NASA survival training knife

[samg]

Randall Made knives has a storied history with many models in its lineup. This article is to bring an update to one of those storied models. What we know today as the model 17 Astro, originally designed to be used by the Mercury Astronauts in the event of a survival situation if needed during their flights.
It brings to mind a comment made by Gary Clinton at a Blade program a few years ago when he did a presentation on the Astro, that they developed the knife because the space technology was so new, that early on,they didn't have the confidence of hitting the target on landing, so they needed a survival knife in the event that the Astronaut came down in a jungle or desert, and it could be hours or days to recovery.

Thanks to the book by Robert Gaddis, "Randall Made Knives The History Of The Man And The Blades", an entire chapter was devoted to the history and development of the Astronaut knife known to us as the "Astro", we know the story of the personal knives of the Mercury Astronauts.


Lesser known is the story of the 20 NASA Mercury training knives that were ordered by NASA on June 14 1960. These knives were made at the same time as the Astronauts personal knives, and were identical with the exception of the steel used in the blade. The blades were made from solingen steel to speed up the manufacturing process. These blades were originally made in Germany and intended for the model 15 Airman that was developed in 1954, then modified at the Randall shop to the specifications of the Astronaut knife.

Another point being that there were 3 batches of NASA Trainers. The 1st batch of 20 knives were ordered in June 1960 and they have the Randall logo engraved with Block letters, with Florida spelled out.

RANDALL MADE
ORLANDO, FLORIDA

The 2nd batch of 25 and 3rd batch of 15 ordered by NASA came in June and Oct 1962 respectively. These knives were ordered to support project Gemini.
From evidence found, both of these batches were made from solingen steel as well with the standard logo on the ricasso.

RANDALL MADE
SOLINGEN GERMANY

Another NASA Gemini trainer with the logo etched on the blade

RANDALL MADE
SOLINGEN

Both the Astronauts personal knives and NASA Mercury training knives at the time of manufacture in 1960 were known as a modified Model 15. The model 17 Astro wasn't offered to the public until 1963 when it first appeared in the Randall catalog.

The NASA training knife was taken to space with the first 3 Astronauts, Shepard, Grissom and then Glenn on his historic orbital flight. The last 3 Astronauts Carpenter, Schirra and Cooper took their Personalized survival knife. Deke Slayton had a personal knife but did not fly in project Mercury due to a medical condition.

After Gaddis wrote the book in 1993, the first NASA trainer that surfaces is the one that Gus Grissom took on his Mercury flight of July 21 1961. After splashdown, Grissoms capsule sunk. In 1999 his capsule was recovered and the knife was found in the muck of the capsule floor. The knife was restored and is on display at the Cosmosphere museum in Kansas.




The next NASA trainer surfaced in November 2006 on ebay. This one had Rhodium plating that was partially removed, revealing a copper base plating. It's in a private collection.



The next NASA trainer to surface was again on ebay in November 2011, belonged to a Lt Colonel Joseph Salvo. In 1960, he was designated Operations Officer in Bioastronautics at Patrick AFB. He supported Projects Mercury and Gemini working closely with John Glenn and other Mercury 7 astronauts. It's in a private collection.



The last NASA trainer to this point that has surfaced was obtained by Joe Dorsky, the Randall Made Knives Authenticator, who purchased it from the step son of the late Dr Carl Patrick Laughlin. Dr. Laughlin was given the opportunity to work with NASA in the developmental stages of the space agency. He was assigned to the medical team for the original Mercury 7 astronauts at Langley Air Force Base. Dr. Laughlin was the lead medical officer for John Glenn’s orbital flight. This knife surfaced in Jan 2018. It's in a private collection. Here is a link to Joe Dorskys article on this knife at his website.

https://rmkcollector.com/knives-1/




The only other NASA trainer known to exist sits in 16,000 ft of water in the Caribbean that was Alan Shepards. When his capsule splashed down and he opened the manual hatch, the knife was attached to the hatch, and it went to the bottom.

We have a photo of one other NASA trainer next to the survival pack that was rhodium plated and prepared for flight. Perhaps John Glenn's. Photo from Gary Clinton's collection




To this point, we know the whereabouts of 5 of the 20 NASA Mercury trainers. Hopefully more will surface in the future.

The Randall community has up till now, believed that these 20 NASA training knives were completed and then went out for astronaut survival training. They were shipped to NASA on July 7 1960, and desert survival training for the Mercury Astronauts started on July 15 1960 at Stead AFB in Nevada.
There is sufficient evidence that indicates that the purpose for these 20 NASA trainers was to attach one of these trainers to the hatch of each capsule as standard equipment for all of the checkout tests at Cape Canaveral. This statement came from Gordon Cooper, page 85 of the book "We Seven" written by the Mercury Astronauts.



The 1st Mercury capsule was delivered to Cape Canaveral on July 23 1960, 16 days after the 20 NASA knives were shipped from Randall to Langley.
When the capsules were recieved by NASA from McDonnell Aircraft, each capsule went thru rigorous testing or "checkouts" to make sure they were ready for flight. These checkouts lasted weeks and even months.
On the first checkouts the knives would have been stored on the hatch, but after both Shepard and Grissoms flights, by the time Glenn flew, the knives were stored in a survival pack placed just left of the astronaut.

Why did NASA order a quantity of 20 of these knives? Most likely because NASA also ordered 20 Mercury capsules from McDonnell Aircraft.
Following are 2 photos from the book "Photographing America's First Astronauts" page 16 & 23. Note the "twenty capsules" ordered in 1st photo and "checkout" reference in 2nd photo






From evidence found of the survival training in Nevada, the astronauts probably trained with their personal knives that Bo Randall made for them with their names etched on the blade. Gordon Cooper also asked for 2 spare knives for personnel on the training exercise. I have not seen any evidence that indicate that the 20 NASA trainers went to Nevada for survival training.
IMO, why would an additional 20 knives go to Nevada for survival training when the trainees (astronauts) had their personal knives to train with? Gordon Cooper asked for Randall to send 2 additional knives, not the 20.

Following is a photo of Gus Grissom using his personal survival knife. Note the tape on his sheath. It matches the sheath in the Gus Grissom museum of his personal knife.






There is limited, questionable evidence as to whether they are the personal knives or the NASA trainers, but we know from Gaddis that Cooper wanted the 2 groups of knives to be kept separate, and later in the book "We Seven" stating that the purpose of the NASA trainers was to place them in the capsules for the checkout tests. 20 knives for 20 capsules.
Cooper in the book We Seven also mentions that the knives were ordered by the NASA Engineers. The engineers were involved in the capsule checkouts.



As discussed, we know the whereabouts of 5 of the NASA trainers. If these NASA knives were placed in the capsules for checkouts and were launched in the test flights that some of the capsules underwent, then 2 NASA trainers would have been destroyed with the capsule. Little Joe 5 and MA-1 test flights. That would leave a total of 14 NASA trainers possibly out there.

I did put in a FOIA request with NASA to see what I could find out, but as I suspected, in those days of 1960, these small contractor orders were done on paper, and with 65 years gone by, no records exist.

I will continue to use this thread for photos which I will upload soon and any information that I find moving forward.

In my next post I will be discussing the survival packs with photos, and show pics of both Alan Shepard and Gus Grissoms hatch, showing the pouch for them.
All contributions are welcome.

Regards

Sam Granade

[samg]

Following is information about the storage of the knives in the Mercury capsules.


First is of the pouch that was used to store Alan Shepards knife. Note what appears to be a zipper pouch. Examining the pouch is Wally Schirra.




This next photo is a composite showing both Shepards and Grissoms knife storage location.
In this top photo of Shepards hatch, the photo was taken just prior to launch, so his NASA training knife was in the pouch!
On the lower photo, it seems the knife storage container was metal



In these next 2 pics shows Grissoms knife container from top of hatch looking down. Note the snap strap that holds the knife to it. The knives on the handle had a bit of fabric with a snap on it as we see on Grissoms recovered knife and the Cooper knife in the Randall Museum.



Closeup of knife storage container





This following pic shows a diagram where the knife was stored on the hatch from inside the capsule.




By the time we get to John Glenn's flight, the knife is housed in the survival pack.
Here is a drawing of the pack from McDonnell Aircraft, the company that made the Mercury capsules



Following is Glenn's survival pack.



Next is Glenn's pack with the drawing showing where the knife was stored



This is a photo of the survival pack next to John Glenn in his capsule. Glenn took his NASA trainer with him on his orbital flight.



Here is a photo of Scott Carpenters survival pack. He took his personalized survival knife



More to come.

Sam Granade

[samg]

These are the 5 known NASA survival training knives that we have photos of.
The top knife is Gus Grissoms recovered knife
The 2nd knife was taken next to a survival pack. It's been plated and has the thong cord that we see on Gordon Cooper's knife in the Randall Museum.
The last 3 trainers are in private collections.
. These are the only 5 out of the 20 known to exist. We know that there is one more unobtainable that was Alan Shepards that rests in 16000 ft of ocean water in the Caribbean.






Next is a launch summary of all 20 capsules. Many of them weren't used.



Same summary with notes of tested capsules



I've wondered whose NASA trainer is in the photo with the survival pack pictured below. It's not Grissoms because his hilt was more centered to the blade. The other NASA trainer is a bit offset.
It might have been Shepards, but his was stored in the pouch on the hatch. The only other possibility is John Glenn. Carpenter, Schirra and Cooper took their Personalized knives.





Just a side note, below is a pic of Gus Grissoms Personalized knife. Note the knife is not plated. These knives were only plated if they made the flight.





While discussing plating, note the Rhodium plated NASA trainer that has part of the plating worn off. Was this knife flown? Or did the owner have it plated for his display? When knives were plated for display, why go to the extra step of the copper undercoat? Was that standard in the plating process?

[samg]

Here is another NASA trainer that was made in 1962 for the Gemini project. Note the standard solingen etch. Also has the early fine weave linen micarta. From a private collection.



Here is the only other NASA trainer known to exist. Also from the later 1962 Gemini batch. Note the solingen etch out on the blade. This is the only blade etch of a solingen NASA trainer that I know of. No sheath, and from a private collection.



This is same knife, I encouraged the owner to take the scales off and inspect the tang, and sure enough, there was rust present! I can't emphasize enough, if you have a carbon astro, do periodic checks and condition it like you would your blade.

Here is the rust on this NASA Gemini trainer. Note the early fine weave linen micarta on this one too.



There were interesting markings under the scales of this one.



A better photo of the solingen etch on the blade of this NASA knife ordered for the Gemini program.

[samg]

Another point of interest with the NASA Project Mercury trainer is that the bolts are threaded different from what we normally see on Astros.
The NASA Mercury trainers in private collections have all thread bolts like pictured below.



So the older white tenite had partial threaded bolts as did the later Astros. The tenite handle material was thicker, so the longer bolt

Here is the 1962 NASA Gemini trainer pictured at the top of this post, and the bolts are partial thread as well.



We know that the early brown micarta came in 1/4" sheets, so the mod 15 bolts were too long. With the rush to get these knives done by the deadline, perhaps they used what they had or sourced them quickly, then later used the preferred partial thread bolts. I would like to know if the Astronauts personal knives had all thread bolts? I will look into that.

We read in Gaddis book that Bo offered to make the cavity cutout larger in the NASA trainers if Cooper wanted before they were shipped, and it appears that they were.
The NASA trainers that I have observed have this longer cavity cutout. They are the only ones that I have seen with this larger cavity. The astronauts personal knives don't appear to have the larger cavity.

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Cavity cutout of standard Astros



This knife below is Gordon Cooper's space flown that is now in the Randall Museum. Note the smaller cavity cutout.

[samg]

I have covered a bit about the micarta used. Early micarta was sourced by the shop in 1959, and it came in 1/4" sheets. It was fine weave linen micarta. All of the original survival knives that I have observed was made with this thin micarta. There were a total of 30 knives sent to the space program in 1960.
7 personalized knives for the astronauts
2 extras requested by Gordon Coooer
1 Doctors knife specially fitted with a hook in the end of the knife
20 NASA training knives with Solingen blades for capsule checkouts.





There is no way to confirm that all of the Space knives had exactly the same fine weave micarta, but the 3 NASA knives in personal collections have it, the one sent to the Smithsonian in 1961 has it, both of Gus Grissoms knives, the personal knife in a museum in Indiana has it, and his NASA trainer at the Cosmosphere in Kansas has it.

This closeup is of the rhodium plated NASA trainer displaying the fine weave linen micarta. One of the 3 in private collection



2 NASA Gemini trainers that we know of made in 1962 also are from the fine weave micarta.
Here is one from the 1962 batch that I have a nice closeup of the micarta



The only one that I have observed that doesn't have the fine weave linen is the Cooper knife at the Randall Museum. It is Coarse weave canvas.



Below is a photo of Grissoms personal knife (top), Coopers personal knife (center)and a NASA trainer (bottom). Notice the NASA trainer and Grissoms personal knife micarta is closer in color than Cooper's. Cooper's is brown in color, where the others are more reddish brown. Now we know that micarta can age to different tone but I have not observed another knife sent to NASA with this coloration or coarse weave canvas micarta.



There is an example of another knife at the Randall Museum in the earliest micarta and it is also the fine weave linen.






So the point in examining the micarta is, why does Gordon Cooper's knife display coarse weave canvas micarta and the others from that timeframe display the fine weave linen micarta?
Could it be that
1) Randall only had access to small pieces and used what he had?
2) Did Cooper's knife originally have the same fine weave linen micarta but maybe during survival training in the desert in 1960 he didn't like the feel of it, or perhaps it was too slick, so he had it changed?

Pure speculation, but until I see another original NASA space knife with coarse weave canvas micarta, I will wonder why..

[samg]

Here is a copy of the Purchase order from NASA to Randall for the 20 NASA Mercury training knives ordered in June 1960




This is the shipping invoice from Randall for the 20 Knives



Here is an article about the rhodium plated NASA training knife that's in a personal collection, from the Randall Knife Society newsletter from Nov 2006

[samg]

I have been researching the difference between types of micarta. Again, as discussed above, Gordon Cooper's personal knife that resides in the Randall Museum displays a different type of micarta than the others that I have observed. To be fair, I haven't seen Shepards, Glenn's, Carpenters (which was lost/stolen after his flight) or Schirras personal knives, but both Grissoms personal and NASA training knife, the 3 NASA trainers in personal collections and the one photographed with rhodium plating that's next to the survival pack all have the fine weave linen micarta.
The coarse weave canvas on Cooper's is the only example of that type of micarta that I have seen on any Randall micarta vintage knife.
So could it be that Cooper, upon using the stock knife in the desert heat, decided he needed a better grip.

We know that Carpenters personal knife was altered prior to his flight, adding thumb notches to the top of his knife, so alterations were heard of.





Deke Slayton, though he didn't fly, he was scrubbed for medical reasons last minute, but his knife was rhodium plated, ready to go. He had a different grip molded to his handle.



Here is Wally Schirra in 1963 Jungle training with his knife. Not sure if it's his Personal knife or NASA trainer, but it appears to have the same grip on it as Slaytons, hard to tell, but you can see the lift a dot snap, larger hilt and the finger grips, so definately an Astro.





Keep in mind, it was almost 3 years from the making of Coopers knife and his flight, so plenty of time to make alterations.

Here is an opinion that I found on the advantage of coarse weave canvas vs fine weave linen. Pure speculation, but there has to be a reason for the different micarta on Cooper's knife.
There are photos of the Cooper and others micarta in the above posts

Coarse weave canvas micarta offers a more grippy and rugged appearance compared to fine weave linen micarta. This is primarily due to the coarser texture of the canvas fabric, which provides a more secure grip, especially when wet or slippery.
Here's a more detailed breakdown of the advantages:
Improved grip:
The coarser weave of canvas micarta creates a more textured surface, making it easier to hold onto, particularly when wet or in slippery conditions.
More rugged appearance:
Canvas micarta has a more robust and less refined look compared to the smoother, more polished appearance of linen micarta.
Enhanced durability:
While both are durable, canvas micarta may offer a slightly greater degree of resistance to wear and tear, especially if the handle is subjected to a lot of use.
Greater ability to be textured and carved:
The thicker nature of canvas micarta allows for more extensive milling, texturing, and carving of handles for both style and grip enhancement.
While linen micarta offers a smoother, more comfortable grip and a more refined look, canvas micarta's coarse texture provides a more rugged and secure grip, making it a popular choice for knife handles and other applications where a strong, secure grip is essential.

[samg]

For those of you who don't have Gaddis book on the story of the Astronaut knife, I will post the pages here.

[samg]

[samg]

Here are the pages referenced in We Seven

[samg]

Another distinction that I would like to point out here is the designation of model of these knives.
By early 1960 it was dubbed "Astro". When the knives were ordered, they were ordered as "Model 15 Airman". In fact, it was a modified mod 15.



The shop order listed it as a Model 15 Astro



The earliest Astros, including the Astronauts personal survival knives and the 20 NASA trainers were supplied with mod C lift a dot sheaths and the back of the sheath had the Randall stamp and the model 15 stamp with 5 1/2 blade length



The later double brown button sheath also had this number stamp on the back. At some point on the double brown button mod C sheath the stamp was moved to the front with no model or blade length stamp.
I believe it was at this point that the mod number was dropped because Randall had added both the new model 17 Astro and model 18 Attack-Survival knife in 1963, and all 3 models 15,17,18 used the same sheath, thus no model designation on the sheath.

So an Astro that is in a Lift A Dot sheath as was the original Astros should be considered a #15 modified. Those Astros should have the earlier flat cut brown micarta scales like the Astronaut Knives did. The next generation brown micarta was cross cut.

Earlier flat cut fine weave linen brown micarta. This Micarta appeared on astros from 1960-62 maybe into mid 63.





Later cross cut fine weave linen brown micarta. The cross cut micarta resembles wood grain. This cross cut brown micarta was used approx 1963-65 on astros.




The Astros in double brown button sheaths with mod number on back and flat cut micarta scales I think safe to say are pre 1963 and considered a modified Model 15.
The Astros in front stamped brown button sheaths are probably mid 63 or later thus a model 17 Astro.

All this may seem to be splitting hairs, but if considered, the astronauts knives were developed and made close to 3 years before the model 17 was offered to the public. Project Mercury ended with Cooper's flight in May 1963. The mod 17 Astro appeared in the catalog in the fall of 1963.

Gaddis page 187



We know that modified Model 15s went out pre 1963. Gaddis states so on pages 187-188



I have one of these modified 15s, it's a scaleless one in a lift a dot sheath, the type first offered in the 1963 catalog. It came out of a Houston auction on ebay, listed as a mod 15 missing the tenite scales! They were kind of right, it is a mod 15, just not the type they thought. Coming out of a Houston gun shop, could it have been owned by someone in the space program? Part of the mystery.
To this point, besides the original astronaut knives made in 1960 and a NASA Gemini made in 1962, I have only seen 1 other astro in a lift a dot sheath. They are out there, I am sure, they are just still in the shadows.



Here is the original auction misidentified. I estimate it made somewhere between 1961-62, not impossible for 1960 who knows.



Here is the Authentication on this knife