Bear and Son CB17 Cocobolo Butterfly Knife Review

Bear and Son CB17 Cocobolo Butterfly Knife

Bear & Son is a family company that has a rich tradition in knife making. They have a skilled and experienced work force capable of performing many of the extra hand operations that go into the making of their products. The Bear & Son Cutlery factory is unique. It is full self-contained. While some companies only assemble parts brought from various suppliers and put their names on the product, they do everything in-house, form building their own blanking dies to heat treating, grinding and assembly, and hand finishing their products. These steps ensure that Bear & Son Cutlery is of excellent quality and a real value for both the dealer and consumer.

This commitment to excellence has just improved due to rich family tradition in knife making craftsmanship not only by management, but also their experienced work force. Their customers and consumers can look for even more new and exciting products as a result. Their ongoing commitment is to make them in American and make them affordable. They want everyone to be able to afford what they are proud to make.

Today, we will be discussing the Bear & Son CB17 Cocobolo Balisong/Butterfly knife with a black blade.


The Blade:

The blade on this knife is made out of 440 high carbon stainless steel. This steel is a relatively low cost, highly corrosion resistant stainless steel. This steel is used in many production knives because it has a good balance of edge retention and it is easy to re-sharpen. This is a good all-round steel that has now been overshadowed by many of the newer super-steels on the block. Because it is a high carbon, but still a stainless steel, you get a wide variety of benefits. The stainless steel aspect of this steel is that they generally have at least 12% chromium, which does tow things. For starters, it makes the blade able to resist rust and corrosion a lot better than high carbon blades, but it is going to be softer than a carbon steel. Because 440 steel has a high level of carbon, it is not going to be as soft as a regular stainless steel. With the high carbon aspect of this steel, you get strength and hardness which means that it is going to retain an edge for long periods of time. Overall though, with this steel you are going to get a blade that can get the job done. You are going to be able to rely on this blade to last when you need it to and to not break or chip. However, you should keep in mind that you do get what you pay for, so when being compared to other newer types of steel, it isn’t going to measure up.

The blade has been finished with a black coating. There are a few major benefits to having your blade coated instead of just finished. One of the biggest advantages is that it creates a layer in between the steel and the environment. This means that rusting is going to be significantly cut down when compared to bare steel. The next major advantage is that the coating creates a matte finish, which means that glares and reflections are cut down completely. When applied correctly, a coating can even make this blade easier to pierce because it does not have as much drag. Unfortunately, coatings are added onto the steel, instead of altering what the steel actually is. This means that a coating is not permanent and will scratch off after heavy use or over time. Once the coating scratches off, the blade is unprotected and the coating benefits are gone. The hassle with this is deciding if it is worth it to re-coat the blade, or just get a new knife. The Bear & Son Cocobolo Butterfly knife is a little bit more of a classy knife, so while you may be using it often, I would bet that this is not your EDC—which means the blade coating is going to last a significant amount of time.

The blade has been carved into a clip point blade shape. This blade style is the second most popular blade style that is in use in today’s cutlery industry—and for good reason. This blade style is all-purpose and for an all-purpose knife, it can pierce like a champion. To form this blade shape, the spine of the knife runs straight form the handle and then stops about halfway up the knife. At this point, it turns and continues to the point of the knife. This portion is lower and is referred to as the clip, because it looks as if the metal has been clipped off the blade. This is also where this blade style got its name. Like mentioned, the clip creates a lowered point on this blade shape, which serves many purposes. For starters, the lowered point gives you more control over your cuts and slices. This means that you can perform fine detail work with this blade with ease. And, because the tip is controllable, sharp and thinner at the spine, the clip point makes a great stabbing weapon because it has less drag during insertion and faster withdrawal. The next reason that this blade style is so popular and versatile is because it features such a large belly. Bellies are the cutting edge of the blade and the bigger the belly, the easier it is going to be to slice with this knife. While not many people do use a butterfly knife as their everyday carry knife, the majority of tasks do require slicing, which means this knife is able to act as an EDC knife if that is what you want from it. One of the only drawbacks that a clip point blade has is that the tip is fine. The fine tip means that this blade is going to be prone to breaking if it is used on harder targets. But, the fine tip also gives you the impeccable piercing ability, so you win some you lose some. You just have to decide which part you want to win and which part you want to lose.


Bear and Son CB17 Cocobolo Butterfly Knife
Bear and Son CB17 Cocobolo Butterfly Knife

The Handle:

The handle is made out of cocobolo wood with nickel silver bolsters.

Wood has been used as a knife handle basically since knives came into existence. There are a few major benefits to having wood handles—they are durable and attractive, wile also being pretty inexpensive. The wood allows you to have a durable, but still inexpensive handle for heavy duty knives. Really the biggest advantage to having a wood handle in the modern era is that they offer a very beautiful look to your knife. They make your knife look like a classic tool. Cocobolo is a tropical hardwood of Central American trees. When in use, it means that the manufacturer has used only the heartwood, which is wood that as a result of a naturally occurring chemical transformation has become more resistant to decay. This wood has an orange or reddish-brown color, often with a figuring of darker irregular traces weaving through the wood. This wood stands up well to repeated handling and exposure to water, which makes it a very common wood for knife handles. This wood is very hard, fine textured, and dense, but it is easily machined.

The nickel silver bolsters are used to insure strength and durabily. Nickel is hard, which is where you get the strength and durability from. But it is also malleable, which means that it is easy to work with, so it will keep the overall cost of the handle down. Nickel is also not very reactive because it reacts very slowly with oxygen. This is a big benefit because it won’t rust and it will remain shiny over time. The bright silver also contrasts nicely with the deep wood and provides a very classic, elegant look. The bolsters are on each end of each handle.


The Mechanism:

The Cocobolo is a butterfly knife, or a Bali-Song as they are commonly called. This style of knife originated in the Philippines, where it was called a fan knife. This style of knife is a folding pocket knife that has two handles counter-rotating around the tang such that, when closed, the blade is concealed within grooves in the handles.

This style of knife was originally used by Filipino people as a self-defense and pocket utility knife. Since then, it has been used as a razor, an entertainment tool, and time and time again a self-defense weapon.

However, this knife is now illegal and restricted in many countries, often under the same laws and for the same reasons that switchblades are restricted.

These knives are called balisong, and the meaning is not entirely clear where this name came from. Except, it is a popular belief that it derived from the Tagalog words baling sungay, which literally means broken/folding horn, because they were originally made from carved caribou and stag horn.

This Bear & Son Balisong knife has a sandwich construction, which means that the knife is assembled in layers that are generally pinned together. This allows the pivot pins to be adjusted more tightly without binding. Hewn the knife is closed, the blade rests between the layers.

There are a few main parts that differentiate a butterfly knife from a regular folding knife. For starters, there is the bite handle, which is the handle that closes on the sharp edge of the blade, this is usually the handle that sports the latch. The opposite handle is called het safe handle. This closes on the non-sharpened edge of the blade.

The next piece is the kicker, which is the area on the blade that prevents the sharp edge form touching the inside of the handle and suffering damage. This portion of the blade is at the portion of the blade that meets the handle and is unsharpened.

Next is the latch, which on a butterfly knife is a standard locking system. This latch holds the knife closed and keeps it from opening up when the user doesn’t want it to. Along with the latch is a latch gate that is a block inside the channel of the handles stopping the latch form impacting the blade.


The Specs:

The blade on this knife measures in at 3 3/8 inches long. When this butterfly knife is closed, it measures in at an even 5 inches long. When the knife is opened, it measures in at an overall length of 9 1/8 inches long. This knife was made in the United States of America, so you can feel proud to own, carry, and use this knife.



The Bear and Sons Cocobolo butterfly knife is a fine specimen. It is made with Nickle silver bolsters and genuine Cocobolo wood handle sales. The Cocobolo wood handles scales are a hard wood that can be used time and time again without eroding while also not being affected by water. The Nickle adds an element of durability to this blade. Because of the hard wood and the Nickle, the handle is low maintenance and will last a long time. The handle is elegant, without being ostentatious. The blade is made from high carbon stainless steel with a black coating. The blade is durable enough to get the job done, but won’t compare to a super steel. The blade has been carved into a clip point blade shape, which is versatile and designed perfectly for piercing. This Bear & Son knife is a butterfly knife, which is one of the few styles of knives that can be used for entertainment. The butterfly knife has pin, or sandwich construction with a handle latch. Overall, this is a spectacular looking butterfly knife with a nice smooth action. Bear & Son is a trusted knife company, which means that you are going to be getting a durable, yet still very classy knife. Pick up this knife today at BladeOps.

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