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Old 03-29-2014, 05:29 PM
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Jacknola Jacknola is offline
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Join Date: Feb 2012
Location: New Orleans
Posts: 651
Ebony nas a tang...

I was trying to study the fluted collars and coolie caps of old RMKs, and getting about no-where because there aren't many pictures of those features? Anyway, one thing that stood out immediately is that these fluted features are handmade, each quite different. I had thought they were a supply item subject to mass production. I wonder who made them?

Apparently the use of the brass tang nut, even for coolie capped pommels, ceased about late 1970-71 or so, following adoption of the inverted tang nut. It looks as if the exposed Bowie tang nuts used for the old coolie caps were of similar size as other brass ones of the time period (apparently, all stainless tang nuts were domed) though the one used on my 12-9 coolie cap has been contoured.

But I found an interesting anomaly. In the picture below, left is the coolie cap and tang nut from my presumably circa 1963-4 12-9 bowie. On the right is the tang nut from another 12-9 bowie for sale on E-bay, slightly younger than mine, probably about 1968-70. It might be an illusion, but it looks as if that tang nut is not a ?nut? at all, being round. I guess it could be brazed to the cap and the whole cap tightened? If so, this method of securing the handle would be pretty similar to the inverted tang nut adopted a short time later. Anyone have any ideas or seen something similar?



I was curious about the odd vanilla swirl at the end of one side of the handle of my knife. Doing research, I found that Ebony is an increasingly rare wood, now a protected species in most parts of the world. However, most Ebony is not jet black but rather has vanilla streaks. Vanilla streaked ebony was sold as a cheaper material or was just left in the forest, yet it has all the same dense, rot-proof properties as black ebony. After consulting with my wood expert friend, he said that this is what is used in this handle. I thought others would be interested in the factoid.





Today, almost all the legal ebony in the world is controlled by the Martin Guitar Company through their concessions in Gabon. They have eliminated the practice of cutting ten trees to find one with solid black ebony and now will sell variegated ebony only and use the variegated ebony in their guitars.

Factoid: There is a big rumor in the stringed instrument community that Martin Guitars were a contributor to the democrats and were behind the armed swat raid on Gibson Guitars alleging use of black market ebony. Martin denies it. The issue of black-market wood from endangered trees is now a big deal with antique stringed instruments being threatened with confiscation if the wood in them cannot be documented. Be aware... if you travel overseas with a Randall with Ebony, Rosewood, etc handle, upon returning to this country you COULD be subject to having it confiscated it you cannot document the handle. Our government... keeping us save from tree-wood pirates.

Last edited by Jacknola; 07-31-2017 at 02:33 PM.
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