Will Spacers Help Dat My Bowie

[david boone]

Hi guys and a happy new year. My queston is can we use the color and size of spacers to date my Randall? The knife in quseton is a Smithsonian Bowie. from the hilt down the spacers are red,white (thin),black, white (thin) and red. from the butt cap up red,white (thin) and black

 

[tunefink]

Spacers are part of it but.... pictures of the sheath and stone can also help.

Guessing dates is usually no better than +/- 3-4 years.

 

[Rhett Stidham]

David,

I an including an article about spacers below but it will not help you much on bowies. As tunefink says, sheaths and stones help you more with bowies. Since most bowies were made in 1953 and newer most all of them have thick spacers in the 1950's to the late 1980's/early 1990's.

Regards,

Rhett

Randall Talk #017 Spacers tell the age of your Randall.

Often at a knife show, when someone asks me how old their Randall is, they will see me consult a small pocket size book, that I carry to the shows. I consult a small list, of spacer configurations, that good friend and fellow Randall knife collector, Michael Johnson, gave me several years ago.

Please understand, these dates are only approximations and these dates are to be taken as a range of dates. Many of you might say, "I know better. I bought a knife with that spacer arrangement in 19xx." Well, add two to five years and see if your knife falls into the slot. Remember, approximations. There are some dates for Randalls that are exact and documented, but they are few. Also understand, that some of the ranges below will overlap, as they should, with approximations.

Another important point to remember. These dates (until about 1969-1970) are for handles other than leather, such as stag, ivory, wood and micarta. For leather handled Randalls these dates do not hold true until about 1969-1970. Around then the spacer arrangement became somewhat standardized for all Randall knives.

Late 1930's and early 1940's knives may have any thickness, number, combination and kind of spacers.

The spacers on Bo Randalls first knife are many and unusual. See below.

7 spacers all wide. 1940's (These knives are rare). If any of you have an example of this type of knife please post a picture of the knife and spacers.



7 spacers, 5 thick, 2 thin. Mid/Late 1940's to early 1970's.

3 Seven Spacer Knives from 1940’s to 1960’s

http://www.randallknifesociety.com/RKSForum/Spacers1950s.jpg[/image]
[img]http://www.randallknifesociety.com/RKSForum/Spacers1960s.jpg

And a late 1960’s black micarta handle with 7 spacers.

Unusual early 1940’s Model 4-7” with seven spacer.The red spacers on each end are actually two spacers.

(con'td) next post only allowed ten images in a post.

 

[Rhett Stidham]

Spacers con'td

Items below are for all Randall handles including leather.



5 spacers, 3 thick and 2 thin. 1969 to 1976. ** Important. These knives have a bright red, red spacer and the center spacer looks a greenish color in sunlight.

From the late 1970’s the spacer arrangement was five total spacers with the center spacer being thicker than the rest. That center spacer could be grey or black looking.

Thick gray center spacer (5 spacers total). 1977 to 1984/85.

Thick dark center spacer (5 total spacers). Late 1970's to mid 1980's

Around 1985 the spacer arrangement we are familiar with on today’s Randalls came into being. The example I use here is a Rick Bowles Special serial #190. Brass guard, brass butt cap with exposed nut. Super knife.

Best regards,

Rhett Stidham

 

[50ae]

Thanks for your post. I have now determined my #1 to be from the early 40's. Mine has nickle over the finger guard and a stag handle with finger grooves.

 

[Rhett Stidham]

50ae,

Your Model 1 is probably a Model 5 and not as early as you determined. May we see a picture of the knife's sheath?

Regards,

Rhett

 

[50ae]

Well, even if it isn't as old as I thought it only means he carried it in the Korean War instead of the Korean War and WWII. Thanks for telling me it was a #5. Cool knife never the less. Here is the sheath, which does look like the one marked 50's in that picture. On the back of it is stamped H.H. HEISER in an oval with a 1 above the name and a 7 below it

 

[Melvin-Purvis]

When dating any specific Randall knife, I tend to bookend the earliest known introduction date of the ‘newest’ observable characteristic vs. the approximate last known use dates for the ‘older’ characteristics…

In your case, the blade grind tells most of the story here, in turn confirmed by the sheath if original to the knife. Specifically, we know that while the deep ‘fish hook’ shaped choil was in use from the very late 1940’s into the very early 1960’s, the full blade length long ‘blade flats’ were discontinued in the early 1950’s. It’s generally agreed to by many knowledgeable collectors that long blade flats like those seen on your Model #5 weren’t used on very many Randall knives delivered after 1951…

The sheath style seen here is the type commonly used from 1951 thru 1952, specifically the lack of rivets coupled with a flared sheath throat, wide stone pocket flap, and use ‘Brown Button’ sheath snaps (as opposed to plain brass, plain steel, HHH Logo, brass floral, or brass decoratively styled snaps). The flared sheath throat being the most noticeable characteristic, the lack of the ‘wide’ keeper strap being the second…

Use of the thicker blue center spacer as introduced around 1947 was generally discontinued by very early 1953, so even if the blade and sheath languished in a storage bin for a year or so prior to the actual shipping date, IMNSHO, you’re still looking at an approximate build date of roughly early 1951 into very early 1953…

Or not, depending on whom you talk with…

Hope that helps. Cool knife BTW :thumbup:

Shel

 

[50ae]

Thanks. I really enjoy it. If I ever get out hunting I plan on carrying it with me. I'm one of those types that believes my guns and knives are meant to use, not sit in the safe. You can't collect memories while they are locked up in the dark.