Randalls Influence

T

tom mayo

Joined
Jan 27, 1999
Messages
6,277
was thinking today of how much I have been influenced by the pioneers in custom knife making...Bo Randall in particular.
skinblackwood.jpg
I have always loved this design, although my version is quite a bit smaller than his Alaskan skinner.

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http://www.mayoknives.com


 
Tom,
Thats a good looking blade! Is the edge hand honed? I still fight to keep mine even the length of the blade.
See ya.
Steve
confused.gif


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Be alert...the world needs more lerts.

[This message has been edited by sashcord (edited 02-15-2000).]
 
Gee, that's a pretty knife Tom. Randall had some nice ideas, but I've never seen one executed with that degree of skill and elegance.

Nice, very nice...

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Jerry Hossom
knifemaker
www.hossom.com


 
I sharpen all my knives on my variable speed 2x72 sander, learned long ago from Glenn Hornby...first with a fresh 220 then i go over it with a dull 400 or 600 to get it pretty polished up and take off most of the burr, then buff with green chrome rouge until i like the way it feels. If you look throughout knifedom (if i can use that as a word) you can see Randalls influence EVERYWHERE, from direct copies of the #1 to ones that have been changed and reinterpreted for the 90s, which my brain keeps telling me is now. One thing i dont like, is people taking his designs, copying the directly, and pretending like they are their own, but imitation is the greatest form of flattery. Plus, as much as Ken Onion would try to get us to believe otherwise, there are only so many curves you can put in a knife.

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http://www.mayoknives.com


 
by the way...my favorite randall design is the no. 15. perfect for everything in my opinion.....copied my "outdoorsman" right off of it, and the one above is a miniture No. 20...yukon skinner...not alaskan as I said. (looked it up)

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http://www.mayoknives.com




[This message has been edited by tom mayo (edited 02-15-2000).]
 
I started out making knives 11 years ago because off an article in a very old(1950 or so) issue off Popular Mecanics. There was an article about a American knifemaker and how he made his knives. Later I found out it was Randall featured in that article...
I too love the style in his knives and admit to be inspired now and then by him

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Jens Anso, ansoknives@hotmail.com
(check out my homepage)
home6.inet.tele.dk/ansoe/ansoknives


 
Tom, great looking skinner. I agree with your views on Randalls influence, but I think Randall got a lot of his influence from old Sheffield designs. I'm not sayng this to belittle Randalls work, it is outstanding. I just noticed that a lot of his designs had the Sheffield influence after I went through a few books on old Bowies.

Jake
 
I hope i never stop seeing the Randall and Loveless influence in knives. Looking at the picture you put up here What's not to like?
I'll always be a sucker for them classic lines.
 
Like I said in my second post above, with the Ken Onion humor, there is nothing new under the sun in knife curves....I really suprise a lot of guys when they say "I like the curve in that knife better than that one" and I put both knives together so they can see they have the EXACT same curve, just one is longer or goes up a little more or something. Yes Im sure Bo probably got some templates off of English knives, but if you have a set of french curves you can draw any knife on this planet (within reason of course-some of the stuff coming out these days is- in my humble opinion- a bit unreasonable)

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http://www.mayoknives.com


 
I made a paring chisel today, will stick up a pic once i take it and get it on my site, and i was thinking how that the pioneers in this field were all tool makers....tools that were meant to be used and used hard. thats what bob loveless used to say, that was why knifemaking was such an honorable ambition, you were making the most essential and fundamental tool on the planet.

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http://www.mayoknives.com


 
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