Vintage Model 14's

[dan ross]

Originally Posted by Ta2bill

Joe is correct, all of them were delivered from Germany with their familiar "Humpback" grind. That Model 18 has been ground accordingly for what it is.

Who's knife, by the way?

TB

Thanks, Bill...

[Ta2bill]

Here are two photos of Solingen blades. The first is obviously a Model 18 with sawteeth, and the second is a Model 14 with teeth. They both started out with the same blade grind, but obviously totally different appearances. Although the 18 is a much cleaner look, I prefer the 14 with the original hump intact.

[dan ross]

Love the bottom #14 knife. Thx for posting. And also thanks for the info. Dan

[dan ross]

thank you...

[Jacknola]

Graduates of USMA (West Point) Class of 1964 included good friends, LT George Jacunski and LT Edward Corcoran who later married LT Jacunski’s sister… I grew up in the same Florida town as the Jacunskis and knew the family well.

According to the account I was given, in the Fall, 1965, Lt. Jacunski’s father bought two Randall Solingen knives and gave them to the two LTs as Christmas presents. Both men were deployed to Vietnam at the end of 1965 and served through 1966. Here is a picture of Lt. Jacunski from a newspaper article.



And here is LT Corcoran in country and also detailed pictures of his knife. Note the inscription done in country. The knife is interesting because of the documentation. But in addition, because the provenance is exact, this is an important knife for Vietnam era.

The documentation means that larger throat rivets, presumably for split back sheaths, were in use by Johnson at least until mid-1965. So this knife helps narrow the window for the change in sheath manufacture away from split-back, to all small rivet rough backs. That change can be reasonably inferred to be last half of 1965. It may be worth nothing that the throat rivets in his sheath seem somewhat smaller than others in similar time, but it could be that Johnson used a variety of sizes of tack rivets on his split backs.

The filled hole in the black Micarta handle also dates those features with some accuracy. The knife is made even more cool because of the in-country photo. I’m trying to get photos of COL Jacunski’s knife as well… and will add them if I do.

[Moosehead]

WELCOME BACK JacK!

I thought your new bride had taken you from us forever...

Cheers!

David

[samg]

That is an outstanding photo of Lt Corcoran with the Randall! Great find
I also have a large harness rivet split back with my 2 Astros. The Brown Micarta was pretty much used up by 1965 I think. Not the provenance you have on the 14. We know that Johnson changed over from brown button to the baby dot snaps in late 62-early 63 I have heard, so this 14 is another example that falls in line.
Thanks Jack, it's good to hear from you!
Sam

[Sligo]

Originally Posted by Moosehead

WELCOME BACK JacK!

I thought your new bride had taken you from us forever...

Cheers!

David

Plus one !

[rxgremlin]

I recently acquired a Model 14 Solingen blade but it doesn’t have a hump. I was hoping someone could help shed some light on it.

[crutchtip]

I already shed light about it on KTF. The answer is still the same, it appears to have been ground down. The whole blade has grind marks that seem to be from a wheel or perhaps belt sander.

[jeepster]

Some folks....

[Jacknola]

This knife was recently sold for about $3,000. I missed out on this knife and somewhat regret it because it is a pretty unusual bird….


1963 front

1963 back

It almost certainly dates from mid-1963 based on the etched Randall made Orlando stamp, sheath, etc. But most importantly, the blade shape combined with the blade manufacture is pretty unusual. Sawteeth (ST) were developed by experimenting with Solingen blades in early 1963. ST prototypes initially used m-14 blades from the original order of 500 Solingen m-14s. These had the horizontal stamp on the ricosso. This was before the creation of the etched stamp in 1963.

The Solingen ST blades originally took on the “humped” teethed profile because of the technique used to hollow out the top edge to enable cutting teeth. During this time in 1963, there were not a lot of m-14s being made in the Orlando shop and ST were not a listed option for the m-14… so this knife, m-14, Orlando carbon blade, w/ST…. AND an Orlando blade that retained the humped shape of the Solingen ST is unusual (this before even mentioning the brown micarta handle, end cut).

But why is this knife a special attraction to me? Well, it's because I collect only blades that could have been carried in Vietnam, mostly m-14s. Furthermore I tend to like beat-up, worn examples that show use in the field rather than pristine sock-drawer queens…. Why?...The better to imagine the stories the knife could tell. And this knife could have been a champion addition in one category.

Category? Category? WTH?.... To illustrate how insane collectors can be, I have decided there were eight distinct m-14 blade types made by Randall during the Vietnam period. I have accumulated at least one of each of these types. Everything else about m-14 knifes that other collectors prize are associated with the handle, not the blade. Frankly, I’m much less interested in what the handle material was compared to the actual blade... .

So… here are some of my personal examples of each of the eight categories of blades and you will see why the above knife would have been a nice addition… I just could not pay the price since I already had a good example of the type blade ... oh well…


Solingen Carbon m-14


Solingen Stainless m-14


Orlando Carbon m-14


Orlando Stainless m-14


Solingen Sawteeth Carbon m-14 Please note that carbon blades and Vietnam were not a very happy mix. Hence the damage to this example.. I still like it... a lot. If I were going back in time being deployed again to Vietnam, I would probably opt for this knife, the Solingen carbon with ST rather than a Solingen Stainless that I actually carried. Carbon Solingen's take a really good edge compared to Solingen stainless which generally suck at being sharp. The sawteeth could be useful for scaling fish or something, and I like the pointy shape of the ST Solingens better than the ST Orlandos.


Solingen Sawteeth Stainless m-14


Orlando Sawteeth Carbon m-14 I like this example but the knife first posted above would have been a cool addition.


Orlando Sawteeth Stainless m-14

This game of "blade types" can be played with several different Randall models. But for the Vietnam era, these m-14s are the acme of Randalls carried in country.

[BoBlade]

I thought I knew what research was until I met you, Jack. I was wrong. Good show!

[crutchtip]

1963 is a bit early, as black micarta even in its earliest form was not yet being used.

I would put this knife late 64 at the very earliest, but I don't think that early, but probably 1965. I have had several that retained the hump as did the 18's for some time after introduction.

Note the etched logo, which I brought to the attention of the purchaser. It is a Solingen blade yet etched Orlando. May be the only one I recall seeing.

While these Solingen14's with teeth/hump aren't super common, they are out there. The rarest are the Orlando blades with teeth that retain the 14 grind.

I had a mid 60's example many years ago. If I knew how to post photos here, I would do so.

[Jacknola]

Thanks for the input. I too thought this to be early black Micaeta... but closer look led me to believe it to be brown from a longitudinal cut. It seems Randall was very careful to properly ID his knives with stamp and etch. The “Randall Made, Orlando Fla.” etch pattern was created in mid 1963. The “Randall Made, Solingen” etch pattern dates from the 2nd order for Solingen blades which were delivered without the ricosso stamp. It also dates from about mid-1963.

If this is a Solingen blade, mismarked, it would be pretty strange. Occums razor...i believe it is more likely Orlando, with the early humped teeth feature... and I think it likely to be late 1963. I would emphasize the early blade shape, teeth characteristics, and actual Orlando stamp, iver blade-shape-made-later with mis-marked stamp. If it is indeed black Micarta, I would move manufacture up a year. I wonder how and if the metallurgy could be tested to ID Randall O2 steel vs Solingen steel? Ciao.