Pivotwing Hand Forged 1095 Steel Butterfly Knife | 9.5 Inch Open with 4.5 Inch Clip Point Blade | Skeletonised Channel Handles, Knotwork Etching and Leather Belt Pouch | EDC Gift | RK-1962

The Pivotwing is a butterfly knife, or balisong, with a clip point blade and two skeletonised steel channel handles that swing on pins either side of the tang. Closed, the blade folds up inside the channels and disappears. Open, the two handles come together into a single solid grip. The blade carries a small band of Norse interlace etched at the ricasso, and a brown leather belt pouch with a stud closure is included.

The balisong is not an ancient design and the stories saying otherwise do not stand up. The often repeated claim that it comes from a French measuring tool called the pied du roi has no documentary support at all. What is documented is the Philippines, and specifically Batangas province on Luzon, where balisong making became a local industry in the early twentieth century and where the town of Taal still turns them out. The knives came back to the United States with servicemen after the Second World War, which is when the rest of the world met them. Ours are forged, ground, heat treated, fitted and tuned in the Czech Republic and ship with the leather pouch shown and our lifetime warranty against defects in forging, grind, heat treat and fittings.

Specifications

How a balisong actually works

The two handles are not identical in use, even though they look it. One is the bite handle, the one attached to the edge side of the blade, and one is the safe handle, attached to the spine side. Every opening technique is built around holding the safe handle and letting the bite handle swing, because if you get that backwards the edge arrives in your palm. Learning which is which by feel, with the knife closed, is the first thing anyone should do with one.

The stop is a small pin through the tang. When the handles swing round, that pin lands against the inside of the channel and holds the blade in line rather than letting it overtravel. It is the single most loaded part of the knife and it is why a well made balisong stays in time for years while a cheap one develops play and starts rattling.

Channel handles, which is what these are, are cut as a groove down the length of a solid bar so the blade sits inside a single piece of steel. The alternative is a sandwich handle, two flat plates spaced apart with pillars. Channel construction is heavier, stiffer and far more work to make, and it protects the edge completely when the knife is closed. Skeletonising them, meaning cutting the long slots you can see, brings the weight back down and lets you see whether anything is caught inside the channel.

Steel and fittings

The blade is 1095 high carbon steel at 54 to 58 HRC. On a blade under five inches this hardness gives you an edge that holds well through normal cutting and comes back on a stone in a few minutes. The clip along the spine is ground as a false edge, meaning it is shaped like an edge but left unsharpened, which lightens the point and improves how the tip enters a cut without giving you a second live edge to worry about while you are flipping.

The handles are steel rather than aluminium or titanium. Steel handles make a heavier knife, and for most people that is an advantage rather than a cost, because weight makes the swing slower, more predictable and easier to learn on. The pivots are pinned and tuned by hand so the action is smooth without being loose. A balisong that flops open under its own weight has been set too loose and it will get worse. Ours are set to swing freely with a flick and stop dead.

Engraving, runes and your own design

Use the rune converter on this page to turn a name, a date or a short phrase into Elder Futhark and we will cut it into the steel, the leather or the wood. If you would rather have a Viking pattern than a rune line, choose your own design in the engraving option above the add to cart button and tell us where it goes. Where a piece already carries an engraved design, your chosen engraving replaces it rather than sitting alongside it. On the Pivotwing the interlace band at the ricasso is that design. There is also a good clean run along the outside face of each handle, and a short rune line there reads well and stays out of the way of the pivots. The leather pouch can be stamped too. See the engraving page.

Handling and learning on it

This is a live blade. If you have never flipped a balisong, do not learn on this one. Buy a blunt trainer, spend a fortnight on the basic opening and closing with it, and only then pick up something sharp. Everyone who flips says the same thing and almost everyone learned it the hard way.

Once you know what you are doing, a steel handled balisong of this weight is a pleasant thing to use. It is slower than a light aluminium knife, which sounds like a drawback and is actually why it is easier to control. The balance sits right at the pivots when the knife is closed, so it rotates around the point where your fingers hold it.

As a cutting tool it does everything a fixed four and a half inch clip point does, with the caveat that a folding knife of any kind is never as strong as a fixed blade. Do not pry with it, do not baton it, and do not put lateral load on the pivots.

Care

Two jobs here, and the pivots matter as much as the blade. Put a single drop of light oil on each pivot every few weeks if you flip regularly and work it in by swinging the handles. Wipe the excess. Grit is the enemy of a balisong, and a pivot full of pocket dust will grind itself loose over a year.

The blade is plain carbon steel and it rusts. Wipe it after handling and keep a thin film of mineral or camellia oil on it, particularly along the inside face that sits in the channel where air does not circulate. Our full notes are in the steel care guide. Feed the leather pouch once or twice a year and do not store the knife in it wet, because a damp pouch against carbon steel will mark the blade within days.

Made in the Czech Republic

This piece is made by hand in the Czech Republic, in a workshop that still works the old way. The steel is forged, ground, heat treated and finished by smiths who learned the trade from the people before them, and the wood, horn and leather are cut and fitted by hand rather than pressed out on a line. That is also why no two pieces come out exactly the same.

Ransack Viking is a United States company. We import these pieces ourselves, check every one when it lands and ship from our warehouse in Memphis, Tennessee. Engraving is done here in the United States after the piece arrives, so your runes or your own design go on before it leaves for you.

A note on handmade variation

Each of these is made by hand and not machine made or bulk produced, so what arrives will not be a pixel for pixel copy of the photograph. The exact shape and spacing of the skeleton cuts, the crispness of the interlace etch, the tone of the satin on the handles and the feel of the action all differ slightly because a person cut and tuned each one. The blade length, the steel, the heat treat and the construction stay the same on every knife. The character does not.

Frequently asked questions

Is this legal where I live

Balisongs are restricted or prohibited in a number of United States states and cities, and the rules differ between owning one at home and carrying one. We ship within the US, and it is on the buyer to check the law that applies where they live before ordering.

Is it sharp out of the box

Yes, fully sharpened on the main edge. The clip along the spine is a false edge and is left blunt.

Is this a trainer

No. This is a live blade. If you are learning to flip, get a blunt trainer first and come back to this when the basic opens are automatic.

Can the action be adjusted

The pivots are pinned rather than screwed, so they are set at our end and not user adjustable. We tune each one to swing freely and stop clean. If yours ever loosens, send it back and we will re set it.

Does it come with a sheath

It comes with a brown leather belt pouch with a stud closure, sized for the knife closed.

How soon does it ship

One to two weeks of processing plus transit, free inside the United States. Engraved orders take a few days longer.

What is in the box

• Pivotwing butterfly knife with a 1095 high carbon steel blade
• Skeletonised steel channel handles with pinned and tuned pivots
• Brown leather belt pouch with a stud closure
• Care card and lifetime warranty against defects in forging, grind, heat treat and fittings
• Forged and finished in the Czech Republic

Explore the range

More in Viking knives, karambit knives and accessories, or read the guides on knife steels, edge geometry and sharpening.