Steve,...that's a nice option if all you wanted was a grip better suited to your needs, but it won't cut any better or worse than it did before. And I do like the "meatier" grip you made,....the Astro always seemed a bit thin of grip to me.

It's a tough workhorse for sure,.....and that hasn't changed.

But due to it's heavy build it's not the best for fine feather sticking or intricate carving in the woods which is what i was optimizing for.

The changes I made addressed the issues I had to optimize a "user" knife with a dedicated purpose. Since a high majority of Randall's never see the outside of a safe or display case, any shortfalls for specific use will never be known.