Randall Knives

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Virginian
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Randall Knives

Post by Virginian » 31 Aug 2012, 04:27

I was chatting with another member of a different forum about knives and we got into a discussion about Randall Knives and I promised that I would post up what I had for this fellow. I thought I would throw it up here if anyone had any interest on the topic.

This by far is my crown gem in my collection. This is a 'boot' knife that my father ordered when he was Lt. in flight school in the AF. Below is the correspondence between pop and W.D. Randall, Jr. Back in '57, $24.50 was a lot of money for a Lt. and he was proud to carry this knife his entire career as a pilot.

What he shared with me was that back in those days to pass flight school, one of the elements of it was they sent you on a survival mission, if you will. You had to jump out of a plane, parachute down into the ocean nearby an island of some sort. Swim ashore with your parachute in full flight gear with only a knife.

You had to survive for (I want to say it was 3 or 4 days) with only what you had. He was an Eagle Scout, so many aspects of this type of training came natural to him. Paracord and parachute to make a tent, snares for game, what insects to eat for specific nutrition, etc. This was that knife that he ordered to start this journey on what would be a long productive career. I have no idea if the AF still does this type of training? Sadly, I acquired this knife after he lost a 14 year battle to Alzheimer's. :(

Randall Knives are still made today and sell for $600 to $1,000 dollars. Last I checked, there was a waiting list with the caveat that members of the military go to the front of the line.

As always, thanks for reading.

Eric
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Last edited by Virginian on 31 Aug 2012, 08:11, edited 1 time in total.

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Cyberfly
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Re: Randall Knives

Post by Cyberfly » 31 Aug 2012, 06:06

That's awesome.
Seriously. While I'm sorry to hear about your dad, I'm glad he had the good taste to invest in something like that to be able to hand it down to you.
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Esteves
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Re: Randall Knives

Post by Esteves » 31 Aug 2012, 06:23

Thanks for sharing part of the your dad's story and his knife's provenance. I am sorry for your your loss.
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flyingirish04
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Re: Randall Knives

Post by flyingirish04 » 31 Aug 2012, 06:48

Very cool.

Sorry for your loss.
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blueorison
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Re: Randall Knives

Post by blueorison » 31 Aug 2012, 11:08

... thank you for sharing.

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