Mr. Ritter,
It was great to see you again at SHOT Show in Las Vegas.
I want to publicly congratulate you on the well designed and produced knife that your doing with our friends up in Oregon City. Good choice of steel too.
Thanks for being a friend, stay safe.
Bill Harsey

Ps. How much are we supposed to payoff the head waiters in those eating joints to get seated even after we have a reservation?

I really like the BILL HARSEY DESIGN T2 RANGER FOLDER, 5"

Craig, Thanks for noticing and great cocobolo on the T-2 pictured!
I have a story about one of the
T-2 knives used in a field emergency by a top trauma surgeon to save a life if anyone is interested.

Sounds interesting to to me. I'd like to hear the story.

You are now obligated to tell the story. However, If said knife was made with the famed 'stainless surgical steel' I will ban you without appeal. <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

I for one would like to hear the story, especially if it involves a beautiful knife like the one pictured above.

Bill,

As always, a pleasure seeing you and thanks for the compliments on the knives. Coming from someone with your expertise in making practical working blades, it means a great deal. I like your new blades as well, the SHOT Show Report should be up shortly. Just taking a breather right now, needed a brief break.

It's unfortunate that so often the only time we all get together is under show circumstances, which generally makes for a rather franetic experience. :-( Wiht luck, Blade will be less hectic and Sue will be along as well.

Secret to the waiters is to sic Ethan on 'em. <g>

I've seen Ethan in action merely bantering with Jerry Hossom. Ethan being put into attack mode can't be pretty...

M <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Chris, I've been searching for that steel my whole life and will report in for immediate banning when I find it.

Doug, Good thinking using Ethan next trip. That just plain won't be fair. Thank you.

The knife in the story to follow in my next post here is how the Lone Wolf produced T-2 folder (designed by me) was used by a trauma surgeon to save a life. This model knife uses the CPM S-30V steel that Mr. Ritter uses in his knife (very good choice Sir).
PS,
Chris, I have made surgical instruments for single layer skin removal for skin grafting treatment of wounds and burns and produced the scalpel that did all the re-opening work in my right hand to put a couple tendons back together. (then I stayed awake and watched to make sure the doc really used my knife) All these tools were made with very good knife steels. Yes for those doing the math, I made the scalpel with tendons not connected.

A few months ago, in a phone conversation with an owner of a T-2 knife, I was informed how he (Head of Trauma from a big hospital in Virginia Beach, Virginia) used the knife in an emergency to get a man out of a pretty bad place to save his life.

The following story is not for the squeamish but this is not a sqeamish kind of website.

Our good Doctor was helocoptered out to the scene of a farm accident where paramedics had done already done an incredible job keeping a man alive that had stepped into a spinning post hole auger mounted on the three point hitch of his tractor.
The mans left leg was still wrapped around the auger and multiple compound fractures were involved from ankle to hip. Our Doctor went right to work and quickly found that the only way to save this mans life was to amputate the leg just under the hip.
The doctor opened his kit and found the scalpel missing so he reached for the T-2 folder he always carries in his waste band and used that knife to do the field amputation. Because of the compound fractures he did not need a bone saw but knew he was going back with the patient to begin all the wound site prep for grafting and healing therefore wanting to make very clean cuts.
His comments about the knife are that it worked as well as any scalpel he would have used because of it's very high sharpness and ability to cut. The knife still had the original factory edge.
The Doc got into the helicopter with the patient and upon landing took a shower (because he was in a field that had animals), srubbed and spent the rest of the afternoon working on the man he had just gotten out of the auger.
The man is surviving and said to have a good attitude and is happy to still be here.
I don't want to leave you all with the impression I think "all is well". It's got to be damned hard for the guy who got hurt.

Technical point: The CPM S-30V steel will get sharper than many other steels because of it's wear resistant hard carbides and very fine grain size.
This comes about from how the steel is made via the "particle metal" process that both controls grain growth ( a problem in highly alloyed tool steels) and allows the producers of this steel to use combinations of alloys that wouldn't work in conventional steel making. This is NOT a sintering process.