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  #16  
Old 02-05-2016, 11:51 AM
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Jacknola Jacknola is offline
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That sheath is definitely a Heiser-Randall west stamp, made between 1959 and 1963. This is what Joe is calling "HKL" which stands for Heiser-Keyston-Lichtenberger the corporate name for Heiser after the company was bought in 1959.

We speculated that the corporate stamp for Heiser-Keyston-Lichtenberger was so cartoonish that Mr. Randall finally made them use a stamp of his own. This is a reasonable assumption given the unacceptability of the HKL corporate stamp (you can see it about page 8 of Magic Randall line).

Note that "HKL" does not denote a new or separate company. The same Heiser people were making the sheaths in the same way in the same factory both before and after the Randall Stamp replaced the Heiser one. However, "HKL" can be a convenient shorthand way to refer to a Heiser-made sheath, with west or center facing Randall stamp, center retaining snap, etc.

examples: Heiser-Keyston-Lichtenberger corporate stamps of 1960


Last edited by Jacknola; 02-05-2016 at 08:39 PM.
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  #17  
Old 02-05-2016, 12:07 PM
Ta2bill Ta2bill is offline
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I'm in 100% agreement with both of you gentlemen.

Now for my second question which I also believe I have the answer for already....but.......
which stone is correct for this sheath? I have several of these without their respective hones, and I believe them to be grey combination with blue print. Am I correct?
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  #18  
Old 02-05-2016, 12:35 PM
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Jacknola Jacknola is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ta2bill View Post
I'm in 100% agreement with both of you gentlemen.

Now for my second question which I also believe I have the answer for already....but.......
which stone is correct for this sheath? I have several of these without their respective hones, and I believe them to be grey combination with blue print. Am I correct?
Now we have an interesting question. Ron is the one to answer this most authoritatively. However, stones are the things that have been swapped around the most on these old knives (sheaths are 2nd) and I'm not so sure what is conventional wisdom has a lot of science behind it.

Below is a collage of stones Ron put together some time ago that I copied, 1940s (top) to early 1960s (bottom). Probably any of the bottom three or four would be creditable for this sheath.

Ron Mathews created:



There are apparently quite a variety of stones that Randall used during this time period. A blue print two-grit Norton stone would be good... but so would an older two grit with the boxed logo, as would a wider, thinner, single grit stone, vintage unknown (see third from bottom above) which seems to be one I found in one of my older knife, early-mid '60s.. If he sheath is late in the period ('62-'63), even a white-paint two grit Norton stone would do (The start date for using white paint on a two-grit Norton stone has never been satisfactorily defined in my view).

Also, I would consider the condition of the knife in the sheath... if well used I would tend to put a well used stone that has the paint pretty scraped off... but that is my own quirk. One thing that bugs me is to see a later knife in a sheath from years earlier.. which happens more than you think. When I see this, I think someone is putting something over on someone.

Conventional boxed logo



Below is an interesting stone that had not been acknowledged to my knowledge (heh heh). The usual boxed Norton stone pictured everywhere has dark ink on light side of stone (above). This one from a mid-late 50s Heiser had white paint on dark stone.


Last edited by Jacknola; 02-05-2016 at 12:48 PM.
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  #19  
Old 02-05-2016, 01:01 PM
BoBlade BoBlade is offline
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Bill,

From memory the "boxed" Norton logo stone was used ~1954-1955. Then there was a "Combination Crystolon" stone with blue ink printed "Made in the USA" up through ~ 1962. Then came a Combination Crystolon stone with white ink printed "Made in USA" (No "the"). Then came a similar yellow printed stone used up through the late 60's.

Ron
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