My fellow RKS members:
It has been brought to my attention that some folks may have the opinion that the Randall shop was still importing Solingen blades up to and including the 1990's. If that is what my initial post "appears" to say, let me clarify. All of the Randall "Solingen Fighters" in both blade lengths that were made up and sold through the Randall shop, along with some of the later #18's, kit blades and the like were done so to "use up" old Solingen forgings from the "VN" era of ordering or shortly thereafter. Hope that's clear now...(and thanks, Crutch)
Best, Capt. Chris