same use and the satin blade looks worn while this one looks the same as the day it arrived.

It has a second advantage that nobody mentions: it does not show fingerprints. A mirror blade is a fingerprint collector and a matte one simply is not.

D2 is the right steel for this knife

High chromium tool steel, hardened to 58-60 HRC. It holds an edge substantially longer than plain carbon and it resists corrosion well enough that a wet pocket is not a crisis.

The trade is sharpening. Those chromium carbides that give D2 its wear resistance are harder than the abrasive in an ordinary aluminium oxide stone, so the stone polishes the steel around the carbides rather than cutting them. You end up working for a long time and getting a mediocre edge.

Diamond cuts carbides. A basic diamond plate turns a forty minute frustration into a five minute job, and on this steel it is not an accessory, it is the correct equipment. We would rather tell you that now than have you conclude the knife is faulty.

Black micarta, and why it feels different from plastic

Micarta is fabric in resin, so the surface has the texture of the weave running through it. It is warm to hold in a way a moulded polymer never is, and it grips better damp than dry.

Black micarta made from canvas has a coarser weave than the linen kind, which shows as a slightly more open texture. Over years of handling the high points burnish and it develops a faint sheen where your fingers sit. That is the only ageing it does.

No brass anywhere

Deliberate. Brass is warm and bright and it draws the eye, which is exactly what you want on a knife made to be looked at and exactly what you do not want on one made to disappear into a pocket. Every fitting here is steel, finished to match the blade.

Specifications for this D2 karambit balisong

Ordering the BF-176

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. Free shipping inside the United States, flat $49 worldwide.