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Old 10-19-2014, 08:20 PM
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Jacknola Jacknola is offline
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Delrin chronology

Dating Delrin

For many years, conventional opinion placed the use of Delrin by Randall beginning about 1968. But some knives surfaced that were obviously older. One or two could be waved off as an old blade newly handled. However, as we have seen, just too many "old blades" were found. Plus, the mid-60s era was the beginning of the flood-tide of orders. It is not very likely that the more popular models had components, such as blades, languishing on the shelf for extended periods of time. The start date for use of Delrin had to be moved earlier in the 1960s.

Earlier in this line, I opined that earliest use of Delrin was documented by an "SS" knife that had to be 1963-64. Now the date may need to be moved still earlier - to 1960 .... see the progression below. To accept this thesis, several questions need to have a logical answer. These include (of course): "when was Delrin available?" and "how did it come to be used by Randall?"

Other questions of interest to fill in the Delrin blanks include the following: "How did anyone know about the availablity of Delrin" as a substitute for ivory? It did not appear in the catalog until 1968-69... and even then was almost as expensive as ivory. Another question of interest: "Why was the use of Delrin by Randall later discontinued?"

In any case, here is my pictorial take on Delrin-Randall chronology.

1. 1960 (?) my 3-7 deep choll, Heiser-Randall brown button with horizontal Randall stamp on sheath:




2. 1963 (?) SS blade




1963 - This is probably the same knife, picture taken from Joe Dorsky's site.



3. 1964 (?) Low S





4. 1965? APFK blade with type-1 stamp dated before early 1966. (Mitchell Harrison collection and photo). This knife is paired with an early Johnson baby dot sheath with no model numbers. If the sheath is original, the package could be as early as 1963. 1965 dating is conservative.



5. late 1966 - model 19, type-3 blade stamp, 7-spacer, separate "S", also dated by blade config possibly used only for short time before 1967. (?)



6. late1966-early 67 my Delrin pair, separate S



Years 68-about 71 was the catalogued era, but it seems as if more Delrin was used on Bowies or toothpicks, or at least those seem to have been the knives that have more often survived.

7. 1973 or so Pete Hamilton dated (possibly approximate last date for Delrin) Incidentally... this variant of 5-spacers, all red and white was apparently used possibly only on Delrin during this time. This one has thicker reds than others.



5 spacers, not the red-white, but more traditional, also appear on a Delrin-handled carving set that Steve Zimmerman estimated to be late '60s (see earlier post). The carving knife of that set appears to have a separate "S". I wonder if five spacers in general was something fairly common to Delrin prior to 1973?

Last edited by Jacknola; 07-30-2017 at 02:42 PM.
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