When a Merchant Marine named R.W. “Bob” Loveless walked into Abercrombie & Fitch—a retail sporting goods store—in downtown Manhattan, New York, he was looking for a Randall knife. But Randall knives were out of stock, and the waiting period was too long, so Bob decided to make a knife on his own. When he returned to Abercrombie & Fitch with a knife he had built, the store manager liked it well enough to order four more just like it.

This is one of Loveless’ first knives made for Abercrombie & Fitch during the early 1950’s. The photo is courtesy of John Denton, and the image ran in the book Knifemaking With Bob Loveless.