Hi Ronnie, thanks for the Schirra photos. Joe and I discussed that knife in the "Mercury Astronauts with Astro" thread and determined that one is probably a model 15 as he was a pilot/Airman.
I tend to think this one on Gordon Cooper is taped. I know it's a fuzzy pic, but the sheer whiteness of it makes me think it's tape for a couple reasons.
1) We know in Gaddis' book Cooper is really in favor of taping the handle from the very beginning. We even have one in the Museum that he taped. That one's pictured on the left in following picture.
2) It really reflects the light in white, where the other handles pictured on the astronauts are darker, as they are a tan color, so they appear darker.
It makes perfect sense that he would tape his training knife to test it out that way, as he was in favor of leaving it without scales.
3) I have found that the tang on the Scaleless Astro looks wider than one with scales. This pic of my 2 Astros were cropped from the same picture, same as my Avatar. I think the reason Scaleless looks wider is because the Micarta scales are beveled on the edge, so the flat on the Micarta is narrower than the flat on the full tang.
