Dating old Randall blades by blade stamp

[Jacknola]

The following is a thesis. However, I've become confident enough that I find myself using the information ... so ... I thought I would share for discussion.

I?ve been looking at the stamps on the blades of old Randall knives, pre 1973. I think I?ve noticed something that will help date knives that were blade-forged before about 1966-68, and those forged after that date. This "forge-date" does not indicate when the blades were finished into knives, sheathed and sold, only when they were hot stamped with the Randall Made, Orlando, FLA trademark.

Please examine these three groups of pictures of blade stamps. I?ve chosen knives that were pretty definitely dated by certain characteristics and discussions.





In this last picture is one anomaly. It is a stamp on a blade that is earlier than the date of the sheath and other knife characteristics. this illustrates how this information could be both interesting and useful



Summary: From earliest, the Randall stamp on the blade remained seemingly unchanged. The ?O? in Orlando began about a half space indented from ?R? of Randall. The comma between ORLANDO and FLA was about half a letter high and no space separated it from ?FLA.?.

About mid-late ?60s, the stamp was apparently changed slightly. The comma between Orlando and FLA was reduced in height, a small space was introduced between the comma and FLA, and because of that, the ?O? of "Orlando" was moved more directly under the ?R? of "Randall", indented only about 1/8 letter or so.

Here is a summary picture of stamps that overlap the apparent change.