RANDALL MADE GAMEMASTER MODEL 23 ~ Vintage

Randall Knives

RANDALL MADE GAMEMASTER MODEL 23 ~ Vintage

$699.00

Current stock: 1

Randall Made Knives Model 23 Gamemaster ~ Vintage

Randall No.23 GAMEMASTER knife with a beautiful stag handle. The knife is a total of 9-1/4" long with a blade at 4-1/2" long. Comes with a smooth back Randall sheath. The knife has the orange India stone. The knife has 5 spacers 2-red, 2-white, and 1- blue. The top of the knife has the is notched for your thumb placement. This is a great old Randall knife. The age is unknown, but it came from a collection from the 1970`s to the early 2000`s. PLEASE LOOK AT ALL THE PHOTOS FOR CONDITION

Condition is near mint, guard has small nick and storage blemish, see all photos for condition

NKCA Grading system

MINT: A factory fresh knife, absolutely original as it came from the manufacturer, not carried or sharpened, a perfect knife.

NEAR MINT: A new knife that has seen sometimes, show some slight carry or shop wear, blades snap perfectly, handles show no cracks.

EXCELLENT: Shows no more than 10% blade wear, handles are sound, no cracks, blades snap good.

VERY GOOD: About 25% blade wear, slight cracks in handles, may have one lazy blade, stamping clearly visible to the naked eye, no blades changed or repaired.

FAIR: 50% blade wear, blades lazy, cracks and chips in handles, handles replaced with same type, blades repaired, stampings faint but readable with a glass.

POOR: Blades very worn, handles bad or missing, blades have been replaced with the same type, reading of the stamp is almost impossible, even with a glass, good mostly only for parts.

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From Randall Made Knives: The History of the Man and the Blades, by Robert L. Gaddis, pp.231-232.

Quote:

During late 1971 or early 1972, Bo and Gary decided it was time to add another style of straight-point hunting knife to their expanding selection of field knives. They wanted something between the extremes in size and weight of the small Model 8 Trout and Bird and the heavy-duty Model 19 Bushmaster. Bo had never really liked the looks of the Model 19, even with its revised blade shape. There is better than a 50-50 chance that the original discussion and designing session took place during a trip to the Randall ranch, or maybe while they were on a hunting or fishing outing. When father and son were away from the press of daily business, their minds often turned to the imaginative designing of new and different styles of knives.

They retained the main feature common to both the Model 8 and 19, the straight-point blade with its sharpened top edge. This short but sturdy top cutting edge was popular with many hunters and campers and was to be a major feature of their new knife for big game hunters. The blade length they settled upon was 4 1/2 inches, the same as the Model 19, but the new knife's width would be considerably less. Because this was a full-size big-game knife, they stuck with 1/4-inch forging stock, to avoid the edge-chipping problems encountered in the Model 22 Outdoorsman.

It wasn't long before they took their ideas to the forge and grinder, possibly with Pete Hamilton doing part of the work. Pete remembers talking with Gary about the design and fabrication of the prototype knife and referred to it as a lightened Model 19. Nobody remembers exactly how long it took to arrive at a final blade shape that met all the functional and aesthetic requirements of Bo, Gary, and the senior shop craftsman. It must not have been too long because this new design was the "Gamemaster" and was in production before work was begun on the next catalog, sometime in the late summer or early fall of 1972. This twenty-second printing introduced the Model 23 Gamemaster to prospective purchasers. Part of the original catalog description read: "A variation of Model 19, serving the same purposes, developed because of popular demand for a knife with these characteristics. Top edge is for heavy-duty cutting..."

Bo and Gary's new hunter has turned out to be one of the more popular models in the Randall sporting knife line.