Thanks for the comments about the rug. I unfortunately have somehow accumulated 60 or so. If you think disagreements on this board are volatile, you should see what happens on the rug chat boards (see “Turkotek”) where 10 times the variables are present… LOL.

Permit me a few comments. I don't have the Randall experience of many of you but am an compulsive researcher. I conduct engineering (etc.) investigations of offshore oil field accidents in my day job (yep... including Deepwater Horizon... it's been and interesting year), so by habit I question politely, even basic information. So…

First, sorry… but to me that handle on Col. Salvo's knife looks to have been modified. It does not appear to have been a manufacture anomaly. It looks like it was crudely shaved down because nothing else on the handle is similar. If Col. Salvo was left handed, I’d call it "case-closed, preponderance of evidence.” But that's not very important and reasonable people can disagree.

But more importantly, I'm having a hard time assimilating the idea that no sheaths were EVER furnished for the original knives, absent unequivocal documentation. There is contrary evidence. And it is resonable to assume that once the need was established, they were supplied with the rest of the first batch of <30< blades.

And even more importantly, there is some evidence about who furnished those sheaths, possibly/probably including the one for Lt. Col. Salvo’s knife.

From Wickersham’s book, P. 58-59, he discusses the role of Mr. Jimmy Stockman, local leather-shop, who possibly made the sheaths in question exactly from a template from a Heiser sheath. He says Bob Gaddis is the one who discovered the role of Mr. Stockman who made quite a few specialty sheaths for Randall during this time, when Heiser could not meet the need for limited edition custom work.

For reference here is a Model C Heiser: (Note: The following two pictures are scans from Mr. Wickersham's book)





Here is a quote from p. 59, referring to an interview with Bob Stockman, son of Jimmy Stockman: “ ... several of the original seven Mercury Astronauts later stopped by his father’s leather working shop to thank him for the quick turnaround time and quality of the sheath manufacture…"

Furthermore, the reason this sheath is an exact copy of a Model C Heiser, except with a Randall stamp, is also discussed at length, with some documentation, and reasonable deductions. Mention is made of much confusion in the collector ranks about seeming Heiser sheaths, some unmarked, others with different threading and with Randall stamps during this time period. Those sheaths are traced to Mr. Stockman in the book. His son explained that they disassembled Heisers, used them as templates for the specialty sheaths.

Note the cross-wise direction of the Randall stamp on Lt. Col. Salvo’s sheath. The existence of this Randall stamp is also documented as being applied to some otherwise apparently-Heiser sheaths, as early as 1960, preceding the general adoption of it later.

Wickersham’s speculation about why the new stamp was created also seems reasonable. He notes that following the last merger of Heiser with some conglomerate, a truly awful logo was adopted, and Randall apparently hated it, and created his own stamp, that was applied to unmarked Heiser’s for a time. And it was also applied at the Randall shop to the sheaths made by Mr. Stockman... who made the sheaths for the astronauts.

The 8-rivet model C sheath (including the riveted keeper) was apparently made (by Heiser, copied by Stockman) for a definitive period of time, late 50s until very early 60s. The riveted keeper was then dropped and when Johnson took over, the sheath construction was shortly thereafter changed to using the large throat rivets. I confess i don't know if Johnson ever made a model C with a keeper rivet.

In any case, the time window to acquire Col. Salvo’s knife AND the Heiser-looking sheath with cross-wise Randall stamp was very small. The most reasonable explanation is that this is one of the sheaths made by Jimmy Stockman, from a Heiser model, stamped in the shop with the Randall stamp. And that it was provided with the knife…

I have a hard time envisioning a man with Col. Salvo's responsibility driving over to Randall…on pre-Interstate back country Florida roads, during the height of the 24 hour days of the Mercury program, just to acquire a sheath for his personal knife.

Whatever you all think of Wickersham’s book, it seems reasonably well footnoted, with all the major collectors and authors credited, including many who are on this board.

To me, the note about the Astronauts thanking Stockman for the sheaths seems to be an important clue. But there is more, the possiblity that the knives were supplied without sheaths, but that the sheaths were provided shortly thereafter, and if so, with all subsequent knives.

Why? Well ... I wonder about the meaning of the “thank-you” statement to Jimmy Stockman - "...for the quick turnaround..." It could indicate he quickly filled a specific need of the Astronauts, one reasonable deduction would be to provide a carry mechanism during survival training? Whatever the answer, Stockman apparently made at least 7 sheaths, during the Mecury program, one for each Astronaut... and he was out of the sheath business shortly thereafter when Johnson took over supplying Randall with sheaths.

Finally, compare Col. Salvo's sheath with the one displayed with Grissom's "personal" knife... they are identical, except for the handle shaving on Salvo's, and I'd bet the back of that sheath has the Randall stamp. See:

http://www.knifetalkforums.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=94626&page=1




Regards,