Cool looking "ugly" Randall, Jack!

A serious tool for sure.
Tony

Thanks Tony, the old vet has seen some travel.. I like it, and I like the home-made dye touch. Now to find or create a period stone to replace the replacement stone.

I'd never noticed before, but it seems like the older Solingens had a slimmer profile near the ricosso than the Orlando blades, and perhaps later Solingens ... but then again I haven't handled very many of them. This blade is a hair over 1" at the guard while my Orlando model-14 blades are approximatly 1.125" with maybe some slight variation.

Captain, I concede the wood. I spent an hour or so brousing the net looking at various woods for handles. Walnut looks closest even though this grain is pretty swirly and large-scale. I "coulda-shoulda" known better than to opine on things I don't know better... such as "wooda."

Thanks for the help, Regards.

Interesting--your comment made me go and compare knives. I have no Solingen 14's, but I do have a Solingen 15 that I bought from Randall in the 1960's. I measured the width of it and of my other 15s, and all are just a hair over one inch.
(By the way, I measured my 14s bought from the 1960's to a couple years ago, and all measure a hair over 1-1/4 inch.)

Thanks Steve, this could be an interesting topic if a pattern could be developed.

I measured the blades immediately next to the guard, where they were narrowed by the choil. Both of my Orlando carbon-blade 14s, one '69-70, one teethed 1973 were right at 1 1/8" give or take a hair. But both blades were about 1 1/4" just beyond the cutout choil. Did you measure your blades at the guard?

The Solingen 14, assume '67-'68 (though blade could have been forged earlier), measured 1"+ at the guard, and 1 3/16 immediately after the end of the choil. Given the handfinished nature of these blades some variation is expected. But I would think that 1/8th inch is outside of normal variation.

Focusing on Viet era model 14s, what I wish is that we had fairly exact measurements right at the guard for a number of Orlando blades and as many solingen blades as we could get.

I have a back-of-the-brain impression that earlier Solingens may have had a slimmer blade than the time-equivilent Orlando carbons... but I wonder if that was true across the span of time that Solingen 14s were made, or if the Solingen blades got "wider" with time.

For that matter, I also wonder if the Orlando blade got wider (at the guard) over time... These questions need help and data from guys with serious numbers in their collections, with a decent idea of date of provenence.

Perhaps this would make a good separate topic. Thanks for your comments and input.

OOPS!
I measured within a hair of 1-1/8, NOT 1-1/4. My error in typing. SORRY!

Here are a couple of Mod. 4's One has 7in blade,7spacers and Johnson rough back sheath. The other has 5in blade,7spacers,pinned handle and H.H.Heiser sheath. I may go to e-bay with both of these, haven't made up my mind yet. Both have names on the blades.

Hi Sidney,

Nice knives! The 7" is a Model 3 (Hump coming off the hilt). 3-7 and 4-7 sheaths were interchangable as far as the shop was concerned in that era. Your sheath is a very early Johnson by virtue of the logo being horizontal.

Best,

Sidney,
GREAT OLD RANDALLS! Thanks for posting.
Tony

This old Randalls is Respect :-)

Hi, I'm new to the forum and thought I'd throw a couple of my knives on here for comments. I bought them last year from an aquaintance who said he bought them new in 1969. Since I knew the white Norton stones came out around then, I knew they were vintage knives. I bought them as an investment and plan to hang on to them for a while at least. One of the knives is an unsharpened, unused Model 12-8 with roughback sheath. The other is a Model 2-7 that has been sharpened, with the roughback sheath. Both knives were stored in their sheaths, but are still in pretty nice conditon. So based on the stones, sheaths and five spacer pattern, does it look to you guys like these knives are roughly from around 1969 or soon after? Also does anybody have any idea what kind of wood the handles are? Maybe mahogany?
Thanks for any comments!