Thanks... check the name of that Lt.

He was KIA on 20 June 1944 during 3/508 PIR (82nd Abn) attack on the town of Pretot. He commanded "chalk 18" pathfinder stick during D-Day jump. Word that he had twin sons born 2 days after D-Day reached his battalion 6 hrs after he was KIA. Ironic... iconic. Quite a few pictures and his story in general are on the net various places. Regards...

This is great stuff. I have a Randall and a Rolex. But I certainly wasn't special forces. So what is the deal with the ring? Thanks for all these photo's and stories.

Twin-bro just sent me a msg. I can't repeat Afghan portion, but here are a couple of story lines:

"-- Second, check out the "sheen" on the back side of my sheath. Any knife, just like a carpet, which has actually been worn in the field will have that sheen."

"-- Third, a story from a mission 30 km north of Ban Don on the Dar Lac Plateau...high and flat and lightly wooded, you walked it in a day. A 'yard asked if he could borrow my Randall. I gave it to him. He cut a rope and looked at me as if he couldn't believe how easy it was.

"Next thing I knew he was hacking up bamboo on a stone for some reason, leaving dents in the edge. I was horrified. We were setting up an ambush on a high speed trail, rain was misting down, and here was my Randall with dents!

"He saw my expression, took the knife and hand ground it on a stone..just an ordinary stone, till the dents were gone...edge was gone too..but who cared in the end after the ambush and firefight that night which brought a spooky over us; claymores going off, 60mm mortars, and the burp and long red fingers of the spooky (puff the magic dragon) reaching down like the hand of god."

Gene Williams, 23 Aug 2010

Thanks for the photos and stories Jack. This is Randall history. And thank you for your service.

No new pictures.. yet. But with the internet I checked on something. We were all amatuer metalurgists 40 years ago and the composition of the steel in model 14 and the affinity to rust, was hotly debated. Here is one source and what I found out... I'll be darned.. all that years ago had a modicum of truth..

http://ajh-knives.com/metals.html

"O-1 and O-2 are the most widely used general purpose oil hardening tool and die steels. They are used where it is desirable to maintain minimum distortion and dimensional change, and at the same time have a good combination of hardness and toughness. Machining characteristics of these grades are very good. O-1 steel is very popoular with forgers as it is easy to work with, and relatively cheap to buy. It takes and holds an edge superbly, and is very tough, but rusts easily. Used by Randall Knives."
Typical Analysis

O-1 Carbon 0.90 Manganese 1.20 Chromium 0.50 Tungsten 0.50 Vanadium 0.20

The question about kit model 14s jogged a memory. I found this sold on e-bay a few years ago. Strange...




"You are bidding on an uncommon kit knife. Randall Models 14 and 15 (Solingen blades only) were available in kit form was Models 16, 17, and 18 were not. Kit knives could be purchased in the 1960s and 1970s but starting in early 1971 kit blades no longer carried the Randall trademark."

See:

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://pmimages.worthpoint.com/thumbnails2/1/0907/03/1_416b7e8bcd0cc9b2e872593ba1dcee37.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/vietnam-era-randall-model-14-kit-knife&usg=__XAOwFKPIhaH_yxaeVdgvMV1vHcI=&h=150&w=150&sz=5&hl=en&start=39&zoom=0&itbs=1&tbnid=K9LelQsYBwX4WM:&tbnh=96&tbnw=96&prev=/images%3Fq%3DRandall%2Bmodel%2B14%26start%3D20%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26gbv%3D2%26ndsp%3D20%26tbs%3Disch:1

I borrowed a lot of these pictures from the on-line posting of John Gibson’s collection:

http://www.militaryfightingknives.com/collection.html

But I have a question…. Why is there such a variance in the number of teeth in the saw-tooth model 14s?
They range from 16 teeth to 30 something.

18 teeth

19 teeth

19 teeth

26 teeth

30+ teeth

17 teeth

Tooth size and count varied on the amount of wear on the grinding wheel and the individual doing the grinding.

Hsndmade......

Mitchell is partially correct. At one time, you could order (specify might be more accurate) fine teeth, resulting in a higher number per inch. It seems you find finer teeth predominately in earlier pieces.

As I understand it, the same fella has been grinding teeth now for approximately 35 years or so.

Yes, I heard he was almost an expert at it by now. 5 more years and he will be able to do it in his sleep.

PS please disregard all post made by me today. I haven't taken my meds yet. Oh yea I did take them must not of kicked in yet. Shit I'm going back to the 7th floor at the VA. Lock down crazy people ward.