That's fair. I understand your point now. Case closed.

Regards

Another thread that has turned into a confrontion. That is why I will not send pictures or ask questions about older RMK knives. I am done with the knife forum, life is to short. No big loss to the forum, I will miss the shared knowledge but o'well.Walt RKS35924

Walt, the written sentence is frequently subject to different interpretations. I collect things that are far more complicated than Randall knives. At least we know who made Randalls and where. Try collecting tribal oriental carpets … often it is not clear even what “tribe” made them, much less when, where, with what dyes, etc.

Off-hand comments can cause particularly intense discussion if not worded carfully, because such comments tend to get defended, rather than corrected. I personally value your perspective and know your 1960s era collection is pretty strong. I hope to see some of your knives in the future.

I thought we should post the pictures of this historic knife on this forum, as that has not yet been done. So … here they are.









Note: The handle micarta appears to have been damaged or altered on this side of the knife right next to the guard, either shaved down or a piece split off,.

It's a knife knife and for me it looks very used.

Jack, Thanks for posting the pictures, interesting knife, what are the thoughts here about this sheath and knife being original to each other? Does anybody notice that the top of the blade does not seem to be in direct line to the handle? Is that just lense distortion in the picture or could it have been rehandled? What color handles did the majority of the NASA knives have? What do you guys think about the texture, "grain" and color of this handle? Is the blade stainless or carbon? It sure looks spot free for carbon. Just a observation the sheath throat doesn's seem to have much wear for this vintage of piece, could it have been stored outside of the sheath for much of it's life? Regards,

Details of a possible personal custom alteration to the handle, or some damage.

As far as the top or back of the blade being in line with the handle on the 14's and 15's I have seen and on the pictures on this site they are for the most part not in line. oldguy

For what it is worth, I think the sheath is pretty spot on dated to the knife. It looks like a vintage late-50s, very early 60s, Heiser "C model", contemporary with the knife.

At least some of the the Heisers for model 15s in the very early 60s apparently had only two throat and one toe rivets. But this sheath has 5 smaller rivets, the canteen snap, and the keeper strap is riveted, and the sheath is a split-back, as I understand it all hallmarks of the period. I believe these type sheaths were superceeded in the early-est 60s.

The existence of this spot-on period sheath could lead me to speculate - that the earliest 20-30 knives sent to NASA were actually delivered with sheaths (?) ... but sheaths were not included in the survival packages in the capsules.

Why? It would just seem the simpilest way to explain the knife-sheath conjunction. It's somewhat more difficult for me to picture Col. Salvo (a) given one of the first 20-30 knives, and then (b) immediately, on his own, going back to Randall to acquire a sheath, at a time that he was incredibly fully committed to NASA. But maybe he was a hunter, and maybe he was in Florida at the cape, and drove over.

The modification (?) of the handle (see pictures previous post, with possibly shaved handle edges near the guard), if that what it is, would cause me to wonder if maybe Lt. Col. Salvo was left handed.



Tom, you have a knowledgable and intuitive thought process... my first thought reading Lt. Col Salvo's resume was exactly in line with yours ... but I suspect more... maybe Station Chief (by the way, I may be able to confirm that...sources you know LOL). Re: your note above. When I got my Randall in 1967 to take with me to Vietnam, I was not aware of much in the way of Randall collecting. Everyone I knew with a Randall bought them to use. I suspect Lt. Col. Salvo did not regard his knife as a valuable artifact, but rather as a faithful tool. Regards.

Boardrider the blade is carbon as was all of the original NASA Mod.17's. The handle may have been altered by Col. Salvo but only by shaving or sanding some of the micarta away. All the knives, I believe came with the brown micarta. Joe could confirm or correct me on this as his knowledge is far superior to mine with regards to Randalls. The handle does look as though it possibly could have been bent a little or it just was made like that at the shop and it could be lens distortion as you suggested.
Jack the sheath is a Johnson Brown Button. Johnson took over sheath production after Heiser.
As has been stated the knives were ordered from Randall without sheaths. However one could purchase a sheath for a knife at any time.
Too many knives are popping up for sale right now and not enough money to buy all of them. But this is a honey.

Ronnie, is this a documented fact? I've been surprised in other fields how often well-known-widely-accepted-facts were proven to be circular in documentation... and not accurate. Also, this looks a lot like a Heiser model C sheath to my inexperienced eyes. How do you identify it as Johnson? I thought the switch to Johnson was later, 1963 or so, and didn't have the riveted keeper?

You are right about lots of cool knives out there. But this one ... I'm sitting here looking at my bank statement, looking at my 60s-early 70s combat Randalls that I swore I would limit myself to acquiring ... and wondering if this knife is worth a.. say ... $5,000 shot. The fact that it is a vet of S.E.Asia is compelling.

Regards