That was "also" Gail White's trademark, at least one black spacer.
Also: On the T&B with red & blue laminated micarta, 6 options as follows:
* Stainless
* Thumb notches
* Red & blue spacers
* Red & blue micarta
* RH finger grips
* Wrist thong
The hilt looks brass to me. Both the Model #8 and Rod's #5's are killer-cool!
Best, Capt. Chris

Wally -

not all black and white spacers are TL. Just like not all red and white spacers are not TL.

Gail White is another guy that assembled knives and did that spacer arrangement, but I don't recall the exact time frame he was doing so, but I think it was much later than Rod's knife, maybe in the late 80's in to the 90's. I don't recall any embellishment by Mr. White and it seems his skill was limited to doing handles. Some of his pieces are etched I believe with a "W" near the logo.

The shop put out examples of both, I have a R-W one with a pinned butt sitting here for authentication, 100% shop done.

While some TL knives do have those spacer stacks, I would be hesitant of putting all my eggs in one basket based on the spacers alone making it a TL assembled knife.

I am doing a bit of research into Leschorn to try and get a better handle on exactly what he was doing, quantity wise, to determine what is what relative to some of these knives like Rod's. There are a many examples of this type of spacer arrangement, and it would seem the thought has been that TL was assembling regular knives with no embellishment.

If so, why? Not a challenge. Regular knives.

Joe
As Wally said Tom’s trademark spacers. The person who sold it said her husband and Tom were good friends. That story has been verified.

Joe I have a Gail White knife with a W on the Blade. Forgot the color of the spacers.

Rod -

That is the question I am trying to get a better handle on. I have seen that spacer arrangement for years, and definitely not on TL knives, but on knives out of the shop also. I tended to think all knives with that arrangement were TL knives for years, until I took a couple to the shop and they nixed it.

I want to know what prompted him to do basically regular knives, simply installing handles no differently than the shop would do, if that was what he was doing.

I don't know, but maybe he just liked to tinker with the stuff and not every knife his hands touched had to be a "masterpiece"

I would like to hear more on the friendship of TL and the woman's husband if possible. Perhaps that would shed some light on the "plain" knives that were allegedly assembled by him.

Were they made primarily for friends? Family? Co-workers?

Duke and I sold that knife to Rod. There were several signed TL pieces in the group and a few unembellished knives. We bought the knives from the fellow's widow and have verified that he and Tom were indeed good friends. I am confident it's a TL.

Here is a piece from the group that Tom checkered. Black & white spacers.... BUT not a Randall blade.

This was also in the group. Again, we have verified that the man and Tom were close friends.

I have no issue writing an authentication for Rod's knife.

A better picture of Rod's knife. The beveled butt shape was also a common TL mark.

Another from the group. Ivory tip, Little Bear Bowie. Tom used an ivory plug to fill the hole in the butt. Super cool piece of natural shaped ivory.

My first and second Randall. From one extreme to the other.
Bought the #18 in the early 80s at a gun show. The #10/7" ordered at the shop in summer of 97 and received about two months later. About a 15 year gap. It was a "get married and have two kids" gap. The I met the Capt. Need I say more.

Dennis