Did Bo Randall make a living making knives?

G

Gimpy

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Jul 15, 2005
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After reading the posts to the topic of "Can you make a living making knives"? I wondered if Bo Randall ever made any real money from his knife works. We may never know. He was a financially independent orange grower but I think would have quit knife making for the public if he lost money at it. During his last twenty years he made very few knives. He and his son Gary marketed knives while trained and employed knife makers made them to their specification in their shop. Why has not anyone else created a similar enterprise? Why not put together a shop with 5-10 craftsman producing knives to your specification and under your direction and control while you run the rest of the business such as sales, marketing, and finance? You can make only so much money as a ditch digger, but if ten ditch diggers are working for you then you are a contractor. That's where the big bucks are. Many of the famous custom gun makers such as Griffon & Howe and Holland & Holland operate in a similar manor.

I think that to make a financial success of any enterprise one must remove one’s personal sentiments and follow the cold hard rules of capitalistic business methods. It’s the only rules that your bank loan officer will understand.

Are Randall knives truly hand made custom knives or are they high-end production products made to order? The public doesn't seem to care. Randall's prices are fair and there is a five-year wait for one of his knives. It was a Randall catalog that got me interested in knife making thirty years ago.

What do you think? All comments are welcome. Gimpy.
 
Why not? You tell us. There have been quite a few who have gone this way, and still are. They out grew the one man shop, and became in essence, a small factory. For some reason it is taboo to talk about. In Randall's case, it is fairly well known. but there are still many out there that think a Randal is a one of a kind custom knife. Other notables, Lile, Dozier. They became too popular to do it all themselves. The made the decision to go the small factory way. There are others. It's not that uncommon. What is uncommon is for the buying public to have a clue as to what the makers are really doing. For some reason, it is hidden, when in fact they should be proud to have grown so much. Yes, Randal did very well. and the Randal Shop continues to do well to this day. Which speaks highly of O'l Bo. It was the Orange crop tot was worrisome. A freeze at the wrong time can be devastating. Lile did very well. Although things went south after his death. Jimmy and I were good friends. Dozer is doing very well as well. They have a strong following. There are many others. As I said. For some reason, It's just not talked about. Mike
 
Did Bo Randall make a living making knives?

No. Bo Randall made a killing making knives!
 
Randall Made knives is a fine example of a maker who found his market area. Randall took off during the Vietnam war when it became a status symbol to carry a Randall knife. They became the mark of the professional soldier. Word of mouth basically. Bo became so busy with the demand for his knives, he contracted a German company to provide ready made blades to speed up production. Time is another factor that plays a big part. Look at who is in demand. They've been around for a long time.
Scott
 
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