JK Designs Custom Embargo #161 Butterfly Knife 4.625″ S35VN Acid Washed Blade, Zirblasted Sandwich Titanium Handles – Bushing Pivot

JKDEMBARGO161: Embargo Balisong Knife #161

JK Design

Designed in early 2021 and realized over a year later, this is an amalgamation of all Julian’s favorite aspects of his previous designs. He took the blade profile and grind arrangement of his favorite Emissary and made that the standard for this piece. The tang and face channels came from the Orca and the handle profile from the LiteTech. Julian really wanted weight adjustability and to get back to his sandwich construction roots after all the channel knives he’s put out recently. All those aspects sloshed around in Julian’s brain for a time – a good long time – and this is what popped out. The Embargo.

More from Julian:

When creating this design I focused on bringing all my favorite aspects of my previous designs together. I also wanted a longer knife so this is my first Bali over 10”.

Modeling the nightmare-style bevel was, well…A nightmare. I’ve always been into mimicking belt grinds I used to do on Emissaries but this one was particularly difficult. Stoked on how it came out tho!!

The main concern during prototyping was securely holding the handle slabs for machining without getting chatter and warping. The recessed underside cuts for the spacers made it tough to figure out. Making one is easy but making a few at a time is another story.

Another difficulty is the multiple stop pin weight adjustability. Making the knife easy to take apart while preventing the pins from rattling around during flipping is a challenge. I always wanted to bring this detail from the folder world into the bali world, so well worth it.

As always, fighting with myself over the balance and flippability is an ongoing battle but I plan to land it in just the right spot and loving it so far!