John Russell Green River Works knives

Yosemite Sam

Yosemite Sam

Joined
Dec 17, 2001
Messages
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I'm looking at a Bowie by the above maker, but can't find out a lot about them. The company has apparently been bought out and turned into Dexter-Russell, who now only (?) produces kitchen knives.

The knife I'm looking at has a generic stainless blade (can't find the steel type, probably A440), nice stag (looks good in a pic, anyway) handles, and is sub $100.

Can anyone comment on these knives? I tried a seach, but I get a blank screen for results... Unless I search on just "russell", where I get every topic anyone has mentioned A.G. Russell....

-- PG
 
6632167154 6633017357 Copy and Paste either number in search box at ebay.com
Search John Russell Knife and J Russell Knife you will get the results you want, your new next knife!
That is the E-Bay auction number for your knife.
They are going cheap!!!
E-Bay....mmmmmm

Daddy
 
Yes, I found them, but don't know anything about them. Was hoping for some input.

Thanks,

-- Sam
 
I am not familar with the stainless version you speak of. The Russell green river works knives I have seen were high carbon blades. These cut and perform quite well. I've had several of those over the years and they are really not bad pure cutting tools that hold a decent edge and are fairly easy to maintain. I think most are 56 Rc or slightly higher. The Nesmuk style blade they sell (or sold) is a very good performer. Most are 3/32 thick or there abouts and seem to me to be great slicers as well as field dressing tools.


Most of the steel they use is high carbon and it will rust because it is after the same steel grandmas old butcher knife was made of but for the money they can't be argued with. There was some discussion a while back about what the steel is. I think most agree it is very similar to the same steel Case used for years called their CV steel. Its probably a very similar if not identical steel to the Carbon V steel used by Cold Steel and the Becker line up of knives by Camillus.

Its news to me that they even made anything of stainless.

STR
 
I went to the Arbolito (Böker) factory in Argentina and apparently they are making the stainless stuff for J. Russell. I bought a spearpoint bowie with stag handle that they had left over from their last shipment. This was April last year, so things might have changed.
 
I'm willing to bet it's Boker, made in the Argentina plant. Boker makes or made the small barlow and 4" stockman slipjoint pocketknives under the John Russell GRW label so it makes sense they would make the bowies too. If it is stainless, it would most likely be 420HC since that's the stainless Boker uses. However, it could also be 1095 carbon.

If you buy it, please let us know how you like it. I've seen those on e-bay and have been curious about them.

Regards,

Jim
 
longbeachguy said:
I'm willing to bet it's Boker, made in the Argentina plant. Boker makes or made the small barlow and 4" stockman slipjoint pocketknives under the John Russell GRW label so it makes sense they would make the bowies too. If it is stainless, it would most likely be 420HC since that's the stainless Boker uses. However, it could also be 1095 carbon.

If you buy it, please let us know how you like it. I've seen those on e-bay and have been curious about them.

Regards,

Jim
Click to expand...
Well, I received my J. Russell model 1000 Bowie today. I must say, I have rarely been this ambivalent about getting a new knife.

On one hand it's not so bad. I didn't expect a heck of a lot out of a $60 Bowie (Knife Outlet's price; eBay prices were higher -- it pays to look around). It has a very pretty blade contour with a good belly and a deep clip, the hollow grind is nice and deep, and the edge profile is decent -- even and centered. It came fairly sharp, but not "hair poppingly" so. Balance point is just behind the guard, which is OK, though the whole knife feels a little lightweight for this blade length (6-1/2"). The blade is .150" thick at the shank, and it is of full tang construction. The sheath is very nice, and I'm very picky about my leatherwork, since I do some of my own.

On the other hand the handle scales look and feel really cheap. I doubt they're real stag, but probably gigged bone made to look like stag -- I don't think they're plastic, in any case. The coloring looks like it was done with a brown crayon. (I'm aware that many such handles are burned to create a mottled appearance.) They're shaped inconsistently, with the outer edge of the right scale being flat and the left rounded. The brass guard is loose and rattly. There's a chunk of badly cut handle material right behind the guard that almost looks like plastic or hot glue. It is made in Argentina, as the stamp on the shank will attest.

All that said, I was somewhat disappointed when I first looked it over, but it's growing on me the more I handle it. I feel as though this knife could get through weekend camping chores, which is what I bought it for. I'm going to give it a few days and see how I feel about it. Worst case, there are several 6-9" utility/"combat" Bowies that would do the job for about the same price.

In case anyone's interested, this is the knife in question.

-- Sam
 
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