>>It's not the strength of the handle, or the blade, on many of them. It's the strength of the JOIN between them that is the real question. Any seam is a weak point.<<<br><br>With respect, I don’t think that’s really a major point against this type of knife, though it’s often cited. The join, like anything else, can be done properly, though shoddy makers will of course not bother. <br><br>As already pointed out, Chris Reeves machines both the blade and hollow handle out of one billet of steel. On the early Randall model 18 (Vietnam era), the long tang was bent to the side inside the handle tube and welded to the inside of the tube for most of it’s length. In later models, the handle tube was turned from a solid stainless billet, they left the end of the tube behind the guard solid for something between one and two inches, and threaded the tang into it. I talked with Randall about this at the time, and he said that this actually tested stronger- and that the stainless tube would collapse before the join failed. I’ve certainly never heard of an "18" failing. <br><br>What gave this type of knife a bad reputation for failure at the join were the millions of shoddy imports and imitations, all the mass-market “Rambo” knives. I’ve seen cast aluminum hollow handles joined to blades with just a roll pin.<br><br>But, IMHO, this isn’t what killed the concept. What did that was a contradiction in it’s basic idea.<br><br>Clearly, most of these were intended to be survival kits for when you had nothing else. If you expected to be in a survival situation, you’d have other gear… but how likely is it that anyone outside of a combat zone would bother to lug around a pound-and-a-half or more of knife if they did NOT expect to be in a survival situation? In other words, the chances of your being caught only with one big, heavy item of survival equipment were almost nil, since it wasn’t worth carrying the weight if you didn’t expect to need it.<br><br>The silliness of the concept was actually made more apparent by the movie “Rambo” (second movie in the series), where the plot turn necessary to put the protagonist in the position of depending on just his knife (again) was obviously very contrived.<br><br>I sold my model 18 back in the late ‘70s, and a custom hollow-handled boot knife earlier. The concept just didn’t work. Survival gear is what you have on you when the need arises, not what's in a closet at home, and they were just too much weight and bulk to carry. I also got tired of the balance changing constantly with the contents, the fact that the handle didn't orient the blade by feel… and there’s something that just doesn’t feel right about taking one of man’s simplest, most basic tools, and making it complicated.<br>