You have some seriously cool knives, Warren.

And that's a great keepsake in your newsletter.

Warren,

Great tribute and knives!

Tom Flynn

Found this Randall fixed blade at a yard sale for twenty bucks. At the time of purchase, neither me or the seller knew the value of Randall knives. After the purchase, i googled Randall knives. The best i can tell is its a Fireman Special. I never seen any other Randalls in person, so for all i know its a phony. I contacted Randall knives company in Florida and inquired about having an appraisal to confirm if the knife is the real deal or not but i was quoted a ridiculous amount. Until i find a local gun & knife show to take it to, the knife will remain in my tackle box. IMHO there's nothing very special about this knife but it does fine cutting worms...

Looks like a fireman to me.

Welcome to the forum,
Rob is right.You need to find the person you bought it from and buy him or her a cold drink of their choice.Plain Fireman comes with Black Micarta and high ride sheath.Catalog price $430.00

Now Billy, I was about to double his money and throw in a worm cutter as well.

Welcome to the Forum. Nice Fireman. And yes, it's legit.

Welcome. With regard to knife authentication, the Randall folks decided a number of years ago not to officially authenticate knives. I'm not sure of the reasons but I expect that there were many good ones -- like spending their time on what they do best, making knives. Anyway, there is an individual that has been "approved" by Randall to authenticate knives and the price he charges is entirely up to him and Randall gets no part of it. Based on what I understand to be the current charge, I believe it is quite reasonable for what you get in return but probably is higher than what you would want to pay to authenticate a regular, current production knife. If you happened to be in Orlando to see the Mouse or something, however, and stopped by the Randall shop, I am 99.9% sure that when you showed them that knife they would "unofficially" tell you that it is indeed a shop-made Fireman's Special. Congrats on the super deal you got and for sharing the story.

Actually, the Nickel Silver Hilt adds $30 and the shop will add shipping cost, so the bargain even looks more attractive.
And, the current wait from the Shop is about 5 years if you order today.

If you think that Fireman does a fine job cutting worms (which actually surprises me, with that massive bevel it has) do take it to the next Knife/ Gun show near you and trade it for a #7-4 1/2 (Fisherman - Hunter) or #10-5 (and maybe some cash in-hand to boot).

Very lucky find indeed.

Gary

stbob,
That may, or may not be the best deal...depends if you now get the "bug"...then, it's going to cost you much more in the long run....BUT it will be fun!!!
Welcome aboard!!
:-)Rocky