Handmade Karambit Balisong Butterfly Knife | High Polished High Carbon Steel | Mother of Pearl Handle with Brass Frame and Leather Sheath BF-178

The BF-178 is a karambit balisong with mother of pearl panels held in a brass frame, $295. It is the most expensive non Damascus knife in this group and almost all of that difference is labour.

What mother of pearl is

Nacre, the lining a mollusc grows inside its own shell. It is built from microscopic plates of aragonite stacked in layers, each layer about as thick as a wavelength of visible light. Light entering the surface reflects off many layers at once and the reflections interfere with each other, which is why the colour shifts as you move it.

That means the shimmer is structural rather than pigmented. It cannot fade, because there is no dye involved, and it will still be doing it in a hundred years.

Why it is difficult to work

Nacre is hard and brittle at the same time, which is an unhelpful combination. It resists abrasion well but it fractures rather than deforming, so a drill that grabs, a pin driven a fraction too tight or an over enthusiastic pass on a grinder will take a chip out and the panel is finished.

It is also thin. Shell only grows so thick, so panels have to be cut from the flattest sections and there is a great deal of waste before you have two that match reasonably and are thick enough to pin. This is why pearl gets used on small folders and rarely on anything with a ring hanging off the end.

The brass frame here is doing structural work rather than decorative work. It carries the pivot and the ring load so the pearl only has to sit there and look like nacre.

How to spot the imitation

Plastic pearl exists in large quantities and it is convincing in a photograph. Two things give it away in the hand. Real nacre is cold on first touch and stays cool longer than plastic does, because it conducts heat away faster. And the pattern in real shell is irregular, with growth lines that run continuously across the panel rather than a repeating swirl.

If both panels on a knife have the same pattern, it is not shell. Nothing that grew produces a matched pair.

This is a display knife and we will not pretend otherwise

You can carry it. You should probably not. Pearl chips on a hard knock and a dropped karambit lands on its ring or its butt, which is exactly where the panels end. It is beautiful, it is fragile, and buying it as an everyday carry is buying the wrong knife from us.

If you want this look in something that survives a pocket, the black micarta BF-176 will outlive all of us.

Specifications for this mother of pearl karambit balisong

Ordering the BF-178

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, and on this knife we would put it on the blade rather than the handle. Free shipping inside the United States, flat $49 worldwide.