Jack,

I love the fact that you research! IMO this community needs more members like you to help participate in putting the Randall puzzle together.

There is an easily discernable difference in both workmanship and finish details between a Stockman sheath and either a Heiser or Johnson sheath of roughly the same era (It is difficult in many cases to tell a Heiser from a Johnson without the benefit of a stamp). There was a thread about Stockman sheaths on this forum back in 2007 which illustrates what I'm talking about:

http://www.knifetalkforums.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=26672&page=1

It may be a bit painful to read because it's contentious, but there is some good info contained in it.

Note also that (1) Joe wrote a couple of good articles about early Johnson sheaths in issues 60 & 61 of the RKS newsletter (2) There was an article about a very early Astro in issue 72.

Best,