Museum

Is the museum open for viewing?
Thanks oldguy

I will be able to tell you on Monday.

Thanks

It is not. There are still a good batch of knives in one of the "old" museum rooms inside the shop but the "new" museum is still awaiting more of it's extremely labor-intensive work to be done. I asked Gary Randall about the museum last week. (Wanting information for the RKCC newsletter) Gary explained that, as long as the shop is 10 days behind on scheduling, he cannot...and "will" not divert the labor to work on the museum. Makes sense to me!
Hope this helps, Capt. Chris

Capt Chris,Thanks for the update. oldguy

For those (including me ) who haven't visited the museum, I found this video, which is better than nothing.

Thanks for that link, Tom.

That video brings back memories of when I went there in 1999. There is a part in the vid that shows a close up of a one piece skeleton handle knife with saw teeth. I remember that knife vividly. Ever since I saw that one, I have been on the lookout for one like it. Cool to see it again.

I still have the catalogue I picked up the day I went.

For those of you that have not been to the shop here are a few google shots and some of my photos from my last visit.

Abby,

I'm confused. In the Google photos, it appears that the shop is located in a somewhat rural setting, but at the beginning of the You Tube video that I posted, it appears that the shop in located on a commercial city street.

The Randall shop and Bo's home sit on what used to be a 165 acre orange grove in downtown Orlando. The property is currently between 80-85 acres. In this photo, which is fairly recent, you can see just how "off the road" the buildings are. Lake Ruth is just behind Bo & Ruth Randall's home, which will be (when completed) the future home of the Randall museum.
Hope this helps, Capt. Chris

Thanks Captain, but I'm still confused. What are we seeing at the beginning of this video?

Looking south on Highway 441. Taking a left onto the Randall property, going east approx. 1/4 mile. The driveway you see on the bottom photo at the bottom right of the picture is the driveway you are coming up. The shop is the first building you will come to in that lower photo. It will be on your right. In the picture above that you can see this drive coming from the left. Go past the shop, the driveway curves towards the museum. The drive then curves around past the museum and continues out to where you would then exit onto Holden Ave. If you do a view of Google Earth Highway 441 & Holden Ave. you might get an idea of the layout better.

Lets see if I can help with these shots. There is the public drive to the Randall Shop off of Orange Blossom Trail. Thirty years ago this was country, not so much now. Only about 7 miles from down town Orlando. Orange Blossom Trail is a very busy high way with with traffic counts above 50,000 cars per day. Look both ways before pulling out into that street. Hope this helps some.

Thanks Michael and Abby. Now I understand.

As Mike indicated, the last photo in Abby's post show the shop, when heading directly from West to East. When I say downtown Orlando...it didn't "used" to be...but Orlando extends for miles and miles in all directions from the Randall shop nowadays.
Also: If you're visiting the shop from now on there is "no" legal access to this long driveway, when traveling south on #441 (Orange Blossom Trail). The highway dept. has screwed that up...BIG TIME!! You have to:
A) Turn 30 yards "short" and the entrance and 45 degree yourself across 4 lanes of oncoming traffic!

B) Drive 1/4 mile past the entrance, figure out some non-suicidal way of u-turning and make a right-hand turn into the drive.

C) Turn west off of OBT at the traffic light at Holden and drive east...You can then turn right (south) into Randall's property via Bo's old private drive.

Now....Ya'll are "really" confused!
Glad I could help, Capt. Chris

Two more shots to help you see the light. Captain loved the A B C's of driving in Orlando.

By the Way a question on Photo file size. Has the file size been lowered from 500k back down to 100k. I ran in to trouble with file size during my photo up loads. May be I missed the memo on this change.

Morris,
I have never known the size to be 500Kb...Rather more like 360kb...or so.
Also: The aerial photo of OBT is quite antiquated. There is absolutely "NO" double turn lane in the center anymore. Totally partitioned except for a few select cutouts!
Good luck ya'll! Capt. Chris