Yours truly picked one up, NOS. apparently the seller had some connection with Guns and Ammo back in the day, if I am reading between the lines correctly. He had several of these, and it appears I may have gotten one of the last ones.

It was poly-bagged when shipped to me, no box, etc. The sheath is a remarkably heavy leather, and well made. The knife itself has the remains of some sort of tissue paper (?) stuck to the blade. The paper has turned dark yellow and is STUCK. I will need to use some sort of solvent to remove it, I imagine.

The haft is thick stacked leather, alternating with thin aluminum wafers. The hilt and guard are, of course, brass, and the whole has a bit of a "toothy" or rough feel in the hand. It appears new, but I wonder if I am feeling the difference between the leather, which may have shrunk, and the aluminum. There is a tremendously talented custom knife maker here in town, Bruce Bump, who is a friend. I may take it to him and ask if it can be smoothed up a bit . A lot of quality there, even if slightly rough,, especially as a freebie reward for a subscription. Think about how cheap Japanese goods were back then, in order to be able to send one to every new subscriber, who definitely got their money's worth.

All in all, I paid too much for the darn thing, but there are some nice memories associated with this knife. I recall at the time these were offered arguing with a good friend, Tom Austin, as to whether or not this was a suitable, useable knife. Neither of us had two nickels to rub together, mind you, and couldn't afford the cost of a subscription, but man, did we have opinions. Tom is gone now, took his own life as a sad result of depression and alcohol, but I remember him well, and miss him deeply. Somehow I think he would have approved......

Otony

when I got my original from G&A it came without a sheath. I was lucky to find a near mint one in a junk box at a gun show. Never used it but have it displayed. J.Michael

mine sits in its sheath, on top of the wooden box that contains the S&W 29 Elmer Keith Commemorative 44 mag. Makes a nice little package!

Matt

Over the past decade or so, I have gleaned a few goodies from online auctions. Be it a knife, holster or whatever. It's always a thrill to finally find and own some of the things we wanted so many years ago but couldn't obtain.

Murphy

I just recently scored a new Bianchi Judge, left handed no less, that fits my GP100.

I cannot tell you how much I wanted one of those (or any break-front Bianchi for that matter) back in the '80s, but never seemed to be able to find one in left hand to fit whatever particular revolver I owned that day.

Y'all might laugh, but I have several of my Matchbox cars from when I was a kid. I also have my Nabisco spoon sitters from the late '50s/early '60s. My son has all my old Lego stuff. I have books from my pre-teens still as well.

Pack rat, I am.

Otony

Keith designed his notion of a perfect hunting knife and had it made by a maker named Draper and he wrote it up quite a bit and Draper would make you one if you wanted to pay the hefty price for a custom knife.

G&A has some of these made up (much cheaper) by some other manufacturer and offered them as premiums for multi-year subscriptions. They show up from time to time and I guess you got one.

That is it in a nutshell, save for one thing. While these Japanese knives are decent enough, comparing one to Keith's original, custom made knife, you quickly see that the Rising Sun versions are simplified interpretations.

Still a nice knife, though, and one accompanied by many pleasant memories.

Tom, I wish you were here to argue about this once more......

Otony