A little study of a 50's era 14, and a 60's era 14. The 60's knife is a full 3/8" or more longer from the hilt to the tip. The discrepancy in length I ASSUME is due to finishing of the blades. By memory, it seems some if not a majority of the 50's era seem to be slightly more "blunt" if you will. We know according to Gaddis that the finish on the early Solingen blades were not up to par to Bo and were refinshed in the shop. Could there have been a slight loss in length due to the refinishing? After I posted and looked at the photo, I shoulda turned the blades the other way and started at zero. Duh.

Here is a 60's era Solingen 15 plus two much more recent 15's. The 60's blade is a full 1/2" longer from the hilt to the tip than the shorter of the others. Also, the 60's blade is noticeably wider than the others (from rework by the Randall shop?) I guess there's more variation among knives than we all thought.

Steve -

I believe the rough Blades as received from Solingen were fairly consistent, from the 50's and the 60's runs, as they were machine made AFAIK. I can see slight variances, but I wouldn't think 3/8' to 1/2" would be the norm.

I think the wider blades were also a function of the time in the 60's.