Overview & First Impressions
Trivisa showed up this week with a full rack of new designs, and the Butterfly Ultra is the one that made people stop scrolling. It is a slim, winged folder built around a crossbar lock, which means the blade swings free with zero detent drag until you pinch the bar and it stops on a dime. The M390 blade steel on the Ultra-M comes mirror polished, a finish most brands reserve for twice the money. Among this month's folding knives it is the showpiece, and it earns the attention.
Materials & Construction
Bohler M390 at around 60-62 HRC is the headliner, but the chassis holds its own. The slabs are titanium, chamfered along the spine so the edges never bite into your grip, and the hardware is seated flush with no proud screw heads to catch a pocket. A carbon fiber presentation side is available on some variants, and the pocket clip is bent low for a deep sit. Weight lands in the mid-three-ounce range, which is where a genuine EDC knives candidate should sit rather than a shelf queen.
Design & Details
The butterfly name comes from the winged silhouette, not from flipping, so leave the balisong expectations at the door. What you get instead is a purposeful leaf shape with a mild swedge, a generous finger choil, and jimping exactly where your thumb lands. Variants matter here: Ultra-M is mirror polished, Ultra-D runs a stealthy DLC coating, Ultra-S is stonewashed, and the Ultra-B splits the difference. Same geometry, four personalities, and none of them apologise for being pretty.
Real-World Use
In hand the knife disappears until you need it. The crossbar slides smoothly and the blade falls shut on command, so one-handed closing works with gloves on. Slicing tape, breaking down boxes and trimming zip ties are all one-pass jobs because M390 holds its tooth far longer than the 8Cr13MoV everyone else ships at this price. The mirror finish also wipes clean of adhesive residue, which sounds trivial until you have scraped cardboard glue out of a stonewash with a toothbrush at midnight.
Ownership Notes
Maintenance is honest work: a drop of oil at the pivot monthly, a few passes on a fine stone when the edge finally tells you, and the mirror finish forgives small scuffs better than a black coating ever did. If you stack lanyard beads on your carry, the lanyard hole is generously sized and clear of the lock bar. The lock interface arrives dry from the factory, so run a little grease in the channel during week one and the action gets noticeably silkier.
Who Is This For?
Collectors who want one grail-adjacent folder without the grail wait time will lock onto the mirror finish immediately. It also suits the commuter who wants a refined carry that does not look tactical in an office, and the steel nerd who keeps asking when M390 would finally show up under two hundred dollars. Skip it if you need a hard-use beater; this is a knife with a collar, not a shovel.
Final Verdict
The Butterfly Ultra is a statement of intent from a brand nobody had heard of last month. Geometry, steel choice and finishing are all a tier above the usual new-vendor debut, and the crossbar action is genuinely competitive with established houses. EdcMall has all four finishes in stock, and the Ultra-D is the pick if you hate fingerprint smudges on polished steel. Whichever you choose, this is the rare debut folder that already carries like a veteran.
