I would like to know the value of this fighting knife

Joined
Feb 25, 2006
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2
When I was in Vietnam in the fall of 1967 a friend of mine got a big ole pig sticker of a Randall knife. It had a antler handle that was to large in diameter for his smaller hands. It looked like a nice knife, so I bought it from him.
Handle is antler or stag 4.6 inches long, 1 inch diameter at guard. No butt cap, just smoothed antler.
Blade is 6 inches long, 1.1 inches wide. blace thin on the top, not real sharp but made to pierce.
Double brass guard.
The spacers between the guard and the antler red,white,black,white,red. the white ones are thin red one twice as thick as the white and the black one is the same thickness as the red spacers.
Blade stamp: RANDALL MADE in large caps. underneath in smaller caps ORLANDO,FLA. bracketed by what looks like two cutlasses.
Sheath is of heavy brown leather, white stitches. It has a snap pouch on the front that holds a 7/8 X 3 inch dark gray wetstone. It has a keeper snap strap that loops over the lower guard to hold the knife in the sheath. The back of the sheath has the numeral 16 on the lower part of the belt strap and above that in a sort of oval is the stamp RANDALL MADE on top, ORLANDO, FLA. on the bottom, with KNIVES in the middle with _._ above and below the word KNIVES at either end of the oval there is also a small diamond shape.
I carried this knife with me every day until I left the DMZ area and returned home in the summer of 1968. To those that may asked I never had to use the knife in combat for its intended use. The knife was then used on deer, elk, moose, and camping chores until I found that the hand forged Finnish puukko was a better tool for my needs (smaller, lighter, sharper).
I hope someone out there can give me an idea what this knife is worth in todays market.
 
Welcome home, Brother! We were there roughly the same time. From your discription the knife is a Randall model 1-6 all purpose fighter with a Johnson made (for Randall) sheath. You don't say if the snaps on the keeper strap and pouch flap are brown with the Randall logo or plain nickel plated steel (I will assume the latter). It is a period knife and sheath with a Sambar stag (from India) handle and the normal 7 spacer set for that era. Since you don't mention an "S" stamping, the blade is 01 carbon steel. In the condition it seems like it's in and without provenance it might go for $600-800 on e-bay. Since it was carried in Vietnam and you can provide documentation of such, it may go for twice that especially if your MOS was 11B or you saw actual combat. Note that e-bay is fickel and my estimates are rough. If the stars line up right then it's anyone's guess.

Best,

Ron
 
Ron.................
Thank you for your input. You were correct with the carbon blade and the silver snaps on the sheath. I was in the USAF as a forward air control out of Dong Ha, so I wasn't out crawling around in the jungle. Glad you came home too!!!
50ae................ I would have posted a picture but, I'm just barely computer literate at this point and to stuborn (dumb) to learn how to use my wife's digital camera.
be well,
...............Richard
 
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