Sweet 'All-Stainless' Barry! If ya ever want to, well, you know...
Anyhoo, as promised, more Model #18's - all with stainless blades, all unused & minty, all from right around 1972...
Why '72 you ask, and stories too?
The Mini #18 came from Joe Castello of Castello's Firearms & Sporting Goods in San Jose. We'd heard that Joe had taken in some Randall's; we went to visit and yes, he had just taken in some 65 Randall knives...he asked how many we wanted, and we said 'All of them please'
We cut him a few checks over the course of the next few weeks, and they were ours. In the process Joe mentioned that he used to run with the late Nate Posner of the San Francisco Gun Exchange fame, an early RMK dealer. Joe went on to say that in 1971, if a dealer bought three Randall fighting/combat knives for the troops overseas, RMK would give them a mini #18 as a way of saying thanks. He had, and they did - he received the knife in 1972.
Edna and I went back for the final pick-up with Edna' mini-collection in hand. Joe was keeping his mini #18 though...I went back just before Edna's birthday and tried again, offering $1xxx, then more. Finally Joe agreed that it would be a nice addition to Edna's mini collection...
I came back to pay for the knife the next day and Joe looked me in the eye and asked point blank "Sheldon, that knife is worth quite a bit more than you offered, isn't it?" I looked him over, then responded 'Yes Joe, yes it is'..."You just bought yourself a knife then" he said with a smile.
Turns out, he had put the knife in a display case earlier in the day, and a fellow had offered him $2500 for it. Joe had turned down the offer, saying the knife was already sold. His asking me about the value was simply his way of judging my character. We've since become good friends
So, there ya go, some cool knives, with a story to boot...
p.s. The Crutch-tip was a walk-in at the OKCA show a few years back - I was talking with Mike Silvey at his show table when this fellow that was thumbing thru Mike's 'Knives of the United States Military in Vietnam' book said "Hey, I've got a knife just like that at home." He went on to say that he had ordered the knife in late 1971, and received it in mid 1972.
Too nice to use, it had set in a sock drawer since. Mike ended up buying the knife, then sold it to us the next day with the admonishment that it was for our public display collection, and that he'd 'better not see it on eBay next week'...that was four years ago
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