I am para-phrasing from Bob's book but on the first "2" sub-orbital flights, Alan Shepard on May 5,1961 and Gus Grissom's on July 21,1961, the Randall Astros were stowed in the hatch of the space capsule. Both men carried NASA knives. verses their personal ones.
Beginning with John Glenn's orbital flight (Feb. 20, 1962) and from that point thereafter the knives were housed in a special sheathed compartment on Mercury's survival kit.
Scott Carpenter's "3" orbit flight also resulted in his knife being lost and it "was" his personal knife. That flight was on May 24,1962. It is not clear from his letter & request for a replacement knife to Bo if the knife was lost at splashdown or sometime afterward. The knife was lost by the time the capsule was returned to the mainland.
I only hope that one of our more computer literate forum members could do a search and post a photo of the Mercury survival kit. You can clearly see the "Astro" attached to that kit. Hope this helps.
Best, Capt. Chris

Capt, read the rest of the paragraph and you will see what happened to Shepards NASA knife. Got your rocket ready? oldguy

Oldguy I love cheese. So if you say so I will get the crackers. I trust you.

I cannot find any recollection of what happened to his first knife. I read of some speculation of it being heisted by some one?? Of course: I'm on Codeine and not responsible for my actions...or missing a sentence here and there. (It would be a great opportunity for me to cuss somebody out...I could claim "Dental Cruelty"!!). Sorry: That's the best I can come up with tonight.
Best, Capt. Chris

This is an educated guess on my part, but it is based on the following personal experience:

1. I know several astronauts, including a Mercury astronaut, and I have had a long talk with this gentleman about Randall knives and the relationship between the Mercury astronauts and RMK. At the time of this discussion, he had lost touch with RMK and I put him back in touch with Gary Randall.

2. I was not part of the 1999 expedition that recovered the Liberty Bell 7, but I was on the 2001 follow up expedition to the same area with Curt Newport, the leader of that expedition. We discovered the world's deepest wooden shipwreck, a slave ship lost in 1810. I made a deep submersible dive to this wreck and recovered several objects, including a man's boot and other leather objects, which were remarkably well preserved.

3. I discussed the recovery of Grissom's knife with Newport, and the recovery is also discussed in his book "Lost Spacecraft," which I own. The knife was recovered in the muck in the bottom of the space capsule. There was no leather sheath.

4. As Newport described in his book, ownership of the spacecraft (and any contents purchased or provided by NASA) remained with the U.S. Government, specifically NASA, and the Smithsonian had the right of first refusal to acquire any items recovered. However, NASA transferred title to the capsule and its contents to the Discovery Channel Network before the recovery, the Smithsonian signed off on this transfer, and Discovery donated the capsule to the Kansas Cosmosphere, where restoration of the items recovered subsequently took place and the artifacts were displayed before going on tour to various museums around the country.

5. Given the history of the Liberty Bell 7 artifacts after their recovery and the close personal relationship the Mercury astronauts enjoyed with the Randall family, my best guess is that the knife on display in Indiana is not the knife flown on Liberty Bell 7, but is another personal knife that Grissom obtained from RMK. If it is the LB7 knife, the sheath was provided with the knife and was not flown. However, I doubt that this is the LB7 knife.

Interesting info thank you for speaking up. The suggestion that this is not the knife on the Liberty Bell makes a lot of sense but is a bit disconcerting if they do claim it to be the real deal.
Oldguy I didn't know Shepard lost his knife....that is news to me. Fly me to the moon....I'll eat the cheese.
Take care of yourself.
Over.

Not to get off the Mercury knife subject, but in keeping with the original conetnt of this thread: Here's a couple of pics I shot at the NKCS museum in Seveirville, Tn. (Inside / upstairs the Smokey Mountain Knifeworks).
Hope ya'll likt 'em, Capt. Chris
PS: The last couple of shots were taken the same day (earlier) at the "Parker" show. This was in 2010.

Here's a pic from the Randall Shop showing the survival kit:

After taking a closer look at the photo in the original post, it is clear that this is not the knife that flew on Liberty Bell 7. Although the LB7 knife was remarkably well preserved after spending 37 years at the bottom of the ocean, 16,000 feet deep, it was still in pretty rough shape when it was recovered. It required a lot of restoration, and it had a lot of pitting all over. The knife in Indiana shows no signs of either the pitting or having been restored.

As an aside, the Grissom family was NOT happy with the recovery of LB7. They did not want the capsule's recovery to rekindle the old argument about whether Grissom panicked and fired the hatch prematurely, and consequently damage his memory and reputation as an astronaut lost in the service of his country. Personally, I don't believe this has happened. If anything, the capsule's recovery rekindled the public's memory of these heroic astronauts and the sacrifices they made for their country.

David I agree the knife looks great. I don't know if it was sent to the shop and restored....have no clue. As you said it may not be the original. I certainly don't know. But I do agree with you on the gut factor of the men involved with the Mercury program. Grissom regardless of how the hatch came off prematurely....whether he blew it or accidentally blew it, or it blew by itself, it doesn't make a hill of beans to me. He had guts. He was a courageous man. I believe it was Shepard who said when asked what he was thinking prior to liftoff..."this thing was built by the low bidder." that sums it up. They were all courageous men who stepped forward at a time when our country really needed them. When we needed men with...."The Right Stuff". They all had it.