Thread: Randall 10-3, near perfect bait knife

Randall Made Knives is a small family owned business operating out of Florida, USA.
This father, son, grandson and daughters business have been producing exception knives for 75 years on the same site and by the same family, with a few hired helpers.
Th story goes that Bo Randall was wounding along one day and saw a gentleman scaling the bottom of his boat with a knife, Bo really liked the look of the knife and so managed to convince the boat owner to sell it to him, turns out the blade was a Scagel, who was another legendary knife maker of the time, anyway Bo took the knife home and decided to make himself one just like it, he did and shortly afterwards took it on a hunting trip with a few buddies, one of his buddies took a shine to the knife and managed to convoke Bo to sell it to him.
Well Bo did not like to be without a knife and so made another, well the same thing happened to Bo with people buying his knives about four times before Bo decided to start making knives full time and selling them out of his father Sporting Shop (Abercombie and Finch), as well as by word of mouth.
Well Bo was doing this rather well when war broke out. Shortly afterwards a young soldier came to Bo and asked him to make him a fighting knife to take to war - the knife he described was almost a sabre and Bo did not think a knife that size would be very good, especially considering all the other equipment he had to carry, eventually Bo created the Zacharius/Randall all purpose fighting knife (which was a bit of a mouthful, so it got shorted to the Randall #1), well this knife was popular and soon Randall got flooded with requests from other soldiers for his fighting knife, along with a steady supply of request for his sporting knives.
Well 75 years has passed, old Bo has passed away and his son, Gary, is teaching his son, Jason, the family business, the line up has grown, there are now 28 models in the catalogue, about another 15 non-catalogue models and various other dealer or oddball models, many have become collectors models with some rare pieces costing thousands and thousands of dollars, presidents have used Randall knives, they have served in may theatres of war, Randall knives flew into space as the official NASA blade, and they still make excellent hunting knives.
Randall knives are either O1 carbon tool steel from Sweden or 440 B stainless, and each blade is made by hand with the blade smith first hammering the a piece of hot metal into shape and then filing, sanding, polishing and finally sharpening and putting a guard and handle on before putting it into an excellent leather sheath - such is the popularity of Randall knives that there his currently a four and half year wait on their knives - although serving soldiers can jump the line and get one much sooner.
The knives can be customised before being shipped, for instance the model one can be had with either a carbon or a stainless blade, in 5, 6, 7, or 8 inch blade, with or without saw teeth, with brass, aluminium or nickel silver fittings, with a nomad, reduced, single, downward curved or lugged hilt, with a wood, leather, stag or micarta handle, with a border patrol, commando, single finger grip, multiple finger groves, or stnard shaped handle, with a tan or black sheet, with out without a sharpening hone pocket, waxed or non waxed, the knife can have a wrist thong or not, and can even have a compass installed and have your name etched into the blade...and thats just the model 1!

Well I have here the model 10-3, which is a bait knife with a 3 inch stainless steel blade of 1/8 inch stock, with black micarta handles, this model is actually produced by the stock removal process, which means its done on a belt grinder and not in the forge, never the less its a wonderful hand made knife.



This is great little bait knife, being stainless it won't rust when it gets salty or bloody, the micarta handle is impervious to the elements, the wrist thong means it won't get dropped overboard, about the only problem is that the pouch sheath, whilst very well made might rot from the elements, I rub snow seal into mine and store in dry when not in use, the blade came wonderfully sharp and has maintained its edge with a little help from my Spyderco sharp maker (I will review this at some stage).
Some Specs
Length over all: 162 mm
Blade: 82 mm
In sheath: 170 mm
Weight (with cord): 88 grams
Sheath weight: 47 grams

As well as being a bait knife this follows me into the garden, is used to score the xmas ham, and being a drop point shape is perfect for skinning as well, the small size and shape means that its light enough and small enough to be tossed into a pack as a back up knife, or can be worn on a belt all day without notice.

All in all its a terrific little knife and I highly recommend it for a use and forget to clean then come back to it without it rusting, all purpose small knife.
Good stuff Randall! (note: I do not work for Randall and paid good money for this).

Shelley

Blade would be too short for the baits I cut Wouldnt make it halfway through the skippies

Good sturdy looking knife.