The Orlando Magic

[silverknife]

Thought you would be interested in yet one more example of how incredibly gifted and skillful the artisans that make our Randalls are. Unfortunately I must have deleted the "before" pictures of the #5-5 (It was a #5-6 before the restoration) but the pictures of the #3-5 are pretty close to what it looked like. Gary was not sure that that they could get out all the pits, but they did and put the original hilt back on too. The stag and nickel silver butt cap are new.




The part that I really like about this kind of restoration is that all the hard work of the guys who made the knife the first time is preserved. Unfortunately some of the blades which I got at the garage sale could not be restored by the shop.



Regards, DOug

[Byrdguy]

What type of handle did the knife have before it was refurbed? What kind of $$ are we looking at to have a makeover like that? (just wondering if it's worth it to buy a beater and have it refurbed) The knife looks great BTW.

[BoBlade]

Doug,

The shop guys are indeed magicians! What are the odds of running across a bunch of Randalls at a garage sale (rusty or not)? That had to be pretty exciting. What went through your mind at the time?

Ron

[panhead]

Man
What a fantastic job they did on that rusty ole Randall. I wish I could find some poor old Randall to save.
Panhead

[Moosehead]

Fantastic job at restoring that poor old neglected, mistreated #3. The owner should be ashamed of "hisself".

And yes, it still must be quite a thrill to actually find a Randall, let alone a few of them at someone's garage sale, where you usually find a collection of broken down junk and tasteless paintings of Elvis.

Cheers!

David

[silverknife]

The handle was stacked leather with an aluminum butt cap when I got the knife, but some of the leathers had rotted away and the butt cap was badly corroded. The knives had been kept in the basement which flooded at some point.

Bo, I recognized them as Randalls immediately. The sheaths were no where to be found and my first reaction was anger than sadness that somebody had allowed these works of art to be ruined. I was determined to have them resored regardless of the economics but I was saddened even more when I sent a couple to the Shop and got them back with a note telling me that they could not be restored.

I brought a few more to the shop with me in May and the answer was the same for the others except for this #5-6 which Gary agreed to try and restore but without any assurance that they could get out all the pits. You see the results-a perfectly restored #5-5. Gary said that they would have to shorten the knife, so since it was not going to be "original" I had no qualms about changing the handle material. Since the hilt was going to be saved I decided that a nickel silver butt cap was the way to go since I really like the added weight. THe knife is now pretty heavy in the handle but that is how I like it. This will be a user, camp/utility knife. I don't hunt, but I fish and camp so it will be used. The black sheath doesn't show the grease and dirt as much as the tan sheaths.

I still have a #1-8 blade which was the best of the bunch. I didn't want to bring all of them to Orlando with me because of how hard the shop is working to catch-up I figured that I would be lucky if they took one. Maybe next time I visit my daughter in Orlando I will stop by the shop and see if they are willing to take it on for restoration.

Byrguy, I got the corroded Randalls pretty cheaply, but figuring that so far I only have one "good one" out of the bunch the economics of the exercise are not landing in my favor. I did sell a couple of the rotten blades on eBay to finance the restoration, but the purpose of the exercise from the start was to preserve the handiwork of the Randall craftsmen who made the knives in the first place.

Regards, Doug

[black rob]

Even in that condition they are good finds! Congrats Doug, the #5 looks great.

Rob