I've got the A.G. Russell Wharncliffe Whittler. Bought it a while back partly to have something not-longer-than-two-inches and non-locking, which fits the courthouse rules 'round here, should I ever get called again for jury duty.
Very nice little knife, well made. Between the two inch blade length, and the Wharncliffe pattern, the point is very thin and, well, very pointy. Much more something for picking splinters and cutting articles out of the paper than, say, prying open car doors...
The edges on the two pen blades weren't all they could be, from the factory (one had a noticible burr), but they would be quite simple to clean up -- actually I haven't gotten around to finishing the job, because the Wharncliffe blade is my main interest on the knife.
The stag pattern on the one in the ads is more captivating than on mine, but then, you gotta figure they'd use the pick of the litter for the photos.
The knife handle is a little thicker than I'd imagined from the pictures, just under 1/2" for the middle 1-1/2" of the handle length, narrowing to about 3/8" at the bolsters. Also, in some of the catalog pictures I've seen, the lighting is such that the curve of the spine doesn't appear to go as high as it actually does on the knife -- the spine is, uh, swedged (?) a bit for most of its length. If you're looking at a picture that looks like the top of the spine grazes right past the edge of the nail nick, then the contoured upper bit of the spine may be getting lost in the glare/shadows/conspiracy/etc.
Sorry, getting carried away with the details, but I've tried to catch the diff between my perceptions of the knife before and after ordering, since you're standing in about the same place.
I've bought a few knives from A.G.'s catalogs in the past, and my experience with his organization has always been top-notch.
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Carl /\/\/\ AKTI #A000921 /\/\/\ San Diego, California
Think this through with me ... Let me know your mind
Wo-oah, what I want to know ... is are you kind?
-- Hunter/Garcia, "Uncle John's Band"
