I thank the RMK steward for a wonderfully clear and full description of the process. I can sleep tonight! Actually, you confirmed the direction my thoughts were wandering ? that it doesn?t take much torque to set the nuts. And when you said you tapped the tang to set the nut with a peen ... well, back in the '60s that's what we did to the bolts on my old Triumph and BSA motorcycles to keep them from vibrating loose!
I?m tickled to have this answer. Now, a thought for everyone ? someone at the Randall shop in the mid-'60s thought up the idea of putting the round nuts on coolie caps and then came up with the method of rounding the nut and installing it. Pretty creative. Incidentally, I've never seen a round tang nut on anything other than a coolie cap.
Also, thanks to Scott for the pictures of the Bowie hex tang nuts. They didn?t negate my time line at all, probably added some additional confirmation. All brass pommels (other than coolie cap) were secured with a brass hex nut
(note that the size, shape, varied), never a round one. The change from the outside tang nut to inverted/ hidden/ recessed tang nut occurred sometime late 1970-end 1971 or so. I?ve looked at dozens of pictures and the evidence seems to support that time period for the change in brass pommels. The last knives to switch to the hidden tang nut may have been Bowies.
Here are two knives I own. The bear bowie is documented delivered November, 1970. The model 2 is undocumented, but I have reason to believe it was delivered early-mid 1972. These knives bracket the change from outside tang nut to inverted, hidden, recessed tang nut.
I haven?t closely examined aluminum pommel knives to see when they switched to the recessed tang nut, but I wouldn?t be surprised if it were about the same date.
Side note: Sheldon mentioned 1971 as being the approximate date of transition from outside tang nut to recessed tang nut in his book, unfortunately without a footnote. However, I queried him about his dates and he said he did not rely on the catalogs, but used documented knives for his dates.
Anyway? I'm really pleased about this line and tickled pink that Scott has cleared up my obsession. Thanks all. Hope others continue to post coolie capped knives, especially older ones, because nothing is ever settled. For me, it is good to have gotten an answer because now I don?t have to recruit my very old friends and try to get information the old fashioned way? vee haf our little vays ... heh heh heh...
