The Randall Collector

** References for photographs are to be found on the pages indicated in the Book Randall Fighting Knives in Wartime by Robert E. Hunt.

Coming to understand the variations on Randall snaps or “buttons” should assist a collector in making certain judgments about the sheath and the knife that it helps to secure, if they are originally paired.

Like most Randall production, there is some continuity in development as well as evolution during the 60-odd years of hand crafting knives and selecting sheath makers. What isn’t predictable, are the variations caused by material shortage or availability.

Sometimes adjustments in sheath style (or snaps) will fall in with a recognizable change in blade design. This tends to create a benchmark that we come to know and identify with, such as the brown button Johnson period and the change in the choils from deep to narrow. More often than not, changes in sheath snaps seem to appear and disappear without any such obvious “clues”.

The early sheath makers, Clarence Moore, Southern Saddlery, and H.H. Heiser, all presented a slightly different finished product, albeit influenced to some degree by the first maker listed. Each fabricated knife sheaths for RMK during the rapid growth period of WWII (1942-1945), while RMK experienced difficulty in obtaining adequate snaps for the stone pouch and keeper straps.

Of the period sheaths that I have observed, Southern Saddlery seems to have had the most identifiable and consistent snaps and they all appear in the shape of a large brass colored 5/8 inch metal button. The “male” closure varied, from the glove snap type, to a very strong large circular closure half the width of the receiving button, and favored the “baby dot” fastener that was later introduced on the Johnson sheaths sometime after 1963. These snaps were apparently provided by the sheath maker*, whose ability to acquire them during a time of war scarcity undoubtedly helped them to get a contract.

^*Gaddis

Very little else is known about that leather company, and their business association with RMK terminated before war’s end. (However, the year and one-half period should have produced several hundred of these sheaths and collectors who have an interest in this time frame should carefully examine period unmarked sheaths to determine their manufacturer.)

Both Moore and Heiser sheaths from the early 1940s show examples of this type of large metal snap (RFK pgs. 21 and 39). Perhaps these early acquisitions were shared. Moore sheaths seem to be quite consistent during the WWII period. These close fitting, well-crafted sheaths usually featured a painted metal snap (black) with “glove snap” closure measuring approximately ½ inch in diameter.

There is a consistency is snap placement as well, with no rivets on the throat, only on the handle keeper (RFK pgs. 33 and 35). Early Heiser sheaths, notwithstanding the previously mentioned large snap, show a slightly smaller snap on their riveted sheaths and keeper strap location varies from high to low on the belt loop. These Heiser buttons, usually painted black, vary from 3/8" to ½", with the latter more common (RFK p. 49).

In the meantime “Springfield Fighters” manufactured in Massachusetts utilized a sheath made by Joseph Mosser in Pennsylvania. The original prototype has not been identified, but these sheaths resemble Southern Saddlery, which itself was more than likely a Clarence Moore copy. Snaps appear to be consistent with the ½ inch metal type earlier described and are in either painted (RFK p. 38) or unpainted (RFK p. 44) condition.

There is speculation about the introduction date of the brown button logo snap. Representative numbers appear at the end of the war and certainly by 1946. This 5/8 inch brown logo button with the prominent scimitar and Randall Made, Orlando Fla. marking, standardized the snap for both remaining sheath manufacturers (RFK p. 69).

Brown buttons would be used when they could be obtained until the “lift-the-dot” snap was introduced during 1963-64. In the meantime a translucent “red” facsimile of the brown button made an appearance (in what may have been an ordering error) later during 1946 and hung around on fighters until 1949 and Bowies well into the 1950s (RFK p. 54).

Interim shortages resulted in a reintroduction of the metal snap, painted and unpainted (see the brass variation in RFK on p. 85) of the WWII type in both previously mentioned sizes. A further variation was a large (5/8") metal snap marked “Heiser-Denver” that apparently did double-duty with products from their holster line. These seem to appear about 1949-50 for a brief time only. Sometimes this Heiser-Denver snap, usually located on the wider keeper strap, would be paired with a smaller metal snap on the stone pocket of the same sheath (RFK pgs. 66-67).

Indications are that the brown button logo snaps returned again sometime during the very early 1950s (RFK p. 70). These buttons, with their acknowledged weakness, would last until Maurice Johnson introduced the plated steel snap. Johnson’s close proximity to the Randall Shop, together with Heiser business issues, gave the new sheath maker an opportunity to become sole supplier. From 1961 or 1962, when hired, Johnson utilized the brown button logo snap on his sheaths like Heiser continued to do (RFK p. 121).

For a two or three year period we can identify with both sheath makers using these brown logo snaps, but sometime in 1964 these brown buttons were replaced and the “baby dot” fastener was introduced (RFK pgs. 132-133).

HH Heiser continued with brown buttons until it ended its service sometime later in the decade. Therefore we should not see a Heiser sheath with the new steel snaps.

Lift-the-dot fasteners, commonly referred to as “canteen snaps” were offered on the type “C” sheath keeper in lieu of the then current brown buttons that were still utilized on the stone pocket (RFK pgs. 116-117). In the wake of the Marine Corps evaluations during 1954, two new models were standardized; the Model #14 and #15 (and later Model #18), which incorporated a strengthened sheath (rivets) and provided a more rugged system to protect the knife.

All three of the Randall sheath providers used the canteen snap, but Moore apparently to a far lesser degree. With the introduction of the new steel snap in 1964, these cumbersome snaps (often allowing the knife to ride up out of the sheath mouth due to keeper placement) were replaced on Johnson sheaths, phased out on Heiser and are qualified as a rarity on Moore’s.

The subsequent search by RMK for another logo snap ended in 1995 with the adoption of the current steel button marked with the scimitar and stamped Orlando Fla.

For other articles and comments about Randall Fighting Knives, visit the Archives section of this web site, or see Randall Fighting Knives in Wartime, by the author.

* Gaddis

Robert Hunt
Randall Collector

© 2003 by Robert Hunt. All rights reserved.