Don, I was checking the stone that came with your knife. After a brief serch, I found this posted by Ron (BoBlade) in his "bore" series. From this post, it appears the
"Norton Abrasives" stone is consistant with early-mid '50s knives...(see highlighted entry below). So, this stone would apparently be correct for a manufacture date for your knife of about 1954. I'll post Ron's picture of the stone progression associated with this tonight.
From post by Ron Mathews (BoBlade) re: old stones. (note: this post was on another forum ... if there are Mod objections to linking that post here, let me know and I'll remove the link. I feel certain Ron also posted this info on this forum some 10 years ago (!), but I cannot find it. Also, if Ron objects to my copy-pasting his post, I'll delete this.)
http://www.knifeforums.com/forums/sh...5C%7CJRB/tp/1/
"From the top:
"C1941-1943/44: Lily White Wa####a
"C1944-1948: Norton Soft Arkansas
"C1948: Norton No. 1 Wa####a Pen Knife Piece
"C1948/50: Carborundum No. 74 SIC
"C1950: "Fish Hook" stone
"C1950: Soft Arkansas Made in USA
"C1950: "Soft Arkansas"
"
C Early 50's: Norton Abrasives (2 part)
"C Mid 50's / early 60's: Norton "Combination Crystolon"
"The stones I show are not all inclusive, but represent the majority of those accompanying a Randall knife and sheath for roughly two decades. You can see that Bo had a fairly consistant supply of stones throughout most of the 40's, but towards the end of the decade he had to start scrounging. I've only seen two of the black label "Pen Knife Piece" stones. Both were with pinned ivory field knives from about 1948. There were a "fair number" of the Carborundum and fish hook stones while you see just a few of the "no label" soft Arkansas. In the early 50's he was able to procure a consistant quantity of the Norton Abrasive stones which transitioned in the mid 50's to the Norton Combination Crystolon stones and these carried him into the 60's.
"Disclaimer: The preceeding "information" is a result of my personal observations and should not be construed as factual. Any further contributions or corrections are welcome."
"Ron"