I had a Randall 18. It's a good knife for a hollow handle design, but it isn't a single piece of steel like the CRK knives. The Randall tube is "silver soldered to 1/4" oblong brass hilt". IIRC a portion of the blade passes through the hilt into the SS tube and epoxy is poured in the joint to provide a more solid bond and seal it. I've never heard of a Randall 18 failing, but my preference is the CRK.