There has been allot of discussion recently about historical elements of Randall Made Knives and associated sheath makers. Time permitting I may write an article outlining the recent events and how it has panned out. However, for now I want to put some things into perspective when collectors are unsure or perhaps might think they have stumbled upon some alleged new nuance or “fact” (purposely or by accident) about RMK’s.
I have covered this before at some point in saying that many historical elements are much easier to determine than others. There is no one left at the shop that was working there at the time available to either confirm or deny (or even say “I don’t remember”) some of the “unanswered” things we are curious or unsure about. We also must consider something that we may think is a big deal at this time, may have been an average thing in the ordinary course of business at a small shop 40, 50, or 60 years ago. Therefore we have to look at all available information at hand and hopeufully then come to a reasonable conclusion. Sometime you will get differences of opinion, but you can’t go on emotion because you want it to be a certain way as you may have put allot of time into something that ultimately may not pan out.
That being said, I recommend that collectors read and reread the preface of Gaddis’ book. Really understand it, because it says allot about the time, effort, and rigors involved that went into the research for the book. It helps put things into perspective for the guys that seem to want anything that might be perceived as unclear unequivocally confirmed by the shop and the employees of today.
I want to take the liberty of quoting something from the preface, something I think is often overlooked while using his book as the beginning of subsequent (since publication) research into the hobby:
“As I uncovered more original records with each visit, it became apparent that some of the often told stories about Bo’s knives didn’t match with what he had recorded at the time. This even included a few stories that I had recorded in our numerous interviews. Bo and I discussed this discrepancy on two or three occasions and always came to the same conclusion: we would consider what he had recorded at the time it happened to be factual, not what he remembered 40 years later.” – Bob Gaddis
This passage is very telling, and as we go forward pay heed to what Bo himself discovered as time marched on. He couldn’t always remember the minutia of every event that took place or every knife produced by the shop. To this day some too often unrealistically expect that exact thing, that events be remembered in irrefutable detail decades after they took place. If Bo wouldn’t/couldn’t do it well enough to his own satisfaction when Gaddis was researching the book 30 years ago, who is going to do it now?
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