Now, that's a knife . . . Big THANKS to Brother BlueTang

[dwfisk]

One of our Brethren posted a couple pictures in the Wordless Picture Thread (over in the woodpile) of some knives he was making. I contacted bluetang (aka Mike) to see if he would make me an everyday work knife for the farm and after a couple drawings we agreed on a basic design. Well, here is the final product (the pictures don't do it justice):

http://i1311.photobucket.com/albums/s661/dwf703/2015-10-02%2016.14.10_zpsr2t0aulv.jpg

http://i1311.photobucket.com/albums/s661/dwf703/2015-10-02%2016.14.57_zpsyd2mnngb.jpg

http://i1311.photobucket.com/albums/s661/dwf703/2015-10-02%2016.17.28_zpsfdd4bwsi.jpg

http://i1311.photobucket.com/albums/s661/dwf703/2015-10-02%2016.17.51_zpsgclybkkh.jpg

The knife is 9-1/2 inches overall; 4-1/2 sharpened blade. Heavy in the handle but light in the blade; I LOVE that! Yea, I'm a gator, but my real motivation for the orange G10 handle (you can't see the blue highlights) was visibility in case I dropped it on the farm. And the Kydex plastic case molded to the knife is out-of-bounds, very secure. According to Mike, the blade is D2 steel hardened at 1880* then tempered at 950* & 900* to a Rockwell hardness of 60.

This knife was/is intended to be a work horse, not a show pony! I'll be using it everyday on the farm, everything from cutting hay bale twine to making steers out of bulls and maybe an occasional brisket trim (yea, I'll clean it first :becky:). Mike said he would not really sharpen it 'cause everybody likes to sharpen differently; well out of the box it shaves arm hair!

I could not be happier with the final product; a big thanks to bluetang aka Mike:thumb:

[Happy Hapgood]

That looks Fantastic! Excellent Crafting.

[cowgirl]

Beautiful!!
I've seen some of the knives Blue makes. He has serious talent!
Very nice score Dave, that's a knife to be cherished. :cool:

[Diesel Dave]

Awesome knife Dave, and a great job Brother Tang :thumb:

[deguerre]

Beautiful knife. Love the grip.

[landarc]

That's a beautiful knife, very simple design

[morgan-que]

Don't lie, from one gator to the next, you wanted and a custom gator knife and I don't blame you. Nice blade!!

[Fwismoker]

Very nice! I wish i had a fraction of the talent of ya'll craftsmen!

I can see and clearly picture things i want to have made but actually fabricating it is another story.

[dwfisk]

Very nice! I wish i had a fraction of the talent of ya'll craftsmen!

I'm just a builder/fabricator; bluetang is an artist:thumb:

[Decoy205]

That is really cool! I love the design.

[Shagdog]

Awesome! I've been a big admirer of mike's work for a while now. Love his blades. That one is gorgeous!

[chicagokp]

That's awesome! Usability is paramount with something like that. Very jealous!

[Bludawg]

I have a Queen in D2 the same size it's been my daily companion for over 10 yrs. You're gonna love the edge retention.:thumb:

[TuscaloosaQ]

That is an awesome looking knife... Does he build them to sell... Or is it just a hobby???? If he sells them i am certainly a potential customer for sure...

[Enrico Brandizzi]

It is a beauty!

[martyleach]

Very pretty and functional. I like it. :)

[dwfisk]

That is an awesome looking knife... Does he build them to sell... Or is it just a hobby???? If he sells them i am certainly a potential customer for sure...

Paul, try shooting him a PM. I think Mike is getting back into knife making after being away from it for a while.

[fuzzy1626]

Craftsmanship...:thumb:

[AussieMatt]

Nice looking knife Dave. Great skills BlueTang!!

[charrederhead]

maximum form and function

[Wornslick]

Great looking knife! I like how the case is formed to the shape of the knife.

[PatAttack]

Now that's some farking talent!

Nice blade!!

[cheez59]

Beautiful knife. D2 steel is some of the best utility knife steel there is. My EDC is a DPX with D2. It will take some serious abuse and keep cutting. The only thing I will say about the scales is that it would look better if it was red and black. :wink:

[mikemci]

Beautiful knife! My edc is d2 and I love it.

[jacob]

Really looks like that would be very useful. Nice!

[bigpernz]

Knives are like cookers you just can't have too many. Really cool workhorse knife there I dig it!

[silverfinger]

Beautiful! Love this guys work :thumb:

[dport7]

I like it, that fella does nice work. Looks very well built!

[93vpmod]

Such great craftsmanship! I'd love to have one of those.

[bluetang]

Thanks everyone for the cool comments, appreciate it big time!

[cats49er]

There has been a lot of top blade smiths come out of Florida since the 60's. Nice work