Some of this is a repeat of stuff on other threads, but given the skimpy nature of any user reviews of Randalls, especially stainless ones, i am posting this for other searchers on the net to perhaps find. I have actually only found one mention on this forum buried in some other thread (whose results tallied exactly with mine), and a locked thread on another site from 2009 where i shamelessly lifted a few photos, since it seemed impossible to ask politely.

The first series of photos are from that thread, where the gent, a serious collector, tried to break one of his Randalls only to see for himself, and more importantly, show younger knife fans, that a Randall wasn't just a wall-hangar as most young people assume, and you didn't have to buy the latest/greatest to get a knife that flatout performed...after his "test", all he did was rinse the blade....don't try this, and if you do, don't cry if you break your knife....he DID have to resharpen the knife and work out some damage.





The second series is just me using my knife...already, i have posted of taking the new knife (an SP#1) and working over the edge of a 4x4 post, severing a 2x4, etc, have also cut rope, chopped up heavy cardboard, other things already forgotten, and done some brush clearing, the below thumbnails about 1/5th of actual work done with the knife that afternoon.



After all of this, all i have done to maintain the blade has been to strop the edge on some cardboard, mainly to make myself feel good....the blade shows absolutely no sign of edge deterioration visually, still shaves hair off my arm, and can be dragged across an acutely angled thumbnail and biting deep with no slippage for entire length of blade. I have owned ABS Master-rated smith blades which might have done this, but few others. In the handforged world, a Randall has been and is a low-end-of-medium-price knife. I am astounded, and even more so by this performance with 440B/C range steel. I simply was not expecting this good a knife....from hoping it was OK, i have found it to be one of the best, at least in common tasks a knife of this type would be expected to perform....Pleased would be an understatement.

Nice review. I bought the few that I have to be users. Expensive users, at least for me. But I must admit, I use them quite gently. After reading this and other accounts, I guess there is no more excuse not to use them as I would any other blade I own.

Thank you alf

Jerry, i have no intention of doing anything remotely like a "test" where i abuse a knife until it needs work....like you, i simply wanted a nice knife to use, and when i got it, i was not sure it was up to it, to be honest, especially stainless...

that was why i immediately went out and did the 4x4 and 2x4 check, as if the edge was going to chip, i wanted to know right away rather than find out after i got attached to it....all i have done since then is just use it for a combat/fighting/UTILITY knife as designed....my days of foxhole tree root hacking and mine probing long gone, i'm going to even avoid chopping stuff too close to ground level where splattered dirt and sand stick to stuff, and i'll for sure give fence wire wide birth, and make sure any wood doesn't have an old nail hiding in it....but it surely is up to it....

it is not a cheap knife, but try to pick up a name ABS master smith forged knife for under $700 of this size.....as Randall says in their brochure/catalog "Some people have been kind enough to say that Randall Made knives are the world's finest. We don't make that claim. All we say is that every knife we produce is the best possible knife we can make, considering time and cost."....it seems they give you every bit of that, and more.....

I cannot speak for any save this stainless blade, but it is hard and it isn't excessively brittle....many people compare stainless and non-stainless and give the nod to non-stainless for edge holding and ease of sharpening, as well as a keener edge, and shock resistance...edge holding is relative to the task, as is keen...i can think of many uses where a harder and more abrasion resistant steel such as stainless would hold an edge better with use, not to mention non-stainless edges degrading with no use due to oxidation.....but i surely am pleased with this one, and likely will be the rest of my life.