I saw in another post that the dealers have been limited in the amount of bowies per order as part of trying to reduce the wait and shipping time. Understandable, considering it must take a long time to build these big ones. But that begs the question, how long, from start to finish, does it take to make a 12-11 Smithsonian Bowie? I can understand if for business pruposes this question can't be answered and if this is the wrong thread for this post, please feel free to move it. Thanks for all information that anyone may e able to provide.

Sorry if I'm being a straight-shooter here, but even if that's the case (and I haven't heard that), what difference does it make to you? You're not a dealer, right? I've been ordering 12s with no problems.

Steve,
My very...very first order was shot down by Bo and Gary. At the time I was allowed 12 knives per month (or maybe it was 10...long time ago). I ordered "all" Model #12's and both #13's. I "tricked" them out (for the times) with stag handles, lugged hilts and brass butt caps. I was told that the order was too hard to make and that I needed to space my Bowie orders out over several month's worth of orders...and that was in the early 80's! It has always slowed production down when too many Model #12's or #13's get ordered.
Good question with regards to actually how much time is spent on one Bowie. I suppose, like any other Randall model it is going to be predicated on the options as well as the particular knife model.
Bo once told me the Model #13-12" was the most difficult Randall knife to make. I don't know if that still holds true, but everything on it has to be done..."TWICE"!!
Best, Capt. Chris
PS: Maybe "DW" can give us a guesstimate as to the actual time per Bowie. I'll see if I can't find out...CCS
PPS: Here's one I had made up a few years ago...in "OOSIC" handle!...CCS

DW has tried on many occasion to give the forum participants an idea of how long it takes to build a RMK. A while back Scott posted a rather humorous piece on the subject but I could not seem to find it. The fact is: There are so many individual steps to making any RMK and with required drying/curing times as well as going through many different hands and with some processes done in batches it is probably not only not practical but may not be realistic to state production time for any given model. An educated estimate is more than likely the best anyone could do.. I have been involved in process analysis time studies many time over the years and it is easier said than done.

Jeff, It really doesn't make any difference to me. The questions was asked out of curiosity more than anything else. I was admiring my 2 Smithsonians and began wondering how long it takes to make such a great, large knife. Also, I had read in a post that the orders for the bowies was limited so I asked my question.

Thanks for the info Cap. I'll be contacting you when I order my next Smithsonian. Beautiful looking knife.

Thanks for your input Tom. Given the options and steps in the process it's possible the question can't be answered.

Tom,

Could this have been the post(s) you were referring to:
QUOTE

Sam;
Since you aren't going to let this slide on either forum, I'll try to explain why it would be IMPOSSIBLE to give you the names of who EXACTLY worked on your particular knives...I'm going to use numbers to represent the current RMK employees by order of seniority...

RMK produces somewhere between 150-170 knives a week, and this is kind of how they progress along...(sure hope I don't time out on this post--

#'s 7 and 14 pull the steel from the blade bins and cut to length needed for this particular batch to be produced, then...
3&8 then forges,
14 & 18 then rough shape,
14, 18 & 8, and sometimes #3 forge grind,
#8 heat treats and stamps,
8 and 3 QC before turning in to the bade bins, (no comment here #9),
#8 pulls the weeks bladelist from said bins, 150 plus ASSORTED blades and final shapes,
8,12,4 and sometimes #2 grinds to front room finish,
12 and 4 stone them to smooth the grind lines,
16 & 17 first hone,
#3 sands to smooth finish establish front room lines,
4,9,12, and newbie 17 first polish,
16 sands and polishes backs and cutouts,
16 then pulls and sands hilts and puts them on the correct (mostly) knives,
#2 fits for soldering,
12 & 17 clean them for soldering,
#4 solders hilts and lugs to blades,
2,4, 17 and 12 layout weeks knives for handle markings,
17 drills handles,
15 and 4 ream handles,
2 fits handles,
4 joins 2 for final fitting of buttcaps,
cont....


Edited by Dirty_Water (06/08/09 10:54 PM)
_________________________
Scott
RKS #014

HE IS RISEN!, HE IS RISEN INDEED!




#63326 - 06/08/09 10:53 PM Re: Randall shop history [Re: Dirty_Water]
Dirty_Water
Knife Enthusiast

Registered: 09/13/05
Posts: 863
Loc: central fl. 12, 15 16 and 17 and sometimes 13 put handles together, (this use to be a 2 man job...never mind...
4 & 13 shape handles,
2 final shapes handles,
16 & 17 file handles,
9 & 15, and later 4 sand hilts and handles 3 times to finer grits,
2 lays out weeks worth of knives again,
13 & 15 2nd hones these knives,
(meanwhile 16, 17 are 1st honing next batch again, usually there are 2 batches running each week at the same time)
4 & 9 second polish and re-2nd hone blades,
3 final polishes and final hones blades,
13 adds fg, ci, and wt to finished handles,
13 & 15 final polish handles and blades to turn into office,
5 & 6 hone, sheath, polish (blades and handles) and FINAL hone,
5 wraps and ships knives to you...

Meanwhile; #1, 10 & 11 are doing almost the same routine in the 14 room, (watch it #9),

not forgetting:
making of the stock (hilts, fibers, buttcaps, etc...etc...)
marking steel,
forging tangs,
final shaping of bowie blades,
grinding the tangs,
the initial layout of the knives,
countersinking the buttcaps,
grinding off of said nuts,
marking for fg, ci and wt's,

and of course bringing up the weeks screw ups because of soooo many steps...

Now, you see why it would be IMPOSSIBLE to tell you EXACTLY who worked on YOUR knife?!?--

whew...DW...whew
_________________________
Scott
RKS #014

HE IS RISEN!, HE IS RISEN INDEED!

End of quote

Michael Mason
RKS#4382

Thanks for an excellent post by the Captain. Also a thank you to Mike.

Regards,

Rhett

You're welcome, Rhett. (It's good to see "Big Brother" is watchin'...) Best to Janie. I still think she deserves an award.

Steve: Anytime. I'd be glad to help you get a "big boy" coming. I do not order a huge amount of Bowies and the majority of them are #12-8 and #12-9's. I probably receive less than 10 Model #12 "Heavy's" per year. I am positive that I do several things to upset them down at the Randall shop..."BUT"...(There's that word again) ordering too many huge Randall Bowies ain't one of them.

Best, Capt. Chris