Matt,

Just a follow up per our PM – yes, it’s a real knife, albeit likely an altered one. I’ve spoken with both DW and the owner of the knife; and the owner, an RKS member and well known Florida based collector of RMK’s for over 25 years, has agreed to take it the Randall Shop for examination the next time he’s up that way...

The owner apologized to me for not expressly identifying the knife as being altered, as I do the members here for same – although all of us got a good laugh over the buzz generated by one fuzzy photo. The owner stated that he was a little surprised over the negative comments posted, being that unusual handled Randall knives were fairly common back in the mid to late 1980’s – as evidenced by the Crider collection knives listed in Rhett’s 1991 Green Catalog, for example...

Further, that he, Tom Clinton, Charlie Scannapieco, and others - actively sought out these types of unusual knives, shop made or not, on a semi-competitive basis for years. Yes, TC knows about the knife, but it’s not for sale - on a related note, a well known Chicago area RMK collector once told me that he had over 200 similar altered, unusual, and rehandled RMK’s in his personal collection...

Anyhoo, that’s the deal Matt; does that answer your question(s)?

Shel