Interview: Jeff Randall

Back in 2009 and 2010, KnivesShipFree published a monthly newsletter called From the Edge. One of its recurring features was an interview with a knifemaker or industry executive. We thought you'd be interested in visiting these conversations again, so we're presenting them here on the KnivesShipFree Blog.

This is our interview with Jeff Randall of ESEE Knives -- enjoy.

Interview: Jeff Randall

From jungle adventure to tough knives

By his own admission, Jeff Randall doesn't like sitting behind a desk.

Before there was ESEE Knives, Randall was tromping through the jungles of Central and South America, training military personnel, law-enforcement officers and civilians in the art of jungle survival as Randall's Adventure & Training. Through that experience, and leveraging his experience as a welder and fabricator, Randall and R.A.T. co-owner Mike Perrin saw the need for a better knife -- so they designed one.

From there, their knives were made first by Newt Livesay and then, from 2002 through 2007, under a licensing arrangement with Ontario Knife Company. After that, Randall and partner Perrin -- whom Randall describes as his "cloned brother" -- formed RAT Cutlery and began producing their designs independently. The brand is now labeled ESEE Knives.

Today, ESEE is one of the fastest-growing brands in the cutlery industry -- it's certainly one of KnivesShipFree's top sellers. With that kind of success, it'd be reasonable to assume that Jeff Randall has found a new line of work.

Not so.

"My heart's still in the training," he says. "That's where the value is -- the knives are just a means to an end."

"The biggest fallacy is that gear is necessary to survive. You can't get by on gear -- you need skills. You need to prepare in every aspect of life. And if you don't have the proper mindset, you're going to die."

It's an attitude that Randall adopted at an early age. He still lives on the same 150-acre farm on which he was raised, the place where he learned from his dad and granddad.

"They showed me how to live off the land," he says. "We raised our own food. I learned what I don't need."

Randall reflects that childhood experience in both his personality and in the type of student he seeks for his jungle-training courses.

"We want a person who's master of his own destiny, an individualist. We're not looking for someone who's an expert in outdoor skills or a special-forces guy, just someone with common sense -- and no excuses."

As the conversation unfolded, it got harder and harder to get the man to talk about knives. When he finally did, we got a surprise.

The day we talked with Randall, he was about to leave for Peru, where many of his R.A.T. students no doubt would be carrying ESEE knives. He won't.

"I never carry [an ESEE knife] into the jungle -- I always carry someone else's knife," he says. "Really, just give me a three-blade Old Timer and a ten-dollar machete."

What of ESEE Knives, then? More to the point, perhaps, why do people buy them?

"Oh, we're 100% proud of the quality," Randall says, with obvious conviction, of ESEE's American-made products. "We make our knives for people who use them, who take them out and knock the pretty off of them.

"I have no problems with imports, but right now they have an unfair advantage. We believe that the American worker is the most skilled, best trained and most motivated worker in the world. And even though the playing field isn't fair, we've proven that [ESEE Knives] can compete with Brand X -- despite their unfair advantage."

Now we were getting somewhere. Pressing further, past imports and made-in-USA, we saw that Randall's pride in ESEE flows from an unshakeable sense of integrity.

"Look, I'll stay in the knife business right up to the point that I have to lie to our customers," he says. "If I ever feel that I have to sacrifice my principles to stay in this business, I'll walk away -- and I'd rather walk away than lie."

And so we got our answer.

ESEE Knives -- and, we predict, the expanded range of survival products and tools that Randall says will be released soon -- are tough, honest, no-nonsense and all-American. They're a mirror of a man who's now somewhere in the Peruvian jungle, showing his students the skills they need to survive.