Randall Made Knives

donnord

donnord

Gold Member
Joined
Dec 22, 2007
Messages
533
Noob question..... I know. I am thinking of buying myself a Randall. There seem to be a few on Ebay.
Can someone who owns one give me a little feedback. First question is are they as good as some folks say in terms of durability, and edge holding. I tend to be a bit hard on my knives, none of mine are pristine. If I buy one from ebay will Randall Made still service it?
 
Moderators,

I hate to do this, but Randall's are not custom knives.

This is the 3rd thread recently.

Please move this to the appropriate factory forum location.

WWG
 
WoodWorkGhost said:
Moderators,

I hate to do this, but Randall's are not custom knives.

This is the 3rd thread recently.

Please move this to the appropriate factory forum location.

WWG
Click to expand...

May be a dumb question but when did Randall Made Knives stop being custom made knives and become factory knives :confused:
 
Mike,

Randall Made still makes knives 'to order' from a wide variety of available options, including customer supplied handle, hilt, spacer, and end-cap materials - to some, this makes their personalized knife 'custom'...to others, it does not.

Tons of options and odd-ball configurations notwithstanding, Randall stopped allowing customers to design their own blade shapes in the very early 1980's...

The definition of 'custom' is often vague, i.e. the number of cooks in the kitchen, the repeated use of various patterns, the amount and type of machinery used, etc. Truth be told, IMNSHO, many 'custom' knives sold today would be better identified as 'handmade' or 'benchmade'...

FWIW, Randall makes handmade knives and the word Benchmade' is copyrighted...and for the sake of reduced bandwidth use, many of us here have agreed that Randall's aren't 'custom' knives ;)

Hope that helps,
 
They may not be custom knives but expect a several year waiting period if purchased directly from Randall. Anyway, the Randall Made Knives website is most informative on the history and current production.
 
Melvin-Purvis
Thanks for your quick reply I did the 13 month wait back in 1999 for a Mod.14 that Randall made to order for me I bought a few more from A.G. Russell while i was waiting and five or six more since then from flea bay.hearing the moderators calling them factory knives is somthing i have not heard before and cought me alittle by suprise but your explanation makes sense. The only thing thats important i guss is that they are excelent knives Worth the wait and mine will be passed down to my Grand Kids:thumbup::D
THANKS AGAIN
MIKE
 
Mike, you wrote "hearing the moderators calling them factory knives is somthing i have not heard before..."

Here's the thing of it...we fought this one out here years ago, it went on for months, many pages, and a lotta bad blood came about because of it... :barf:

Les and some of the others were adament that RMK's were not custom, while A.G. and I, amongst others, said simply (paraphrased) that it doesn't matter diddly-squat who the maker is; if you order something unique, it's custom...conversely, a handmade knife by a 'custom' knife maker or makers, a knife type that is identical or nearly identical to others made by that same maker, is not...it's the semantics of 'what does custom mean?'

Yet, if even the governing bodies in knife making groups can't agree to what makes a certain knife custom...then how can we? :rolleyes:

To be quite frank, I really don't give a flying rip if someone, anyone, moderator or not, wants to call Randall knives, factory, custom, handmade, benchmade, semi-custom, mid-tech, or french-vanilla ice cream for that matter - I no longer care...and to me, it's just not worth fighting over again.

Randall makes some great knives. We've owned well over 300 of 'em, and still buy 'em at every chance we get. We've also owned about two dozen so-called custom knives...we broke even on most of those 'custom' knives when we sold 'em...we made bank money when we sold our Randall's. :D
 
I think the fact that BF has dedicated a separate and distinct forum for Randall Made Knives sets it apart from the custom blade crowd. Yes, they do "manufacture" hand-crafted knives but the craftsmanship, company language, and mission statement creates a long waiting list that is worth the wait and speaks volume about the quality and the type of folks that bring us these fine pieces. Custom knife makers are lone wolves. Randall Made Knives is a company. We're in the right place.

If there's such a demand, why don't you expand, so that orders don't take so long to fill?
Our philosophy has always been to make the best knives we can make, rather than the most knives we can make. We occasionally do add people to our family of craftsmen, but frankly, it is difficult to find experienced individuals who are willing to devote the care to their work that we expect. We simply won't do anything to sacrifice the quality of our knives, and we're convinced that this commitment is what makes our knives so popular. We regret the delay, and we appreciate your understanding.
Click to expand...
 
Les, I'm surprised you are still fighting that same old battle and using that antiquated term "Custom", especially since the Guild has dropped the term "Custom" for "Handmade" in their bylaws. Randall knives belong in the Randall forum, not because of where or by whom they are made. They are not "factory" knives and your use of that term demeans a brand with a waiting list longer than most of the knives you sell.

With the change to the Guild's bylaws, Randall knives are now more "custom" than many handmade knives because of the large quantity of configurations possible from the many options they offer.
 
T.K.C. said:
...And there IS a Randall section.
Click to expand...

This may have been discussed already in some other thread, and if it has been discussed already I apologize...but to a newcomer to the forums it may be hard to find this Randall forum (this was the original poster's first post). It is now subcategorized under Collector's Forums where once it was easily found among the main forum index. I had been gone from the forums for several months and when I came back recently was disappointed to not find it, until I did a little searching. I wonder why the Randall forum has to be relegated to a sub-subforum?? :confused: Randall Made Knives enthusiasts are both collectors and users of a knife that is currently produced for real use AND collectibility, just like Busse knives for example. I'm in no way comparing a Busse to a Randall as they are completely different but my point is that a Busse to many is collectible, but Busse is not hidden away within the Collectors forums. Obviously Randall has a much longer history and is currently more widely collected. But it is still a current manufacturer of user knives, so why the difference in categorization?
 
cstorr2004 said:
This may have been discussed already in some other thread, and if it has been discussed already I apologize...but to a newcomer to the forums it may be hard to find this Randall forum (this was the original poster's first post). It is now subcategorized under Collector's Forums where once it was easily found among the main forum index. I had been gone from the forums for several months and when I came back recently was disappointed to not find it, until I did a little searching. I wonder why the Randall forum has to be relegated to a sub-subforum?? :confused: Randall Made Knives enthusiasts are both collectors and users of a knife that is currently produced for real use AND collectibility, just like Busse knives for example. I'm in no way comparing a Busse to a Randall as they are completely different but my point is that a Busse to many is collectible, but Busse is not hidden away within the Collectors forums. Obviously Randall has a much longer history and is currently more widely collected. But it is still a current manufacturer of user knives, so why the difference in categorization?
Click to expand...

It is because that forum is not "Randall Made Knives" of Orlando FL, it is the "Randall Collectors Club" an organised group of people who collect Randall knives. Gary Randall has neither the time and I am sure, not the interest of maintaning a forum. With a 5 year backlog of orders, it would not make much business sense, would it?
 
Gary Randall is very different from most knifemakers, If Buster Warenski or Bill Moran told you they had a 5 year backlog, give up all hope of ever getting a knife from them except at a show.

Gary Randall is a real businessman! When he says you will get your knife in June of 2013 you need to have your money ready in April or May of that year. Corbet Sigman, may he RIP, is the only maker I have known to have come near Randall's promptness and that was with a MUCH smaller business.

Only massive hurracains can cause delays with Randall knives.
 
Well I just found my own post after all this time, and of all the answers posted none of them addressed my question. Thanks
 
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