How good are Randall's knives ?

Mainly collectors item ?

I am getting my first Randall in a month - waited 5 years for it. The wait now is 5.5 years.

Thinking if I should place an order for a number 1.

Thanks,

Mike

They are solid, decent quality knives which usually have a good, if not classic design, which hold their overpriced value well. They are solid, good knives which are living off their reputation. The non-stainless versions are mostly forged, which gives them a bit better quality.

Worth a 5 yr wait? Not IMO, but, obviously many people would not agree with me. One of the very few custom knives whose name is almost immediately recognized by non-knife people.

Which model are you getting?

I have had several, now have two left, a #3 7" and a #12 Smithsonian Bowie. I bought the bowie in 1977 for $125, and the #3 I traded for about 3 years ago. I have about $350 in it.
I think they are a nice knife, but now they more rely on the name than the quality. Bo Randall used to make most of the knives. My bowie was made by him. It is now a quasi mass production shop, that has trimmed its available options a great deal.
I honestly think that most of their standard models should be in the $200-300 price range and the bigger ones in the up to $500 price range. Just my opinion.

quote:

Originally posted by Gatogordo:
They are solid, decent quality knives which usually have a good, if not classic design, which hold their overpriced value well. They are solid, good knives which are living off their reputation. The non-stainless versions are mostly forged, which gives them a bit better quality.

Worth a 5 yr wait? Not IMO, but, obviously many people would not agree with me. One of the very few custom knives whose name is almost immediately recognized by non-knife people.

Which model are you getting?

Big Number 2. I stabbing knife if there ever was one.

Mike

quote:

Originally posted by Gatogordo:
They are solid, decent quality knives which usually have a good, if not classic design, which hold their overpriced value well. They are solid, good knives which are living off their reputation. The non-stainless versions are mostly forged, which gives them a bit better quality.

Worth a 5 yr wait? Not IMO, but, obviously many people would not agree with me. One of the very few custom knives whose name is almost immediately recognized by non-knife people.

Which model are you getting?

Perhaps more later in regards to Randall knives, but it's late......




ya!


GWB

I must have between 12 and 15 of them. I love them. A lot of mine have been used a hell of a lot.

Visiting the Randall museum is definitely worth the visit.

Once can usually get them without the wait.

I have two: a 6" #4 made in 1958 and a 5" #5 made in 1985. The #4 was sent back to Randal for a regrind in the early 80s. The #5 is my standard hunting knife. Both models have stag handles and are well balanced and go where you intend on putting them. I have others, primarily Ruanas that are probably equal in quality of steel, but I prefer the all stag handle rather than the aluminum with horn implant that the Ruana has.
I do not consider them collector knives, but I use them as they were intended and find them (at least those that are now 30-60 years old) to be high quality knives.

quote:

Originally posted by Geedubya:

quote:

Originally posted by Gatogordo:
They are solid, decent quality knives which usually have a good, if not classic design, which hold their overpriced value well. They are solid, good knives which are living off their reputation. The non-stainless versions are mostly forged, which gives them a bit better quality.

Worth a 5 yr wait? Not IMO, but, obviously many people would not agree with me. One of the very few custom knives whose name is almost immediately recognized by non-knife people.

Which model are you getting?

Perhaps more later in regards to Randall knives, but it's late......




ya!


GWB

I have never seen or heard of this before. I watched it and it damn near made me cry. I got my dad's Randall knife. He died in 1989. Damn he loved that knife. I have never been able to bring myself to actually use it.

Here is a shout out, hoping you and yours are safe and coping with this disaster.

We just went thru it here two weeks ago. Ours was mainly a flood as opposed to devastating winds.



My dad was a pharmacist's mate in WWII He was in the south pacific for 36 months. He made 9 island incursions. Whether true or not, but it was my understanding that when he mustered out, the captain ordered a general quarters and had all the torpedos and the medical stores inspected. Seems dad refused to let any GI's be in pain. Evidently the stores of morphine were depleted and the captain was afraid that the propellant from the torpedos had been distilled into hooch. At 70, years, when I was 40, ya' give the man a hoe and he could work me down. At 80 he could do one-arm push-ups.

my dad had a Coon-Azz bud. The ship they were on was the USS President Adams. That was their station for 36 months during WWII. The Adams and nd three other troop transports were "dubbed" the "unholy four"

http://www.network54.com/Forum...4/message/1293543320

Anywho, dad and Griff remained lifelong friends. One year Griff and his family would come to Texas. Next year we'd go to Louisiana. My dad would never ask directions. Many a nite I spent in the floorboard of the family car while we went up and down the roads along the Mississippi river, lost, while heading to visit. Dad passed in October of 09. Griff passed six months later. We did not take many vacations when I was a kid. The Alamo, and the Griffins......

His son Charles, who once remarked "we lived so far back in the swamps of Louisiana, that he did not know that there were any other white kids in the world other than his sister and me and my brothers till he got into high school", gave me this Randall, a Model 28 "Woodsman", so you know it's special to me!






As to quality, well that's for another time!


ya!

GWB

I have one that a friend commissioned for me that took about 4 years to get to me.It has my name on it + quite a beautiful knife.I would never tell him but I still take my Puma White Hunter with me when I go hunting;had it for too many years.

IMHO, Randall’s have excellent trade value, and when purchased "right", even better.

Here is from AG Russell in regards to the model 28 Woodsman:

"The 4-1/2" drop point blade of 3/16" 440B stainless at 55-56 Rc"

https://agrussell.com/knife/Ra...Woodsman--RA-M28G42S

Is 440B a super steel. No.

Would I refuse it as a gift? Absolutely not.

The model 28 is called a "Woodsman" not a skinner. There are any number of you tube vids that review this knife and its use that contrast it vs. a bushcraft knife. Should you be interested, Google is your friend.




and another review of the model 28 Woodsman




Is this a "skinner", No!

Can it be used for skinning? Most definitely.

NEVER refuse as a gift ,just remember the rules that came from Scotland before the immigrants took to the hills,but kept their beliefs. I/E,If you give some one a knife,you must give them something,even a rock or penny;otherwise you will kill the relationship.Funny,huh? I've seen it happen too many times to doubt.

440B is an incredibly lesser quality steel to be used in what many would call a premium knife.

quote:

440B(AISI) - Highly corrosion resistant stainless steel. Used in budget and dive knives. It's in the middle of AISI 440 group. Might've been one of the better choices for stainless steel knives back in the day, but these days it's nothing to stand out. It was never as good for the knives as the AISI 440C stainless steel, and 440C is not a premium knife steel for more then two decades. The highlight would be high corrosion resistance and decent toughness, and if that's what you're looking for 440B will do. Randall still uses it in their stainless knives. 440B steel is mentioned in a popular TV crime show Bones, season 9, episode - The Source in the Sludge. Hodgins determines the murder weapon was made out of 440B steel and describes it as a specialty steel, used in a very high end tactical knives. Frankly, none of that is true. Just a stainless alloy, nothing special about it, and very high end tactical knives in 2009 or even decade before that were using better steels. May be the writers assumed 440B was special because Randal uses them, I have no idea, but it would've been better if the writers did research more thoroughly.

Is this an effort to downgrade Randalls? Absolutely not, they are a decent knife mostly made on a production line by guys who usually can't grind a straight line, but they live on their reputation which is superior. All that proves is, as I've said many times, current knife technology is far ahead of knife user's requirements. The average knife today is far better than the same of 40 years ago.

Cryo quenching has changed the game in producing small grainsize & hardness to provide hardwearing & sharp blades from alloys that were previously middle ranking knife steels. Some of the previously high ranking alloy steels do not obtain a very marked improvement from cryo-quenching. It depends where the eutectics are in the phase diagram of the different alloys & the rate of grain growth - post eutectic & during tempering.
Cryo-quenched AUS 8 produces a blade with a very very sharp edge with excellent edge retention, a much better edge than its oil quenched brother.

AUS8(JPN) is very close to 440B alloy content.

quote:

Originally posted by DenisB:
Cryo quenching has changed the game in producing small grainsize & hardness to provide hardwearing & sharp blades from alloys that were previously middle ranking knife steels. Some of the previously high ranking alloy steels do not obtain a very marked improvement from cryo-quenching. It depends where the eutectics are in the phase diagram of the different alloys & the rate of grain growth - post eutectic & during tempering.
Cryo-quenched AUS 8 produces a blade with a very very sharp edge with excellent edge retention, a much better edge than its oil quenched brother.

AUS8(JPN) is very close to 440B alloy content.

]

So, are you suggesting or stating that Randall cryos their stainless blades?

quote:

Originally posted by NormanConquest:
NEVER refuse as a gift ,just remember the rules that came from Scotland before the immigrants took to the hills,but kept their beliefs. I/E,If you give some one a knife,you must give them something,even a rock or penny;otherwise you will kill the relationship.Funny,huh? I've seen it happen too many times to doubt.

That has been the code since I was a yonker. Always something of value. The way I heard it as a boy was that if you did not give at least a penny it would come back and cut your friendship. It was a gift, but I did give Charles a penny!

ya!

GWB

quote:

Originally posted by Gatogordo:


So, are you suggesting or stating that Randall cryos their stainless blades?

No, not commenting on Randall , just replying to the comment that 440B is not a top grade alloy.
ie
the comment was valid a decade ago , but not today, given the availability of new quenching techniques.

Really? Cryo has been around for many years. You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. If 440b was so good, with cryo treatment, custom makers would be using it everyday. They ain't. There are literally dozens of better steels being used everyday by custom makers.

440B cryo cooks knive hard used, touched the edge up last year after 7 yrs use. holds its edge every bit as well as my S30V knives( & that stands up pretty well in the edge retention tests).

Disclosure: Senior T/A Metallurgist in a previous life.

As Stated in my OP not every alloy gains equally from cryo-quenching. 440B/AUS8 gains heaps.
Metallurgy is not Alchemy nor pursemaking......its science with well researched reasons for doing things.
440B isn't a trendy expensive powder metallurgy alloy.......it just works really really well when it is cryo'd.
Sure cryo has been around a while as a technique, but its really only in the last decade that its relative benefit in grain growth control has been researched & its impact understood relative to phase changes across a wide range of alloys leading to an increased reputation for alloys in which it provides meaningfull improvement in properties.

The best knife is usually the one you have in your hand......if its not....... most of us are usually pretty quick to rectify the situation.

Let me know when knife makers are selling all the 440b knives they can make.

About 10 days ago I stopped in to see a fellow that I've become acquainted with on AR but had never met in person. He happened to be at a game ranch just below Hondo, Texas. Seems these guys get together once a year and spend big bucks to shoot large bovines with big-bore handguns. The focus is to see the effect of terminal ballitics of certain caliber guns, loads and bullets on muscle and bone.......





of bovines that weigh over a 1,000 lbs.








Two of the fellows in the next picture are taxidermists, the other a guide.




Here are the same knives they used to take apart these animals quick and efficiently.




not a custom or a knife with "super steel" among them.



One of the things I've always liked about the knife forum here on AR is the lack of contention that seems to be "stock in trade" these days on so many forums.


Oh yeah, one more thing!

Randall's may not be all that, but what the hey.

One of my buds has a sticker in the back window of his truck. It states "cause I can".

What better reason to own Randall knives than that!










just sayin!



GWB

quote:

Originally posted by Geedubya:
About 10 days ago I stopped in to see a fellow that I've become acquainted with on AR but had never met in person. He happened to be at a game ranch just below Hondo, Texas. Seems these guys get together once a year and spend big bucks to shoot large bovines with big-bore handguns. The focus is to see the effect of terminal ballitics of certain caliber guns, loads and bullets on muscle and bone.......






GWB

Come on GW, you can let us in on the secret. Its a cult of Elmer Keith worshippers isn't it? I mean you gave us pretty much all the clues in this one photo, right?

Elmer wasn't a handgun hunter, he only used one as a tool of convenience on occasion......

quote:

Originally posted by Bwana_500:


Come on GW, you can let us in on the secret. Its a cult of Elmer Keith worshippers isn't it? I mean you gave us pretty much all the clues in this one photo, right?

Actually it's no secret!

Its as easy as



1.






2.






3.






just gotta know where to look!

ya!



GWB

quote:

Originally posted by Whitworth:
Elmer wasn't a handgun hunter, he only used one as a tool of convenience on occasion......

I am pretty sure it was in "Hell I as There" Keith talked about shooting cattle at the local slaughter yard to examine terminal performance in big bore revolvers. Seemed like GWs friends were channelling the same thing with this annual endeavour.

Anyhow, my apologies to the OP for the thread hijack.

Bwana_500,

In this case, I was a not so innocent bystander! I had the opportunity to observe an annual occurrence that is outside my normal modus operandi! I had a ball. Hopefully the OP will not think badly of you and I for stepping on his thread.

My idea is that if the OP is desirous of a Randall, he should avail himself of one at his earliest convenience and enjoy it to his heart's content.


I've well over 100 custom's. IMHO, There is no "best steel" and no "best knife".


ya!

GWB

quote:

Originally posted by Bwana_500:

quote:

Originally posted by Whitworth:
Elmer wasn't a handgun hunter, he only used one as a tool of convenience on occasion......

I am pretty sure it was in "Hell I as There" Keith talked about shooting cattle at the local slaughter yard to examine terminal performance in big bore revolvers. Seemed like GWs friends were channelling the same thing with this annual endeavour.

Anyhow, my apologies to the OP for the thread hijack.

Bwana, I'm a dedicated handgun hunter. This annual gathering is a chance to test in a somewhat controlled environment .

I am a big fan of Randall knives. I only have one now as the others were passed on to friends. I carried a #14 throughout my former career and it served me well.

Safe travels and safe shooting.........Larry

quote:

Originally posted by Geedubya:

http://i38.photobucket.com/alb...0946_zpsbqyjgit2.jpg


not a custom or a knife with "super steel" among them.

Nice boning knives. I have a grapefruit knife that will cut out the sections better than any of those. My local taxidermist uses a surgeon's scalpel for skinning. I use something entirely different on linoleum. Point is, specialty knives are good for the specialty they are made for and that's usually it.

Aside from the "fighting knives" Randall offers some very well made and versatile general purpose knives. My favorite is mys model #22 "Outdoorsman". It's cut rope, cloth and cord, peeled fruit, split kindling, sliced steaks, spread mustard, and gutted and skinned deer and antelope.


Another all-around knife I like is the Buck 119. The Randall holds a better edge, is thicker, and construction is far better than the Buck. But the Buck is a great little knife for the money. What's more, Buck now lets you customize them - https://www.buckknives.com/cus...pecial-knife/CKS119/

I have a NEW Randall from a friend but I have been using my Puma White Hunter for close to 50 yrs.One word of advice to well meaning 'knife givers' is to leave a mans tackle alone. He already has what he wants +his own ideas for future purchases to be his alone.Not saying to give a quality knife away.This is a quality pc.+ should go to someone who would truly appreciate it.

Went to the Randall workshop and picked up a number 2.

Really liked the knife.

Place an order for a number 1-7.

Will post a picture. Damn I may get into knive collecting.

Mike