As for any questions as to toughness, the same blade, coating and handle material as the current USMC bayonet. Main differences are better edging (hurrah), lack of serrations (hurrah), no bayonet mount provisions in the way (hurrah). Milspec triple retention sheath/steel friction clip removable, with replaceable ceramic sharpener in back.

Only 50yrs late.

D2 steel pommel with breaker not sharp enough to getcha in a fall, 0.210" blade/tang thickness, end of issue (normally peened) tang threaded on top and bottom surface, only, for pommel mount.

They offer, in the Special Purpose line, for about $40-$50 rather than $75-$100, the exact same blade with 100% kraton guard/handle/pommel retained by a ferrule installed through tang, with a really cheap ugly sheath.

Given the difference on grind/edging between the issue bayonet and this blade, would not be suprised if bargain basement had the issue treatment, but, no real idea, having not laid eyes on one. The more expensive version has everything needed for a stacked leather conversion aside from ordered leather washers and a shop with thin and thick grinder wheels.

Wish I had seen this a couple weeks ago, when I was at Smokey Mountain Knife Works in TN, would've checked them out.

places like that are like a gun show in Dallas or Atlanta or Tulsa, where there is so much forest that the trees are invisible, and the eyes glaze over after not long at all.

Or maybe it just means gun/knife buyers have short attention spans from instant gratification overdose.

Honed by hand on natural stones....by Masters.

taken good clean Böhler Uddeholm barstock steel and then forged it, possibly introducing carbide clumps and a weak spot in edge or even blade. So, it probably is more trustworthy during abuse. But will not take and hold the same edge.

Randall has been short of masters of late, couple of years ago, one guy retired with 35yrs, then an unexpected loss of a 20-25yr guy with heart problems, then two or three younger guys up and quit over being treated so well, and in a 12 person biz counting the prez, his son, and lady answering the phone, talent took a real hit, definitely showed in some more recent received knives which never should have gone out the door, in my opinion. 4yr now a 5yr wait and schedule has been slipping for at least a year, and attitude current is "it has our stamp and you WILL like it." I will buy older, currently, but no newer, not until a regime change.

those did not come about until the experimentation of the ABS founders and those who followed, sharing results, and true advances came about with unheard of blade performance.

From the turn of last century, until 1960, there was Scagel who was a smith with an eye for wonderful art, one protégé of sorts, Bo Randall, who was a wealthy newspaper family dilettante minding his family's diversification into orange growing in the 1920s/30s who stumbled across Scagel work while vacationing up north. There also was US CAV farrier Rudy Ruana banging out blades for Indian horsebreakers, wanting a knife which could handle frozen winterkill horse carcasses, and later for Montana hunters tired of factory knives falling apart in the middle of nowhere. Randall got into it as a hobby, and when WWII and fame broke out, he had the ability and means to promote, promptly hired workers and a foreman, and his business was born.

But no masters, only guys taking a bar and beating out a blade and grinding to shape, smithing pure and simple, on nrarly a factory level, the Swede O1 making a blade far superior in edge holding to most factory knives.
Ruana probably did more experimenting and had higher performance blades and geometry, frankly, as Randall was a tinkerer, and was nobody who actually was at the forge for a living for very long at all, their blade techniques have not changed essentially since it started, same formulas, single largest change being the electric heat treat oven in early 1950s. To take nothing away, they probably were among the finest knives money could buy into the 1960s. But, masters, not.

was not kidding in "only 50yrs too late" first comment. Being built on the issue USMC bayonet, this knife is no tactical pretender as are most large knives, but is essentially a GI/grunt-proof issue quality (higher, actually) bit of kit, of the sort of ruggedness you could give a boy, and it might survive intact. Which makes it a pretty decent thing to have deployed or in the middle of nowhere. Way overdue, finally something tougher and more reach than a kabar, or M9.

That was a line in 'Exposure' about a Randall 14. I couldn't help myself.
AK and I cracked up anytime we saw one in a knife store. One or the other of us would ask to see it and the other would intone the salesman's movie line. Most of the time we could tell it tended to freak out the sales staff.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSwrE-I3MHM

I'm sure the Ontario is a fine blade.

was throwing out some Randall and handmade knife info for those who did not know, and it was a great chance to talk about current affairs there, as well as get a few more words in regarding the Ontario, which I am sure you would have appreciated when a younger tad soldier pole. Fine it ain't, better grade milspec, it is.

is all that has kept that flick from being forgotten since the script was being written. Heck, Randall uses a Tri-Hone and only recently retired the original one. The script writer obviously knew someone who owned a Randall, ever popular among Hollywood types who drank the koolaid since Flynn's days.

The threaded tang, threaded only top and bottom, should avoid repeating the failure of the original kabar design, which (I believe) had complete threading of a very reduced diameter, failures of which led to the crosspin....which also can break at the hole, or the reduced shoulder of tang upon which the pommel rests...as with any normal knife. Even the normally peened bayonet pommel can break at the shoulder if pommel used hard enough.

and apologies for undersized images when seemed plenty big when saving.

the current aircrew Army knife uses same pommel arrangement and passed trials with no problem. But any such tang will bust if you try hard enough. Lots of cinderblock comes to mind.

It is hard to wade through all of that to find the good stuff - like you said, your eyes glaze over..

nt

You old dog you.

As the unit simply says:

Thanks

poring thru phone books looking for sharpening master, for you.

nt

however, I've got India & Arkeesaw stones all the way up to a Black Hard Rock that appears translucent.

from my hand, it will be time for you to leave.

I had no idea you were a Master. I will tell what's his face so he can stop looking.