Home Forums Gear Knives and Blades Interesting old Randall Knife

A friend here in town, showed me this old Randall blade. He said his Dad bought it from Bo Randall in the sixties, at the shop on SOBT in Orlando. The knife is marked "Randall Made", and "Solingen". On the other side, it is marked "W Germany"
The receipt shows he paid $7 for it.
It was a kit knife, never finished. I had not seen one like it before.

Cool.
I think it may have appreciated a little since then, but it is one to hang on to.
jmho
Tim

I would think a Randall collector would drool all over that blade, can't imagine there are many out there. Would be a same to finish it given its historic value.

this is a Viet Nam era blade. With the knife being bought from Bo Randall in person, and with the bill of sale, it has provenance.
I'll look into it, and probably advise my buddy to keep it. Every kit knife I have seen, had the world "KIT" stamped on the blade. This one does not.

...nice old Soligen blade....could you please post a pic of the other side ?

here is how the other side is marked. That is the only mark on the right side.

Were these blades made by Soligen for Randall? Machine ground blades?

The Randall Made stamp is what counts.

"Were these blades made by Soligen for Randall?"
I guess Bo didn't know the off shore move was supposed to go west to the pacific rim where many others have turned (and died).

Sam-- Is any of the rest of the kit with the blade?
Is the blade heat treated, but the tang soft?
Tim

Mannlichter.....

There is a 'Kit' knife with a blade just like your's on EBay right now.... http://www.ebay.com/itm/161001469702

Tim, I'll have to ask Mark, my friend that owns the blade, about the rest of the kit, if any. I don't know about the HT at all.

I am just curious. The tang has no holes, so probably soft.
I wondered about a hilt, handle material, sheath, and hardware included in the "kit".
In the pic, it looks like it could have been machine ground and buffed to me. It wasn't tumbled in a medium or the tang would show it too. But with no holes in the tang, fixturing the blades to grind or heat treat would not work so well.
Interesting item.
In the day, a lot of blades were made and stamped Sheffield, Soligen, etc for knife assemblers, or were finished for them.
jmho
Tim