This Randall Bowie was presented to my father, Dick W. Van Sickle, by Bo and Gary Randall in December, 1965, in the presence of foreman William Platts and the rest of the ‘Gang’. The blade carries the inscription ‘Our largest Bowie to our largest Bowie Dealer’ and the knife handle includes a brass plate with my father’s initials DWVS. During the 1960’s and early 1970’s, my father was Randall’s largest dealer. Dad died as a result of injuries from a car accident in 1971. This Randall Bowie was pictured in the 1973 issue of The Gun Digest Book of Knives (by B.R. Hughes and Jack Lewis) within section 3. THE RANDALL LOOK: W.D. Randall, Jr., a pioneer in his own right, was the first of today’s custom knifemakers. I displayed it at various gun shows in Texas a number of years ago but it has been ‘in storage’ most of the time. Recently, I met with Gary and Jason Randall in their shop in Orlando. Gary remembers the building of this Bowie and the presentation to my father. This Bowie has been authenticated by Perry Miller as the second largest known Randall Bowie (the largest Bowie being the one displayed in the Randall museum). This Bowie is made from ½” stock, has a 15” blade, is 22” long, and weighs 6 lbs. My father had a sheath custom made by Cheney from Oklahoma to fit the Bowie. I decided to post pictures of the Bowie and information relating to it after learning from Perry that it is likely many Randall collectors do not know of its existence.

Frank Van Sickle
vsickle@suddenlink.net