Nice uppercut Warren. I'm looking forward to seeing how this slugfest plays out. Super knives guys.

Eric -- Do you know whether RMK made an 18 with a model 2 blade? That would really be an awesome knife.

Jim, I have no idea, but I figure the tangs on those blades must of had the occasional break. Eric

Eric, and others--

I bought one like this just before Pete died. Stainless, brass hilt, bowie clip.

Pete dug through records and found that they made some number (my records are on a hard drive that went bad a week ago--the techies may be able to pull out the data--I'm hoping).

It was fewer than the 25 number, I am remembering maybe a dozen more or less, and the ones he found were made for Jack Crider. I think Pete said in about 1987.

He and Bob Gaddis examined mine at the last Blade Show the the two of them attended.

Pete never mentioned anything about a "broken tang" as a reason to make such knives.

We also know that some were made with stainless hilts. I don't know how many (but I wouldn't speculate that this was because of a shortage of brass hilts).

I suspect that these fall into the general category of what some might call oddities, these being non-catalogue items that the shop had to time make whenever they wanted to experiement or a customer asked for something and RMK agreed to do it.

For things like this that were small in number, a devoted collector might think about "cornering the market," but would probably never chase all of them down.

Nice knife. I think the sheath looks fresher than mine.

Larry

Bo never threw anything away. Broken tang resulted in a knife like this. That has been written here on this forum before and maybe in the old RKS newsletter.

To all--

Is the broken tang explanation verified by the shop or one of the RMK authenticators?

If these JRB-sheathed Bowie-clip 18's all came from the same period, it would suggest either 1) somebody asked for them in that time frame, or 2) (going by the broken-tang explanation) they just happened to have a few broken-tang 14's on hand at that time.

I know that Pete did not volunteer it as an explanation in the two or three conversations we had about my knife, including when he and Bob Gaddis examined it.

So...this makes me wonder whether and how often the shop has a broken tang on a 14? And then--what do they do with such knives now?

On the other hand, I haven't bothered to ask, but I suspect you could ask RMK to put a Bowie clip on an 18--maybe they would still do it.

Larry

Larry, Thanks for the info. I really like the Model 18 handle, so any additional blade types is a bonus. Thanks again, Eric

I am not saying they never specifically made any 14/18's or 18/14's. I'm just saying that if they broke a tang they didn't waste it....they made one of these. I have no idea who said that or wrote that. It was said. I liked Pete. He was a very nice guy and was always great to be around when I visited the shop. However, and I know I will catch hell for this but Pete was not necessarily always on top of every issue at the shop....my opinion. A good example of that is a thread just posted here regarding "fat stag." I purchased a Mod. 8 at a Gun show in Jackson, MS many years ago now. The knife had an enormous stag handle. So much so that the knife sort of looked awkward. I showed the knife to several of my Randall collector buddies who saw nothing strange about the knife. Spacers and everything perfectly Randall. I sent the knife to Pete and he responded with an explanation that he thought the knife had been rehandled. Other than the size of the stag the knife was a typical Mod. 8. His explanation was that "we don't use stag that big." I disagree. I have seen since that time many knives with "fat stag." I'm not saying Pete is wrong about making these knives. If he said that I'm sure he knew what he was talking about. On the other hand he just didn't remember when explaining the 14/18's or 18/14's to include the broken tang deal.

Just bought a 18. What was your process on wrapping the handle? Looking to use para cord but open for suggestions.

Hey Hank's, good purchase, love mine, I wrapped mine with fishing line, then a bit of duct tape, then paracord.
The cool thing about paracord is you can change the colour of your knife easily. Hunter orange is good, do green and or black is fairly standard but so many options of 550 cord out now that the sky's the limit.
Others wrap theirs with bicycle tubes, or tennis wrap, but for me paracord works, is cheap, and of course is useful.
Enjoy and have fun, great knife.

The ones that were made in the 80's when I started at RMK had nothing to do with a broken tang other than the commemoratives...

If tangs were "broken" or chopped off too short, we did NOT use them at all...

Ronnie, U are sooooo correct about Pete, if he didn't know the answer... U got one anyways!!