Tom,
Since you asked, I have never had any confusion regarding the origin of this topic, I was there at the time. You summed up the appropriate attribution in your first sentence.
"It is quite clear that the Knife of the Week Thread was originally started on a totally different forum by Ron Mathews."
An idea is only "original" once. From Wikipedia: An original work is one not received from others nor one copied based on the work of others. I will confess that I'm not sure why taking credit for something is so important. Ralph Waldo Emerson said "The reward of a thing well done, is to have done it." I've never seen Ron ask for or take credit for the creation or success of the thread either here or on the other forum. I certainly don't speak for Ron but my guess is that he recognizes the success of this thread is directly attributable to the many members that take their time to photograph, edit, size and post images of their Randall knives.... it wouldn't be a thread without them.