I have recently purchased a Model 12-8 Bear Bowie and I’m looking for more information to flesh out its design. History, reason behind the design etc. There is a link to my Facebook page with a picture of the knife in question.
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_f...100076073023593

welcome aboard!!
you can start here....the original

:-)Rocky

Hi,
That model Randall is discussed in detail on pages 212 to 215, in the book Randall Made Knives by Robert Gaddis.
There are additional excerpts throughout the book about the Big Bear 12/8.

From Randall Made Knives: The History of the Man and the Blades by Robert L. Gaddis.

Quote:

...The first order for this knife [Bear Bowie] was recorded in the journal on 6 February 1964, with nine more orders following during the next six months. This is quite impressive for one of the most expensive Randall models, especially when it wasn't even listed in the current catalog! These orders... appear to have been the direct result of one magazine article.... in the February 1964 issue of Argosy Magazine....

Of the four pages, two contained color photographs of 14 different Randall knives, while the remaining two pages were pretty well covered by four large black-and-white pictures.... One of the smaller pictures on the second page of color photos is of an unusual Bowie-type knife with a uniquely attractive shape to the blade. Sand's caption read: "A hefty college student ordered this rugged Bowie knife because he wanted to kill a bear with its 8-inch blade." All evidence indicates that this one color picture and short description led to a flurry of inquiries at Randall, the firm orders for expensive knives we spoke of, and also gave a name to this suddenly popular, previously unknown style of Randall knife -- the Bear Bowie. (pp. 212-213)

From the knife of the week thread here Model 12