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.