Spring 2019 Letter

December 2018

As I fondly reminisced the past 12 years I spent with A.G. getting his designs into CAD, it occurred to me that so few of the thousands of his designs we have worked on have seen the light of day.

When it came to cutlery design, he was a consummate perfectionist, constantly striving to improve & innovate unique new knives. His ability to express his concepts with such inspired pencil arcs & lines was truly awe-inspiring. His "what if" approach to design led us to so many novel opportunities. Our cover photo this month teases a few of these that he has shepherded toward production.

He liked the Sodbuster® pattern & his Rancher model shadow pattern slipjoint was a great success. So to improve it, he made it an ambidextrous one-hand opening lockback with a reversible/removable pocket clip & a wider blade, all while maintaining the classic lines of the original.

The original A.G. Russell™ Acies™ frame-lock sold out extremely fast. To bring it back A.G. enhanced it by pocketing the back side of the Titanium handles, adding a ball-bearing pivot, a hardened lock face insert & using CPM-S30V for the blade.

A.G. was always fond of Rope knives & was especially proud of the Sunfish pattern he designed for the 2010 A.G. Russell Texas Ranger Knife. It was so well received by our customers that we subsequently redid the pattern with other handle materials. (I personally regret missing my chance to purchase one in Cocobolo!)

When he mentioned to Goldie he would like to do another Sunfish, Goldie suggested a smaller one with a 4" handle. A.G. promptly marched into my office & announced we were redoing the Sunfish; smaller handle, same sized blade! It took us over a month to figure out how, & we had to break the rules to do it. A.G. always seemed to enjoy it when we "broke the rules".

Considering all of his designs we have in CAD, along with all the new drawings Goldie found on and around his desk at home, I realize that we have the heirloom of a virtually endless river of his designs. Keep your eyes open. Much more to come.

Phil Gibbs, Engineer
A.G. Russell Knives