As for variations on a theme, Barbie dress-up playtime, by Mattel!

Alternative scales, materials, special runs and styles of blades, hardware, flipper yes/no, even to knives ground, finished, and tuned, still, by Rick.

The astute observer might notice the 3.5" XM-18 with carbon fiber has a blade as thick as the XM-24 above.

Obvious flags for varieties being a stenciled F on flipper for a Fatty, S for a Skinny. Handmade easy to spot as they are conventionally hollowground, even if finished differently such as satin/beadblast. Newer also stenciled with Rick's signature, my spearpoint predates lased markings, at all.

As with anything, there is period correct, and not period correct. Of all the knives, the orange would look best with blue hardware (bronze, brass, copper also available). But, alternative hardware was not offered at the time this non-marked blade was ground. So, rather than give some viewer thoughts of, "I wonder what else is messed with...", it stays bone stock, unscratched, the only non-user of the lot, being worth 3-4 times value of stock versions.











Very stout, highly functional, wonderfully precise, every one of them.