Rambo’s “Real” knife

Keeping with the hollow handle design it would have been a Randall Model 18.

This post always made me think about Rambo. Almost seems like an alternate story line. With a more peaceful ending.

A

Thread 'Journey of a Randall 18'

It started about 1970. Purchased to accompany my father in his duties during the Vietnam war. He volunteered for the Army and qualified for Special Forces (Green Beret).
After the war, and right before I was born, the family moved from Miami Florida to Colorado. Being a bow hunter and avid outdoorsman, this knife accompanied him on all of our outdoor hunting and camping adventures.

At age 45, with all his children out of the house, he decided to move back to Miami and live with his parents, to help out in their old age. He decided to make this trip via kayak. He took various waterways...
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I love the idea of the Buck 119 since as far as I know it is the oldest of the models mentioned and this would have been a classic even after Vietnam.

But I’m probably with the guys who said a Randall as it seems the most analogous to the movie knife. It’s a bit younger than the 119 but probably old enough it could have been a classic as well at the time, even if not quite as long established.
 
I’m not sure about your timeline. Both Buck and Randall have their start just before WW2. Any difference in age would be insignificant.

Really they started in similar ways, Randall chose to stay small, Buck chose to go mass production.


Edit: My apologies technically you are correct Buck lists 1902 as an official start Randall 1937. Still its only 35 years.

I cant recall ever seeing a WW2 Buck WW2 Randalls are more commonly seen. Making me believe Randall may have been larger than Buck at the time. In the 1940’s Buck knives were still being made 1 at a time by hand

Certainly by VN in the context of Rambos choices either was viable.
 
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I vote either Buck 119 or Kabar. I like First Blood : Part 2 (Rambo) the best (out of the movies). But now I’m becoming interested in checking out the books.
 
When I was working in this machine shop in my early 20's a guy started working there.
Larger than life fellow.
The kind of person where Everything about them is interesting..... Everything.
Lots of stories.
He was a bad kid, just like in the movies the Judge said either you are going to jail....or enlisting in the Army. He chose the later.

He was a very colorful sort, I won't say a lot though for privacy reasons, and really I lost track of him, idk if he's still around......?

All his stories, in life though he didn't talk much about his service in Nam. I knew he was an Army Ranger, and that's about it.

Working second shift, and the guys liked to Drink after work. Friendships, or at least comfort and acceptance develops.

R. Went out to his car and came back with a Unfortunately Large photo album. More than 2" thick. I'll save the details, but R. Reenlisted again, after he was done. After his time spent . He could of left, and gone home... but after loosing too many good friends, he said that " he didn't kill enough of them"..... His scrapbook said differently.

My brother in law loves knives, and doesn't have any of Mine. I haven't offered. He grumbles that All of mine look like kitchen knives. Maybe that's true....

But the thin, Hard field knife
I designed and made for R. (In my head, what He'd want/Then, back There)
Had a different purpose....

"Trophy Hunter"










This....seems like the quintessential Rambo Knife
 
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eveled said:
Keeping with the hollow handle design it would have been a Randall Model 18.

This post always made me think about Rambo. Almost seems like an alternate story line. With a more peaceful ending.

A

Thread 'Journey of a Randall 18'

It started about 1970. Purchased to accompany my father in his duties during the Vietnam war. He volunteered for the Army and qualified for Special Forces (Green Beret).
After the war, and right before I was born, the family moved from Miami Florida to Colorado. Being a bow hunter and avid outdoorsman, this knife accompanied him on all of our outdoor hunting and camping adventures.

At age 45, with all his children out of the house, he decided to move back to Miami and live with his parents, to help out in their old age. He decided to make this trip via kayak. He took various waterways...
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Rambo in all his movies is actually a very peaceful guy. Unfortunately, the bad guys just refuse to leave him alone. Left on his own, I very much doubt Rambo would hurt anyone.

That’s a beautiful post you shared. That knife lived a full life. You could say it’s experiencing a second lifetime through the son.
 
This thread might be enlightening. Also remember, Rambo was meant to be special forces, Green Beret I believe, so his choice would be different than a regular grunt.
R

Thread 'Vietnam Vets:What knife or knives did you carry in Vietnam?'

I am a vet from Iraq and Afghanistan, and just so the Vietnam vets know, I spent 4 years doing POW/MIA Search and Recovery in Vietnam from 1992-1996 with the Central Identification Lab out of Hawaii. I have always thought about what the guys would have carried to Vietnam back then.

Please list all knives, multi purpose knives like Vic SAKS what ever you took over with you, pics would be great if you have them. Last, I want to say a big thanks to the Vietnam Vets for all they did for us.
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I have been spoiled following this site. So when I saw the subject I expected to see a lot of look knives. The comments are excellent but the paucity of pictures is disappointing. Update: nice uptick in pictures!!
 
Since he was an SF guy, I would reason the possibilities could be;
Randall model 1
Randall attack
Kabar
SOG knife
Gerber mk II
 
Since he was supposedly a (recent) veteran of the Vietnam war, a SF guy, his survival training probably would have involved a cold war era Air Force Pilot's survival knife. Of course some of the original SOG style knives were being used back then during the war as well. Outside of these two, then I would bet a Buck 119 or Kabar.
Although, in reality he probably would have had a Buck 110 or one of the stainless demo knives, but that wouldn't be true to the character I guess.
 
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