A real beauty, and a nice picture and background. I like the hilt ... different and striking combo.

This saw-tooth M14 is my favorite RMK of all. I have one and I carried a solingen facimile in Vietnam. I cannot date yours because I lack experience ... but I think this basic model has been unchanged since the early '70s. Original sheath and stone would have helped date it. Perhaps there are some features that the more expert RMK club memebers can identify.

This is an Orlando stainless blade which raises a question that I've wondered about for 40 years, re: Randall Orlando stainless vs. Randall Solingen stainless.

The Randall Solingen stainless blades of the Viet era were notoriously hard to put an edge on. The soft stone included with the sheath would just not make a mark on the hard stainless steel. We therefore used a variety of local means to sharpen a Solingen stainless blade, usually scratching it up pretty good in the process.

Are the Orlando-stainless blades "softer" and easier to edge? Or are they, too, a hard steel needing special techniques to edge?