DUTDOOR “\OULD KING ARTHUR really have aurbooR CONilica hs tawous sword Eovatibus from a stone as the legend claims? “Of course not!” scoffs Bo Randall of Orlando, Fla. Randall has enjoyed quietly debunking many such knife legends during 30 years of making what many outdoorsmen consider to be the world’s best sporting blades. ‘Today most men are said to carry or own a knife. “Most of them, regret- fOr asifOnauts From dinner table to outer space and the Vietnam jungle, the razor-sharp products of a hobbyist knife-maker are cleaving bones and splitting hairs the world over 4 POPULAR MECHANICStably, cannot recognize a good blade from a poor one,” Randall says sadly. “Quality of steel used is always of first importance. After that, depending upon the owner and not necessarily in this order, come such things as the knife’s ability to do the job, the ease with which it can be handled, its bevel designs and general appearance.” High price, he warns, does not al- ways assure high quality. The quality RANDALL, shown JANUARY 1967 CHERRY RED, rough blade is hammered te general shape. Original blank of car- bonstool steel stock is used for knives purchaser should look for fine work- manship and good “feel.” A pocket- knife blade, for instance, should not be loose. It should have good spring ac- tion, opening and closing firmly with a snap, the point completely protected by the case in the closed position. Unfortunately, he adds, you cannot tell quality steel by appearance alone. ‘The Florida knifemaker offers 18 dif- ferent blades (but no pocketknives) By GEORGE X. SAND left with son, Walter, examines Astronaut Gordon Cooper's knife. ‘Above, « hot blode is checked after removal from gas-fired forge where itis frst heated FORGED BLADE is now ground to ‘ond contour wanted. It is then hard by reheating it and immersing it in oil M45KNIFE HANDLES can be os different as the mony men who own them. The one above is being made of leather discs that are glued and tomped together at prices ranging from $20 to $65 for hunters, fishermen, divers, knife throwers, soldiers, airmen, and just plain roast carvers. These men send Bo amazing testimonials. During World War II the famed Ma- rine ace, “Pappy” Boyington, later shot down in the South Pacific, is said to have paid the equivalent of $500 for a used Randall fighting knife. From Iwo to frozen Chosen, fighting men swore by these gleaming blades which have killed so often they make bowie and other more legendary knives insignif- icant by comparison. One infantry ma- jor sent Bo an affidavit claiming he had used his Randall “accounting for a large percentage of the 364 enemy I re- ceived credit for killing with individ- ual arms.” Randall knives perform other in- credible feats, too. It is not uncommon for one to be used to skin out and com- pletely butcher a 1000-pound moose or bear without once needing resharpen- ing. Or to cut quickly through a six- inch manila mooring line in an emer- gency. Or pry open the canopy of a downed plane and still be sharp enough to operate immediately upon the injured pilot. Randall readily explains his own method, step-by-step, in his 33-page 146 FINAL SHAPING is accomplished with @ rasp. Other materials used to make knife handles include ivory from elephant tusks and bone from antler horns catalog which he will mail for 25 cents (write to Box 1988, Orlando, Fla.). He explains simply that it is “hard, pains- taking effort that determines knife quality, not mysticism.” He will, in fact, sell you a “make-it-yourself” kit of the very same materials he uses. Here are the steps he recommends: Obtain a piece of carbon-tool steel knife stock. Heat it cherry red and hammer out the rough blade in the general shape desired. Grind the rough forged blade to size and contour. Harden the blade by heating it cher- ry red again, then immersing it in tem- pering oil. Draw out the brittleness and internal stresses by tempering the blade at low heat until it becomes a strawish-blue color and can be cut with a new file. Grind in lines, bevels and contours and remove roughness. Use a coarse hone and true up the cutting edge, removing any remaining waves and unevenness. Regrind the blade on a fine-grit wheel to remove scratches made by the coarse hone. ‘Smooth the blade first with coarse and then with fine-grit emery cloth. Polish it on a glued-up coarse emery wheel. Cut and shape the hilt from quarter- inch brass. Drill a hole and file it ree- tangular to fit the handle tang Fit hilt to the blade and solder in place. Fit POPULAR MECHANICShandle to the tang, cutting rectan- gular holes in pieces of fiber, plastic or leather. Slip each of these into place and glue separately. Drill a piece of half-inch duralurin for the butt and recess it to fit the tang. Drive it on tightly and peen it into place, or thread end of the tang and use a nut. When the glue is thoroughly dry, shape the handle with a coarse file and a finer file. Smooth it with coarse and then fine emery paper. The hilt and butt are filed and sanded as the handle is shaped. Polish the blade with a medium-grit glued-up emery wheel. Polish the hilt and butt on a muslin wheel charged with polishing compound. Sharpen the blade on a medium-grit hone. Polish the blade on a fine-grit glued-up emery wheel and again polish the hilt and butt. Give final sharpening to the blade, using a fne-grit hone. Remove the last fine hone scratches with a hard polishing wheel. Give final polish to the hilt, butt and handle with a soft muslin wheel. Make or have made a sheath patterned to fit the blade with a stop for the hilt (so the point cannot pierce the sheath) and with splines along the sides to prevent cutting the stitches. Use a keeper strap and fasteners to told the knife in the sheath. Walter Doane Randall started mak- ing knives in 1938 It took him several months for the first. Bo’s hunting com- panions thought it beautiful. But he wasn’t satisfied. He let one of his friends buy the knife for a meager sum and started another. He’s been trying to make each one better ever since. Another knife fallacy which Randall is prone to expose involves the “sec- rets” of proper sharpening. “A knife is made, and later resharp- ened accordingly, for either a long, thin bevel or a heavy bevel. You can’t have both at once: That would be like using a razor blade to cut up a moose.” ‘Tempering is important. Any good steel blade can be finished with a blunt, (Please tura to page 233) JANUARY 1967 RANDALL KNIVES can, ond have, cut jest about ony- thing. Hunters use them to skin animals. One wrote hhe skinned Kodiak bear without reshorpening knife VIETNAM WAR brought requests from cirmen to de- sign knife thot could cut quickly through helicopter futeloge for escape if downed in enemy territory RANDALL TESTS knives on hord Florida heart pine before shipping them to customers. 2 ore noted for holding cutting edge through long service uyKNIVES FOR ASTRONAUTS (Continued from page 141) tough V or bevel (similar to a chisel) and be used to hack through the bones of big game animals, cut tent poles and firewood and even cut through other steel. This would make such a knife unfit, of course, as a wearon. So the blade is made more flexible accordingly by changing the tem- pering. But this sacrifices toughness. It will probably surprise you to learn that all knives cut the same way, regard- less of how expensive or well-sharpened. Under a microscope even the finest edge resembles jagged saw teeth. That's what the blade does: sews its way through. ‘Make me a fighting knife’ During World War II Randall was working alone lat2 one night. A young soldier fiom a nearby training camp knocked hesitantly at the door. “Mr. Ran- dall, I want you tc make me a knife,” he explained, apologizing for the late hour. “A fighting knife.” Bo refused, exrlaining that he knew only how to make sporting knives. There was a fatalistie urgency about the young soldier, however, that made Randall ré consider and he listened quietly to this boy who was being sent to the Pacific. ‘The youngster sensed that this would be largely a foxhole war of sudden, silent, jungle death. If he could only take with him a strong kni‘e fashioned after the bowie, but lighter. faster Thus came into unexpected existence the deadly No. 1 Randall fighting blade. Bo never heard from the young soldier again. Meanwhile, word spread and o ders arrived. by the thousand, hastily written on letterkeads with insignia of uniformed men throughout the world. (Randall has a huge stamp collection as a result.) One soldier's acknowledging post- card carried simply the word “WOW!” in large red letters. Many knives were turned, the box marked “Deceased.” Twenty years laier another man walked into Bo's now enlerged shop: one of the original astronauts. He, too, requested a special knife made. Bo made seven of these, presented one to each. The blade that made 23 orbi:s was returned to Bo in appreciation by Gordon Cooper. Ran- dall prizes it: the first knife in space. Perhaps the Ohia farmer summed up the Randall knife story as well as anyone when he wrote: “We butchered a three- quarter-grown bull calf and after cutting and skinning thrcugh a lot of muscle, gristle and tough tendons that knife was still able to shave the hairs from my arm —dry!” ee JANUARY 1967 Pound-for-pound the world’s most TCG MAN Li ecene eg turbine engine and you can CB Ate! For the past four years, Turbonique’s compact, new-breed gas turbine engines have been sett fantastic power-output records everywhere. accessory equipment boost to 2 giant off-shore drilling rg. Gas turbine experts here and in Europe have been hp-to-weight ratio, their simplicity Complete make and Dulld instructions for a variety of kits plos Getatled engineers ravings, are included irour Technical Manual. Our new 1966 catalog describes 29 STANDARD MODELS WITH OUTPUTS FROM 45 TO 850 HP. With all the latest performance data, application ideas, and kit and factory-assembled. engine facts and prices. 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