Re. thong hole placement - fellow KTF Randall enthusiast Tom Hellmich, aka 'TAH' made an observation on thong hole placement some years back; working from memory here, I did some additional research and came to the conclusion that for the majority of standard Randall knife models with thong holes, prior to 1966 most holes were up high on the handles, and low thereafter...

Hole placement location was, of course, initially at the discretion of the individual craftsman finishing the knife, later standardized to the lowered position by sometime in the mid 1960's. As an example, the thong hole placement on our brown Micarta 'Ward Gay Special', documented as having been purchased at Northern Commercial of Juneau, Alaska in mid 1964, is centered...go figure