Model #12, 6" Little Bear Bowie with Modified Handle
Some of you guys probably saw this knife on Ebay many months ago. I bid on the knife primarily because I liked the knife and was a bit intrigued with the modified butt even though I was fairly confident the modification was not done by the Randall Shop. At the time I purchased this knife I did not know all that much about Randall Knives and even though the Ebay seller did not insinuate that the modification was done by the shop, the description did not rule out that possibility either. At the same time I was confident the basic knife was genuine Randall and would maintain a reasonable value because of that. If I had been participating in this forum at the time of the auction as I do now I would have been all over this.
It is quickly apparent that the butt end of the knife is not standard. The most obvious feature is the gold coin affixed to the butt end. This is a 1999 Liberty Head Gold Piece. 1/10 oz. 22K Gold The modified butt plate starts with a brass spacer, a layer of pure silver then the gold piece. With current gold prices at $800+ per oz. The coin by itself would have a melt-down value of $80 or so.
Within a month or so after receiving the knife I took it to the Randall Shop for evaluation. Gary, Jason and Scott all handled this knife with Gary being the first to look at it. Gary immediately stated that the gold coin was not a shop modification and went on to confirm the blade to be a genuine with a butt end modification and possibly an entire re-handle job but not necessarily. He also verified that the material below the coin was in fact silver and not duralumin. The best guess was that the coin was attached with epoxy. What impressed me the most was that rather than criticizing the work they all complimented the quality of workmanship involving the modification with Gary even commenting that it was an attractive knife.
So now, this is my Novelty Randall Knife. On the positive side, it is an attractive Randall Knife and if the price of gold continues to rise it could add considerably to the value of the knife. Although I do not intend to sell the knife in the immediate future, if and when I do you can bet that it will be accurately described which is another reason I am posting it here for all to see. There will be no guess work the next time around. For curiosity sake I would love to know who did the modification so if anyone has an idea please come forward.
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