There is always a guy.....

[tunefinK]

Duke McCaa and I would like to bring something to your attention that affects the Randall Collector community.
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Someone is re-handling shop made Randall Knives with exotic handle material including fossil walrus tusk, white walrus tusk, narwhal, elephant and some popcorn stag.
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A word about "white walrus" tusks and narwhal - It is illegal for non Inuit peoples to trade in new or "white" walrus and undocumented narwhal per the Marine Mammals Act. Fossil walrus has been in the ground for hundreds to thousands of years and is legal. New, plain white walrus is obvious and should be avoided, period. It's a federal offense.
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The majority of these are either tusk tips or handles without butt caps. We have seen a few pictures with butt plates, but it's easy to tell they are not shop made.
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These are not like Jim Sinclair, Spencer Alpin or James Behring who are clearly bringing their own style to a Randall and offering them as such. These counterfeits are being sold as "100% Randall shop made".
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The knives we have seen retain the Randall hilt and spacers, but have had the shop handle removed and a tusk handle installed.
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There are quite a few of these that have found their way into the market... 10's of knives for sure, maybe 100 or more.
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So, what do we do? First off, don't freak out. This is not the first time this has happened in the past 40 years. Many of you trade in guns.... you know how many of those get monkey'd with.
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Before you buy an exotic handled knife, know where it came from, use your head and ask questions.
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As with all Randall knives there are very few "true counterfeits" in the market. There are exponentially more good exotic handled Randalls out there than this small bunch.
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I am sure I have missed something, this thread is open for discussion and questions.

[Jacknola]

Well written and informative. I seem to recall seeing a couple of these and wondered about them, though I don’t do newer than 1973. Thanks for the information.,