Add a Comment

Comment by Jan Carter on April 23, 2018 at 19:22

.

Comment by Jan Carter on July 18, 2016 at 19:17

Comment by Jan Carter on July 18, 2016 at 11:57

The Cutting Edge® printed catalog for July 2016 is now available for your viewing & selection at:
cuttingedge.com/pdf

all the best,

A. G.
Founder, A. G. Russell Knives

Comment by Jan Carter on May 2, 2016 at 19:05

Great find Brian!

Comment by Brian LeClair on May 2, 2016 at 18:42

Found this maker thru the Hen & Rooster German made knives from the 70's. Then next was the Tak Fakuta made camp knives, what a well made knife! I got the wood handle camp & didn't know it was also done in Stag. Excellent !

Comment by Alexander Noot on March 21, 2016 at 7:15

Some of those are really nice indeed.

Comment by Jan Carter on March 18, 2016 at 22:32

Not only are there some great old Hen & Roosters for sale.  This email from AG gives some great history in his own words 

Comment by Jan Carter on March 18, 2016 at 22:27

weekly special for Mar 16, 2016

Notes from A.G.

March 16, 2016
C. Bertram of Solingen and their Hen & Rooster knives
In 1864, the firm of C. Bertram Reinh. Sohn, Knifemakers opened in Solingen, Germany. This firm was founded by a man whose hobby was raising fancy chickens, so he began using a logo of a Rooster standing behind a Hen. In the United States, collectors began calling these knives, Hen & Rooster knives, which by the 1950s, 60s, and 70s had become synonymous with superlative quality. These German knives almost matched in quality the English knives of Joseph Rogers, whose quality was maintained until about 1913 when England destroyed itself by letting 70-80 year old generals run a modern war.
In the early 1970s, I sold Hen & Rooster knives which I bought from Kurt Gutmann. When I needed a manufacturer who was capable of a similar quality to make knives for the collector’s series which I had started for the Knife Collectors Club, I made a trip to Solingen. I found that those exquisite pocket knives were being made by C. Bertram and arranged for them to make the fourth knife in that series – the CM-4 Baby Barlow with elephant ivory. That was in 1975. Before the year was over, the manager of the factory approached me to buy the company. In order to keep the company out of bankruptcy, and assure that I had a source of the kind of quality I wanted, I bought the company. We managed to keep the factory open until July 1980. For the first year, we continued to make knives for Kurt Gutmann. When I realized that the factory was losing money on what they sold to him, I approached him with a price increase. He would have none of that and he and I agreed to no longer do business.
Over the next five years, we continued to produce Hen & Rooster knives with the Hen & Rooster logo, but after Gutmann, they were all marked A.G. Russell. In July, 1980, I could no longer keep the little company going and finally it succumbed to bankruptcy in July of that year. At that time, I had a large inventory on hand in Springdale, Arkansas and we have continued to sell those knives through the years. We have very few of those original knives left.
Today, we are adding forty-one (41) individual knives to the A.G. Russell website. These knives came from a man who has been collecting original Hen & Rooster knives for years. There is only one of each as we have described them on our site. If the knife was made before the 1950s, I have indicated that on each individual knife. The others, I have dated to indicate an approximate time they were made: in the 1950s the mark was primarily Gutmann, during the 1960s, Gutmann, Carter, Fife, Kane and others. Those made during the late 1970s were primarily made for A. G. Russell and are so marked. You can find these knives at agrussell.com/hen&rooster.
The factory, with 15 workers, was closed in July of 1980 and the unique quality was lost forever. The trademark was acquired by Jim Frost of Frost Cutlery, with the help of Klaass Cutlery who then produced knives using this trademark. The quality has never been the same.
We sell only those knives made before July of 1980. There is nothing wrong with the Frost Hen & Rooster knives, they are fairly priced for what they are. But, I must avoid confusing my customers, so we do not sell currently produced knives marked in a way that would cause them to be confused with these valuable collectible knives.

Comment by Jan Carter on March 18, 2016 at 22:27

There are a couple of sites on the internet that might be of further interest to you. One is on iKnife Collector and the other on Blade Forums. The links are provided below. As with anything you find on the internet, just keep in mind that all the information is not totally accurate. It all depends on the knowledge of the writer.
http://iknifecollector.com/group/knifechicks2/forum/topics/hen-roos...
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/788352-Vintage-Hen...
all the best,

A. G.
Founder, A. G. Russell Knives
As always, thank you for trusting us with your e-mail address.
________________________________________
This link will get you to the Special referred to in the notes above.
http://www.agrussell.com/specials

________________________________________
Mid-month is always re-pricing time for cuttingedge.com. We have re-priced over 360 knives that were listed in February 2016 and before. That means prices have been lowered about 10%.
www.cuttingedge.com/knives_for_immediate_delivery

________________________________________
As always for seconds, or imperfect knives, take a look at: http://www.agrussell.com/seconds/

________________________________________

In Memoriam Comment by D ale on January 19, 2016 at 19:03

I completely agree, Alexander. I stopped @ A.G.'s brick & mortar store late Oct of 2014 & had the privilege of spending some time w/ A.G. .. what a nice man !!!

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• …
• 44
• Next ›
• Page