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#67345 - 10/03/09 03:47 PM Re: "We ran out of WHAT again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" ***** [Re: crutchtip]
BoBlade Offline
Knife Enthusiast

Registered: 09/13/05
Posts: 1673
Loc: Kalifornia
Quote:

I will restate that the switch in blade grinds was not an immediate occurrence with some older blades still showing up, and some holdover of older style grinds from guys making the change. This is happening even though we see knives from 1963 with the newer style grind.




Agreed, Joe. My comment was a generalized statement about choil grinds.

Quote:


What makes this interesting is the sheath has the RMK logo and horizontal at that! This has always been attributed to the earliest of Johnson's sheaths .




Yeah, but that don't make it so

Quote:


The second link is most definitely a Heiser, even if you couldn’t see the back of the sheath. It is obviously different than the 4-6 or the 1-7 “Johnson” sheaths.




The reason it's so different is that the Heiser "look" changed over the years: The back went from smooth and hard to cornrow to suede looking. The horizontal keeper transitioned to diagonal. The stone pocket flap went from wide to narrow. That 2nd link 2-7 is probably no later than about 1955.

I have provenance that this one was bought in early '54:




IMO this one is late 50's / early 60's and similar to the sample that Bo gave to Maurice as a pattern.




As I mentioned before, Johnson became extremely good at duplicating Heiser sheaths in a relatively short period of time. In the early 60's you had Johnson sheaths looking like Heisers and Heisers looking like Johnsons. And I'll say this again: No one I know of can identify for certain those sheaths that appear to be from the late 50's and very early 60's that are not marked Heiser.

Since you have nothing else to do, I'm tasking you with answering your own questions: When did Bo order the RMK sheath stamp? Who was it sent to and when? Directly to the shop? To Johnson? Heiser? Did he initially order more than one? Please don't dally: Curious people want to know!
_________________________
Ron Mathews
RKS No. 4223


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#67346 - 10/03/09 06:22 PM Re: "We ran out of WHAT again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" [Re: BoBlade]
crutchtip Offline
Knife Enthusiast

Registered: 11/16/05
Posts: 2849
Horizontal RMK logo = early Johnson sheath. A beautiful equation.

Heiser may have changed a bit with the stone pouch flap and such, but still recognizable as a Heiser nonetheless. There is no dispute there, but the one's that seem to be in question, well, there is a question. There aren't many unmarked sheaths from the period you mention, not enough to make a claim as to who made them. I know some are for sure not Heiser and not Johnson. We are talking 1959-1960. Then there are one or two I have seen that I could make a case they might be real early Johnson samples. Stockman is out as from what I have seen, his sheaths are readily recognizable.

I will go back to the fact the Johnson was in the area in the late 50's after his retirement as a police officer. Perhaps one day there may be some light shed on this matter, but until that time, RMK marked sheaths will remain Johnson sheaths for my purposes.

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#67347 - 10/03/09 07:31 PM Re: "We ran out of WHAT again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" [Re: crutchtip]
BoBlade Offline
Knife Enthusiast

Registered: 09/13/05
Posts: 1673
Loc: Kalifornia
It's actually more entertaining to disagree, Joe.

Take care,

PS: I'm right and your wrong!
_________________________
Ron Mathews
RKS No. 4223


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