- Joined
- Mar 20, 1999
- Messages
- 1,163
The last half of this past week we were in San Antonio because my new father-in-law is on his death bed. After being left out of everything with the family, tired of being confined to a hospital waiting room, and having restless kids cooped up at Grandmas for 4 days, we took a trip to the Saxet gun show.
This first table inside the door was a knife dealer; the first knife to catch my eye was an RTAK that was just "wrong." I went to pick it up and the dealer said, "That's a Live-Say. It's like a short machete or something. Big old thing, huh?" (He pronounced Livesay with the long I sound like eye.) My now 18 year old Daughter Michelle leaned over and exclaimed, "IS THAT ONE OF NEWTS!?!?" I said, "Yep!" then turned back to the dealer and continued, "It's from Newt Livesay. He's out of Siloam Springs, Arkansas. This looks like an oddball variant of an RTAK; maybe even a prototype. He developed this knife after some feedback Jeff Randall gave on his Recon Combat Machete. This is the knife that is now copied by Ontario." He went all slack-jawed and said, "You don't say?" We talked for a while. I told him about my love for my first RTAK and how my ex-wife won't release it. I showed him the scar on my pinkie from trying to stab a big tire in Indiana which ended up in a trip to the ER.
As we stood there talking about various knives on his table, he went back and picked up the RTAK and said, "Since you know this guy and you like his stuff so much, how about I just give you a better price on this?" He gave me a huge price break on his already "not too bad" price. My daughter can attest; I carried that knife around like a newborn baby the rest of the day. People would ask what I was carrying and I would show them. I got wrinkled noses as responses from the ignorant to offers that would have given me a nice profit.
As you can see, the handle isn't your typical black Micarta, the middle handle pin is conspicuously absent, and there is a hole in the blade between Livesay and what appears to be an obliterated model marking. Something tell's me I've seen or heard of this knife somewhere before, but I can't place it. I'll keep searching.
I'm not interested in rehashing whatever issues anyone on this board has had with Newt, and there have been many reported; I still love the man's knives.
This first table inside the door was a knife dealer; the first knife to catch my eye was an RTAK that was just "wrong." I went to pick it up and the dealer said, "That's a Live-Say. It's like a short machete or something. Big old thing, huh?" (He pronounced Livesay with the long I sound like eye.) My now 18 year old Daughter Michelle leaned over and exclaimed, "IS THAT ONE OF NEWTS!?!?" I said, "Yep!" then turned back to the dealer and continued, "It's from Newt Livesay. He's out of Siloam Springs, Arkansas. This looks like an oddball variant of an RTAK; maybe even a prototype. He developed this knife after some feedback Jeff Randall gave on his Recon Combat Machete. This is the knife that is now copied by Ontario." He went all slack-jawed and said, "You don't say?" We talked for a while. I told him about my love for my first RTAK and how my ex-wife won't release it. I showed him the scar on my pinkie from trying to stab a big tire in Indiana which ended up in a trip to the ER.
As we stood there talking about various knives on his table, he went back and picked up the RTAK and said, "Since you know this guy and you like his stuff so much, how about I just give you a better price on this?" He gave me a huge price break on his already "not too bad" price. My daughter can attest; I carried that knife around like a newborn baby the rest of the day. People would ask what I was carrying and I would show them. I got wrinkled noses as responses from the ignorant to offers that would have given me a nice profit.
As you can see, the handle isn't your typical black Micarta, the middle handle pin is conspicuously absent, and there is a hole in the blade between Livesay and what appears to be an obliterated model marking. Something tell's me I've seen or heard of this knife somewhere before, but I can't place it. I'll keep searching.
I'm not interested in rehashing whatever issues anyone on this board has had with Newt, and there have been many reported; I still love the man's knives.
