The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is ready to order! See this thread for details:
https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/bladeforums-2024-traditional-knife.2003187/
Price is $300 ea (shipped within CONUS). If you live outside the US, I will contact you after your order for extra shipping charges.
Order here: https://www.bladeforums.com/help/2024-traditional/ - Order as many as you like, we have plenty.
Memories are a strange thing, but I doubt that Chuck told Larue that it was his unit and man who stabbed the man in the head. I first met Chuck when I was the AST for his A-Team, in the 10th SFG (ABN) ) in 1972, and remained a very good friend until Chuck died on 8 Sep 2008 (RIP). The man who did stab the NVA in the head with his Randall was his Team Sergeant, MSG Ken "Shoebox" C......... Ken was on a Recon Team in CCC, SOG, running out of Kontum. His Randall had those saw teeth on the spine and like the story goes he could not extract it from the head of the now dead NVA. Ken had waited 18 months to receive his Randall and was not about to leave it, so used a .45 automatic to shoot around the blade so he could extract it. Anything Chuck said about the actual LaRue knife, you can take it to the bank, as he would not say something was good if it was not. John@tltt's research is always superb, but I had to check out this story for myself. I looked up the article in the November 2004 issue of Tactical Knives. The new knife is indeed a very close rendering of the original, as you can see for yourself.
The original, called the LaRue Tactical Knife, was CNC-made by LaRue out of CPM-S30V (thus the choice to use this steel as an homage in the new LaRue Battle Knife). Karwan called out the fact that LaRue used CNC machining to make the knife because it was only the second company he'd seen use that still-novel manufacturing technique back then and he was very impressed by the results.
The sheath was a green Spec-Ops model. As good as Spec-Ops sheaths are, the custom-made, multi-material Hardened Silo sheath accompanying the new Battle Knife is much better and adds to the overall package. (Karwan said that the knife rattled too much in the Spec-Ops sheath, a problem eliminated by the Silo's design.)
The article alluded to the fact that the knife was favored by an unnamed Special Operations unit.
Given LaRue's early connection with the Horrigan brothers, that unit would be 1SFOD-D (Delta Force). Delta Force operator Bob Horrigan, a knife guy who constructed his own knives in his spare time, eventually made a very close copy of the LaRue Tactical Knife knife that he called his Military Fighter (now made and sold by his twin brother, custom knife maker John Horrigan).
According to a 2015 post by Mark LaRue on ar15.com, John Horrigan's only involvement with the LaRue Tactical Knife was sharpening a few of the knives while demonstrating the use of a new piece of sharpening equipment for LaRue employees. LaRue said that otherwise the knife's manufacture was "entirely in-house, from design to completion."
Karwan's TK article didn't mention anything about the knife's choil or the Randall-in-a-skull story. That also came directly from another Mark LaRue post in that same ar15.com thread about the knife.
Chuck Karwan was a combat-decorated Special Forces officer in Vietnam. If he told Mark LaRue about such an event, I'm inclined to believe it happened the way that Karwan described it. Truth is often stranger than fiction, particularly when it comes to warfare.
-Steve
I was gonna say the knife is neat but wow that case and rifle setup! Lotta bucks but it's got the coolness factor.
Very nice. Here’s mine. The Larue PredaOBR. During Covid, there was a guy that lived near me that sold it to me unfired for about what a Bulgarian AK costs today. Maybe my best gun score and my nicest rifle. And since this is a knife forum and don’t have a Larue Battle knife to pair it with, I threw in a hawk that just came in tonight. Also my nicest hawk. It’s a shame that my pic sucks, these two pieces deserve betterHow about a Larue battle rifle?
My thoughts exactly. I have the MBT-2S in all of my ARs and they are THE best triggers for the money.
Thank you for supplying the real story, John. I was hoping that you or S Sidehill Gouger would chime in on this one for clarification of the facts. And you're right about memories playing tricks, especially as the years roll on....
That custom is beautiful!
Soldiers mostly.
Bob Horrigan , died in Iraq back on 17 June 2005, two weeks before his tour was over and at about 19 1/2 years in the Army. RIP. John@tltt's research is always superb, but I had to check out this story for myself. I looked up the article in the November 2004 issue of Tactical Knives. The new knife is indeed a very close rendering of the original, as you can see for yourself.
The original, called the LaRue Tactical Knife, was CNC-made by LaRue out of CPM-S30V (thus the choice to use this steel as an homage in the new LaRue Battle Knife). Karwan called out the fact that LaRue used CNC machining to make the knife because it was only the second company he'd seen use that still-novel manufacturing technique back then and he was very impressed by the results.
The sheath was a green Spec-Ops model. As good as Spec-Ops sheaths are, the custom-made, multi-material Hardened Silo sheath accompanying the new Battle Knife is much better and adds to the overall package. (Karwan said that the knife rattled too much in the Spec-Ops sheath, a problem eliminated by the Silo's design.)
The article alluded to the fact that the knife was favored by an unnamed Special Operations unit.
Given LaRue's early connection with the Horrigan brothers, that unit would be 1SFOD-D (Delta Force). Delta Force operator Bob Horrigan, a knife guy who constructed his own knives in his spare time, eventually made a very close copy of the LaRue Tactical Knife knife that he called his Military Fighter (now made and sold by his twin brother, custom knife maker John Horrigan).
According to a 2015 post by Mark LaRue on ar15.com, John Horrigan's only involvement with the LaRue Tactical Knife was sharpening a few of the knives while demonstrating the use of a new piece of sharpening equipment for LaRue employees. LaRue said that otherwise the knife's manufacture was "entirely in-house, from design to completion."
Karwan's TK article didn't mention anything about the knife's choil or the Randall-in-a-skull story. That also came directly from another Mark LaRue post in that same ar15.com thread about the knife.
Chuck Karwan was a combat-decorated Special Forces officer in Vietnam. If he told Mark LaRue about such an event, I'm inclined to believe it happened the way that Karwan described it. Truth is often stranger than fiction, particularly when it comes to warfare.
-Steve
Yes, the terrible (but all too familiar) true story of the soldier who's killed when he's so short that he can practically taste his retirement cake. I discussed it in post #113 of this thread:
