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Old 03-01-2019, 09:44 PM
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Jacknola Jacknola is offline
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Join Date: Feb 2012
Location: New Orleans
Posts: 651
All the early Astros except the original 7 were made with modified Solingen blades and were acid etched as shown below in the De Salvo knife. This etching is also on Grissom's space carried Astro, and on some of the early pictures Sam has posted. I even think most or all of the knives actually carried into space were modified Solingen blades. And yes, the originals were delivered with sheaths.

I do not think Astro blades stamped "Randall made" were made or offered for sale until much later... I do think Astros with modified Solingen blades were made and were sold before the knife was catalogued. These modified Solingen blades were all ground down to the point that the original stamped Solingen trademark across the riccaso was removed. The trademark shown below was then etched ... and this etching was continued on Solingen modified blades until 1963.

The Astro was developed to have a place to safely store matches and survival odds and ends...hence the screw driver to open the scales. it would have made no sense to have a bare handled Astro unless it was supposed to be a kind of "kit" knife, or was opened to illustrate the hollow interior.




Last edited by Jacknola; 03-01-2019 at 09:47 PM.
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