this is the stuff i was living off of while running around with my hair on fire, rock climbing, fast roping onto suspected Noriega hideouts and whatnot...i have my old copy at home, and this is an ad-rife site, but hey, it's free and has lots of Randall stuff and photos of cool combat veteran knives of the author's and others...if you can't make out what is on the crossguard of the vet #15, it says "I'LL GET YOU"

http://www.scribd.com/doc/33861653/Survival-Fighting-Knives-Leroy-Thompson-1986-S

Interesting, especially the photos.

Very cool Lance.
Reminded me that I have that book sittin' on a shelf right next to me!
Tony

Tony, just thought i'd mention those books aren't all that common, and an even harder one to find is another survival knife book by a guy named Smith, published in the early 80's out of Statesboro, GA, lot of good Randall stuff there, too, and he loved his 18 and mini-18, but also showed great stuff on the 17 including a pic of all the original prototypes, and also many other folk's own efforts on the slotted tang including WWII and prior knives by several major cutlery names of the time.....

Not familiar with Smith's book. Do you have a copy?

Yes, and no, it is visiting other friends making rounds through the mail just now....and i am blanking on exact title, but it actually exists as Library of Congress listing shows, which is probably the only place most would ever know it existed at all....i will let you know when it returns...

Alf, the book you are referring to is;

Survival Knives and Survival by J.E Smith

I posses the second edition. Much better than the first edition. It's one of my most prized books. He speaks highly of the model 18 and 17. It is a hard book to find but well worth the cost. There was one on Ebay a few months ago.

Another, even better survival knife book is the Survival Knife Reference Guide by Douglas Berner. I had one of those years back. It was awesome and expensive. I sold my copy for $200.00 back in early 2000.

I will attempt to get some pictures up from the Smith book.

boy, this place IS weird....two obscure/too obscure books known only by one in 10,000,000 known by two posters here....three counting me....same here on second edition being better than first, and he also got feedback on knives from readers of first who let him know of problems with highly regarded and expensive customs...and wrote of them....who does that now?....

I love this place.

Yes, I agree, the Smith book, and Berner book for that matter, are truly unique. In the back of the Smith book, there is a testing protocol that he used for survival knives.

The impression that I got from the book, is that all knives he spoke highly of passed his testing. He even spoke of some that did not, like the early versions of Jack Crain's Life Support System knife.

He proclaimed Randall model 18's as exceptional working knives that are built to be used. (he was not wrong there)

I will try in the next day, to give a good write up of the test and pics of some of the book.

Going back about 10 years before, this book appeared in 1975, published by Phoenix Press, Arvada, CO. The editor/publisher, Robert K. Brown, who, of course, founded "Soldier of Fortune" magazine in the same year.

There are numerous photos in the softcover book of Randall military models by themselves, and also in the hands of participants, demonstrating knife fighting techniques.

The knife pictured on page 61 is described as the "Steele custom version of the Randall Model No. 1 fighting knife..."

Ordered from the Randall Shop: Model 1-6,SS,BM,NS2,ET1.

There also are dozens of photos of US servicemen in Vietnam photographed, wearing Randall, Buck, Gerber, "Ka_Bar", and others; many taken by, then, Major Robert K. Brown, USAR

Great source book for photographed Randalls used in service in Vietnam.