A.G.Russell Working mans knife, made in Solingen

J D Wijbenga

J D Wijbenga

Joined
Oct 17, 1998
Messages
1,008
This morning I went to the DKE, the Dutch knife show in Tiel, The Netherlands. It is a nice show with a nice variation of knives. Production and custom, high end and low end. Boker from Solingen also had a table there. On it they had both their modern models as well as some of their traditional designs. It was nice to be able to handle those and to get a feel for them. I a corner they also had an assortment of knives that they seemed to have dug up in some back room. Older models with no box and no more information than what you could read on the blade. Among these there were two small yeller handled Barlow that appealed to me. On the tang on one side it said A.G.Russell and on the other side Solingen, Germany. One of them came home with me. A little Google Foo showed it to be the A.G.Russell 'Working mans knife' with 1095 steel blades and bone handles.

A nice find that I hope to get to know better in the coming weeks! :-)

If any of you are familiar with this or a similar model, let me know how you like it!

AGRussell_Barlow-1.JPG

AGRussell_Barlow-2.JPG

AGRussell_Barlow-3.JPG
 
A classic Barlow, one I couldn't have resisted buying myself. And you know if it has the AGR brand on it, it has to be a quality piece. No doubt that one will give you many years of good service. I really like the long pull on the main blade, too.

Nice find!

Robert
 
I agree that a nice barlow is hard to pas up. But one like that, a good barlow in every sense of the tradition, and yella handles to boot, well ya gotta buy it. It's a very nice lookiing example of an old time design.:thumbup:

Carl.
 
I HAVE ONE OF THESE. It is beautifully made with the nailbreaking springs from hell and half-stops that go ka-THUD. If only I could resist yellow knives.
 
I have the same knife and bought it when AG was offering it on his site. It's a fantastic knife and one of the best examples of the Barlow pattern that I've seen. Everything about the knife was done right, all the way down to the grinds on the blades. Every once in a while you come across a production-made knife that rivals the quality of a handmade, custom. The AG Russell fits that category. Oil the joints, sharpen it up and use it. It'll last a life-time.

Rudd
 
Lovely barlow. I am a sucker for yellow bone, barlows and strong pulls!
 
I really love the bone on that one! Congrats on the find and thank you for sharing pictures of it.
 
P.S. I forgot to add that the knife was meant to be part of a series that AG was going to do on "Working Man's Knives". The series was going to represent the classic patterns of American Slipjoints from the past, all with yellow bone scales. I believe that the Barlow was the first but I haven't seen any others that were labeled "Working Man's Knife". Maybe someone more knowledgeable about AG Russell knifes will chime in.

Rudd
 
Boker from Solingen also had a table there. On it they had both their modern models as well as some of their traditional designs. It was nice to be able to handle those and to get a feel for them. I a corner they also had an assortment of knives that they seemed to have dug up in some back room. Older models with no box and no more information than what you could read on the blade.
Click to expand...

I could spend a lot of money at a table like that. :)
 
Nothing says working-class more than a yellow barlow. A most excellent score! :thumbup:
 
Agree with all, that is very Nice knife, always like it when both nail nicks are presented on the same side, just makes more sense to me than having to rotate the knife to get to the other blade, looks a handy size as well.

G2
 
What an awesome Barlow, and yellow too!

I love the AG Russell knives I have, they are all well made, from the little ultimate Pen, through the pinched Peanut, up to the dogleg Trapper and curved regular jack.

Congrats on a terrific knife :thumbup:
 
That one sure looks good! I would definitely have purchased it, were I in your shoes. And, since you found it for sale somewhere aside from AG's catalogue, it was probably more reasonably priced. ;)
Enjoy it! :thumbup:
 
Thank you! In the beginning the blades were quite stiff. So, I left the blades with the springs under tension for a night. Now they are much easier to open.
 
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