Can anyone give me a good guess as to the age of this knife. It is a Andy Thornal Special.The spacers seem to be a gold color with brass mixed in. The blade is stamped A.T.-S. # 25. The stone is white but the marking are worn off. The blade is 0-1 tool steel. The stag fits in my left hand like is was made for it. The handle is a quite large piece of stag. Thanks for any info.

Stone and sheath say early 70's ...... but the brass and black spacers throw me a little. Cool knife.

I recently acquired this 12-8, the only non-model 14 I own. I am very taken with it. My best guess at age is approximately 1971 - which I guess qualifies it as "this old Randall" - but I would appreciate other, expert, opinions and reasoning. Though I'm an engineer familier with metals, I'm not knowledgable about wood so any opinons about the handle would also be appreciated.

Second question is about the odd pattern on the sheath. This looks a little as if mold had attacked the sheath and it was cleaned, yet the knife and sheath and stone are pretty much in unused condition. I really kinda like the "camouflage" look, just wonder if anyone knows what could be the source of the pattern. Thanks

Very nice 12-8.
Dont know about the age.The looks much like olive wood but it could be ironwood burl.

I think the handle is walnut and I think the sheath is, like many natural leather skins, showing some type of condition that was prominent prior to tanning. Much the same as barbed wire marks that will not show until after the natural leather is tanned (or dipped). If it were a case of mold from "after" the fact that....then how come the hone pocket and keeper are not showing any of the same pattern? The front piece of the main sheath appears to be the only one affected. After posting, I did go back and notice some of the same pattern on the lower half of the hone pocket. Nice package at any rate.
Best, Capt. Chris

Nice knife Jack.

Thanks for the nice comments.

Re: Handle material - for those interested, there is a model 1-7 on E-bay with what appears to be similar handle material.



The knife handle ID on E-bay concurs with an independent opinion from another knowledgable source, that the handle of my 12-8 is possibly made of maple burl.

Apparently maple burl was available in two catalogs in the early 70-71-72 period. The apparently newer model 1 on E-bay (at least the sheath is 1995+ or so) indicates it was availabe at other times or was specially supplied. D***! that is beautiful wood! I'm surprised not seeing more of it in posted pictures.

I acquired this Solingen 14 recently. This is not a “pretty knife,” and I’m sure everyone has seen many examples. But the sheath is interesting … dyed black … apparently field-dyed, not factory. You can see brown leather in the crevasses and inside the stone pocket, etc. These dye-jobs were fairly common in Vietnam to combat mold.

It looks like it provided someone a lot of hard service. Great find.

Jack,
I have lots of maple burl. It is one of my "go to" choices, when it comes to building a Randall knife. Your Bowie doesn't seem to have all of the characteristics of a maple. There are no burls, for one thing. In the 70's the Randall shop had a decent amount of walnut, figured just like your Bowie. Although it certainly could be something else, I still believe it is exhibition-grade walnut. Whatever the outcome, it's a nice piece.
Best, Capt. Chris