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I'm a bit of a knife guy. Everyone needs a couple of good knives in their kit. Some of you may have heard of Randall Made knives. Randall is a custom knife company and one of the most highly sought after brands out there. Randall knives have been on the front lines of every conflict the US has been in since World War II, carried by WWII Army Air Force Captain, and future President of the United States, Ronald Reagan, and carried by early NASA Astronauts in some of the first manned space flights. One of these Randall NASA survival knives, the Model 17 'Astro' is found in the Smithsonian Museum.
Due to the demand for Randalls by ground pounders, HSLD guys, sportsmen, and knife collectors, they fetch high dollar amounts or you'll wait 4 years to have one made by the people at Randall.
Some of the designs, like the Model 1 and Model 14, are copied by many custom and production blade companies including Cold Steel (the Model 1 in San Mai II steel instead of A-1 tool steel), Martin Custom Knives (The Model 1, Model 14, and a few that Randall doesn't offer anymore, in a variety of steels) and the Blackjack Knife I'm showing you here.
Blackjack used to be a custom maker, but went defunct in the 90's. The name was bought again a few years ago, but was now a semi-production company. They have a few of their own designs, but have their 'classic' line offering replicas of the Model 1 and Model 14 knives with many options available.
The Model 14 is a near exact copy of the Randall knife of the same model number. The blade is made of O-1 carbon tool steel, has a convex blade grind making it good for hunting, chopping, fighting, camp chores, even splitting wood in an emergency. The convex blade grind, however, isn't the best for precision cutting has the blade is wider than other grinds. The blade is 7' long offering good reach in a combat situation but is not so long as to make it impractical for more mundane chores such as gutting game.
The handle is made of Micarta, which is usually made of paper linen or canvas and bonded together. It kind of looks like wood and feels really good in the hand. My particular knife is Ivory Micarta, and looks a lot like aged Ivory. Its smooth, but the finger grooves offer your hand a secure grip. The tang, the part of the blade that extends into the handle, goes all the way to the pommel and is secured by two beefy pins and a third hollow pin at the butt for a lanyard.
The sheath is leather and well made, but for mounting it on web gear or anything using MOLLE/PALS webbing I would suggest buying the 7' SPEC OPS sheath. I plan on investing in one of these soon.
The fit and finish is very good, as good as many custom makers and much finer than most production companies, and almost as good as an original Randall.
But where you would pay $550+ for a Randall, and wait 4 years for a new one to be made, the Blackjack is only $200, which is a bargain for such a nice knife. It will offer many generations of use as long as it is properly maintained buy oiling the carbon steel blade to protect it from rust.