Ron, if we need more proof that informed discussion leads to discovery, this line should help. Terrific information and .. yes.. I too have found some contradictory statements by Mr. Randall quoted in Gaddis.
What is interesting is that your odd-snapped sheath explanation now has an E-bay connection.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Randall-Made...26#ht_69wt_942
This 3-6 knife apparently has one of those odd-snapped sheaths, strap snapped on east side, but marked in middle ... but the sheath is WITHOUT ANY MAKER'S STAMPS, only the model and length numbers.
I was pretty curious about seeing it ... until I noticed that the stamp on the blade is a type-3, post 1966 stamp, which should indicate a newer knife in an old sheath ... assuming that sheath was indeed provided by Randall, and is a Heiser not a replacement or something else. And the stone seems to be even younger, from the 70s. Strange collection of components for a pretty nice knife.
Discovery is a process that cannot have too much data. Thanks in part to your sharing intersting artifacts from your amazing collection, this line now has the most detailed documented, collated, wide-ranging collection, and chronology of a single-model Randall over a transition period. And from that chronology we can perhaps discover other things ... for instance, we may more accurately define the actual date (if there is a single date) that the choll cutout changed away from fishhook. That would seem to be just about in the first half of 1963 at least for the model 3s.
Thinking about it, the "discoveries" of the last few years have a cumulative effect. Sheath grand-unification-theory, blade stamps, coolie cap progression, all pile on to help define and date Delrin. Just a couple of years ago, a thesis such as this would have bogged down in a fight over the horizontal Randall stamp with avid declarations about its "Johnson-made origins," etc. Now, we smoothly traversed that particular pit-fall; a trap that derailed so many discussions.
Ill admit that it is somewhat gratifying to see an auction where someone references a "second version coolie cap" knowing where the information that defines the "versions" of coolie caps probably came from. (Actually, the knife has a "third style coolie cap," not "second" ... see this auction):
http://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/...olie-cap-1960s
I'm so taken with the depth of your historic collection of model 3s that I almost found myself bidding on a nice finger-groove early-mid sixties 3-7 ... until I reminded myself of what I'm supposed to be concentrating on. Now if it had a double guard ... Regards. Jack