Crock? Croc? What the heck? Listen Moose, do you think I would just fabricate a fantastic story about being attacked by a croc in Africa while fighting Lumumba?s cuban-led communist Simbas - tribesmen who were literally cannibals who actually captured killed and ate two of our mercs - merely to explain odd dates of a sheath and knife? And I
did suffer grevious harm. No one seems to understand the loss, the psychological trauma, when one has the sheath for a cherished knife chomped by a crocodile which was trying to turn me into a modern day Captain Hook to boot?. (by the way... was Peter Pan's knife a Randall?)
Here are some additional details of the croc-battle that should convince the skeptical.
When I wildly swung the magic-Randall at the croc, I involuntary yelled something. My merc friends said it was ?OH ####, 0h ####? though I don't remember doing it. Well, my Luba boys thought I had given a Swahili battle cry,
?Oshirti o'simba,? which roughly means
?my strength will slay you, lion.? (edit correction - "my strength is as strong as a lion") Thereafter they not only regarded the knife as mystical, but they believed I was a fearless warrior
(... well ...er ... kinda-maybe-not exactly) They nick-named me
?Bwana uchawi kisu,? or the
?man-boss of the magic knife? which was pretty heady stuff for a 17 year old.
Furthermore, my old friend, artist Fank Frazetta, was inspired by my story which I related to him about 1970 or so. He told me that he used the incident for one of his paintings - see below. See also
http://frankfrazetta.net/
More proof? Here is a picture of the Randall Museum about late 1980s -1990 or so. I understand the museum is now in the process of being moved, so I don't know if this display case is still as it was then.
Now ? I hope I?ve convinced the doubtful with these additional details ? how could all of that be fiction?
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Actually, what I?m trying to do is to create some discussion within a consistent story line-lite. I?ve noticed that most of the Randall boards are oriented toward show-and-tell, which is great by itself. For whatever reason, discussions of age/era sometimes seem to become contentious, opinionated sometimes with little evidence offered, so is avoided.
Well, it seems to me the full story of Randall especially in the transition late 50s ? early 60s, is not yet settled. Ron?s excellent essay on pins was apparently about the first time that subject has been treated systematically. Hence the presentation of 5 pinned wooden handled knives that appear to have two different sized pins (both smaller than the big diameter pins ID?d by Ron). Is this significant? Heck, it might be just as you opined... merely a product of what was available. Incidentally, there is some good stuff on this board site about how-to-pin-a-handle.
One next step could be to compare pin sizes used in other handle materials and see if there is an era- size pattern or something. But that would probably require a large collection of pinned-handle knives as it is difficult to properly scale pictures.
On another question, not having handled hundreds of knives and sheaths I don?t know if the orientation of the vertical Randall stamp is significant. Is it a random event? Different worker-bee stamper? different company or location doing the stamping? I haven?t found this discussed, though it might be well covered in the literature, common knowledge among serious collectors. Again this might require about 50 brown button sheaths and knives to develop an answer, even if that answer is "not significant."
Regardless, we shouldn?t be hesitant to ask questions or exchange information, even wild ideas. All discovered truths start with a thesis, which is dependent on data.
As you can see, I?ve got a "crock"-pot full of crack-pot ideas. Definitely not accompanied by crocodile tears.
Regards, Jack Williams