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?....
Funny how Randall Knife Collecting and knife collecting in general brings out the hard core information that a few in the knife forum are aware of.
I have owned the Smith books for many years. They sit on the shelf mostly these days. In the Combat -Fighting Knives (1st edition) book (1987) by J.E. Smith,jr (page 38) is a picture of a custom weapon "Roman sword" 'designed' by US Special Forces "Steven Fishman" and made by Ralph Harris.
It is a basic knock-off of the "Randall Short Sword" made previously by the shop for a very few people but with a longer blade length.
The Smith books are more of a "collection" of knives built by makers over the years.
Tom Vaught