Description
Seven and a half inches of D2 in a double-edged profile, hung on rosewood. The Shadow Fang is a dagger first and everything else a distant second.
| Overall length | 12.5 inches |
| Blade length | 7.5 inches |
| Handle length | 5 inches |
| Steel | D2 tool steel |
| Handle | Rose Wood Handle | D2 Steel Bolster |
| Included | Hand-stitched leather sheath |
Built for: collectors and display. A dagger’s geometry is optimized for one thing, and that thing is not food, rope or firewood.
What a symmetrical profile costs you
Two edges meeting at a centered point makes an efficient thrusting shape and a poor working knife. There is no spine to brace a thumb against, so you lose the control every other blade shape hands you for detail cuts. You cannot baton it. You cannot lean on it. Sharpening takes twice as long, because there are two edges and no flat reference to steady the blade against. None of that is a defect. It is the design doing what it was drawn to do. Buy it knowing what it is. Our dagger explainer sets out the reasoning properly.
Rosewood, and how it moves
Rosewood is naturally oily, which is why it polishes to that deep red-brown without a finish sitting on top of it. It is stable at ordinary indoor humidity and it darkens under light, so one kept on a wall will be noticeably richer in two years than one kept in a drawer. Extremes are its enemy. A garage that swings from freezing to ninety degrees will eventually open a hairline gap where the wood meets the bolster.
Why the bolster is D2 as well
Matching the bolster to the blade steel is a finishing decision rather than a functional one, and it has a consequence. On knives with brass or nickel furniture you can ignore the metal at the front of the handle entirely. Here you cannot: the bolster wants the same oil and the same attention as the blade. Treat the whole front end as one surface.
Care: D2 is only semi-stainless and this piece has a lot of exposed area. Keep a thin film of oil on the blade and on the bolster, renew it whenever the knife has been handled, and do not leave fingerprints sitting on it overnight in a humid room. Sharpening wants a diamond plate, because D2’s chromium carbides are hard enough that soft natural stones just glaze over. The rosewood asks for nothing but a wipe. If it looks dry after several years, use a trace of paste wax rather than an oil that will stay tacky.
FAQs
Can I take this camping? You can carry it. You will reach for something else to cut with. Almost any single-edged fixed blade does camp work better, and a D2 tracker knife is the same steel in a shape built for the woods.
Is D2 harder to look after than Damascus? Different, not harder. Pattern-welded 1095 and 15N20 rusts faster under neglect. D2 resists better but is far more work to resharpen. Our steel comparison puts numbers to it.
Are both edges sharpened? Yes. That is what makes it a dagger rather than a spear-point knife, and it means there is no safe place to rest your thumb. Handle it with the respect you would give a straight razor.
Model: BMK-893
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