I recently picked up a very nice early Astro without Micarta handle scales at the blade show in June.
In the Sixteenth printing catalog of 1963, it lists this knife without scales, offered to the public officially for the first time, with micarta scales an option.
Then in the 1965 Seventeenth printing the micarta handle is standard.
This particular Astro that I acquired at blade came out of Rhett Stidhams collection.
I have found no other pics of this 1st Astro offering without scales anywhere online.
Does anyone here own one? I would love to see pics.
Note my astro doesn't have the hole drilled for a thong, so it was made and intended as a replica as described in the Sixteenth printing. Yet the photo of the Astro in the sixteenth printing seems to have a drilled hole in the tang for the thong.
What do you make of it all?
Thanks, Sam