All About Pocket Knives

Can someone tell me anything about the pictured knives. They are Hen & Rooster single blade knives that date to the early eighties. The handle material is G10 for the black and burgundy, and stag on the other. Any information about them would be appreciated. Thank you

What kind of information?
As far as I know the knives before 1980 were made in Germany by Hen & Rooster. After 1980 they were made in America/ Japan/China or Germany under the name AG Russel.
They get sketchy as to who made what/when because they had several different owners including Frost cutlery whom I believe owns the trademark today. I may be mistaken on that tho.

The most important thing to do is date them correctly to know where they were made, and by whom.

This thread shows the date stamps but I assume you have that... viewtopic.php?t=15513

americanedgetech wrote:What kind of information?
As far as I know the knives before 1980 were made in Germany by Hen & Rooster. After 1980 they were made in America/ Japan/China or Germany under the name AG Russel.
They get sketchy as to who made what/when because they had several different owners including Frost cutlery whom I believe owns the trademark today. I may be mistaken on that tho.

The most important thing to do is date them correctly to know where they were made, and by whom.

This thread shows the date stamps but I assume you have that... viewtopic.php?t=15513

Ken, it's the other way around. A.G. Russell owned the company for a short time until 1980 and I don't believe he ever made any H&R's anywhere but Germany. The America/Japan/China ones were not made under A.G.'s ownership.

gypsumelec wrote:Can someone tell me anything about the pictured knives. They are Hen & Rooster single blade knives that date to the early eighties. The handle material is G10 for the black and burgundy, and stag on the other. Any information about them would be appreciated. Thank you

It's hard to tell the size of your knives by the pictures but those look like the same frame as the CM-7 that A.G. Russell made before he sold the company. I don't think those are actually CM-7's (it would say so on the tang if they were) but it looks like the same frame made by one of the other owners.

Model 107 maybe?
https://agrussell.com/knife/Original-He ... 107--107BR

The knives you show look like ones made in the old Hen & Rooster shop when owned by AG Russell 1975-80 and is a pattern designed by AG himself. However this pattern was also partly faked. AG claims that the son of the former H&R owner stole a bunch of these knives unfinished and had them finished elsewhere and then sold.
Can you take pics of the tang markings, enlarge them and post here ? There are differences in markings but i forget exactly what. If i can see pics i might recall.
This info is somewhere in BF, BRL forum in a post by AG himself.
kj

I knew you fellas would set it straight. Thank you RailSplitter.
H&R is one of those convoluted companies like the ones Jim Parker used to run/own.

Kj, I do recall reading about a BUNCH of inventory from H&R Germany coming into the US to be built, and sold under another owner but I can not remember whom. It was after the 1980 sale of the company tho. I do not believe it was Jim Frost but I can't recall the rest of the parties involved. An ex Russell manager or something...

Thank you gents for the info and taking the trouble to post it. I will take some pictures of the tang stamps and post them shortly. The person I got the knives from used to own a knife store and he told me that they were supposed to be a prototype that was taking them around to dealers for an opinion when the selling or bankruptcy happened. That is how he told me he wound up with them. Got them from the salesman. That is just what he told me.

I will just go ahead and post the pictures now. Looks like the full tail on the Rooster.

Congratulations Mr. Railsplitter. I think you just won the cupee doll. The A. G.Russell ad you posted the link to seems to be talking about these knives exactly. Measurements, closed length, blade length, even the weight. Thanks so much for the help. I know you can't see me but if you could, you would see me doing my happy dance. Not really but I just liked the sound of that.

The markings do look like the original AGR designed and H&R made knife, same as one linked to on AGR website. The partially faked ones i mentioned are identical in all respects except the back side tang marking differs. "Partially faked" here means that money from sale did not go to AGR's business but to a relative of the former owner of H&R who sold the business to AG, ('relative = son or son-in-law), and the final finishing & marking was done by cutlers not working for AG. There really is no difference in quality between the 'official' ones finished in the H&R shop and those stolen from AG and finished elsewhere.
kj

gypsumelec wrote:Congratulations Mr. Railsplitter. I think you just won the cupee doll. The A. G.Russell ad you posted the link to seems to be talking about these knives exactly. Measurements, closed length, blade length, even the weight. Thanks so much for the help. I know you can't see me but if you could, you would see me doing my happy dance. Not really but I just liked the sound of that.

I'm not sure what a cupee doll is (might have to look that one up) but I'm happy to help. I used to own a Hen & Rooster CM-6 and I remember seeing the CM-7's, which your knives reminded me of, when I was researching the CM-6.

Very nice knives you have there. And three of them to boot!

Thank you also Joe. The stag may be from the other bunch then. Instead of BERTRAM over *GERMANY* it has ROSTFREI over SOLINGEN over GERMANY. I am going to send pictures and see what they might have to say at A G Russell and also see what they have to say at Hen & Rooster. Strangely enough, Hen & Rooster headquarters is in Chattanooga Tennessee. If something interesting come from these emails I will post about it here.

When did Hen and Rooster start using stainless steel in their blades? Eric

Hi I see this conversation is fairly old but I do have questions about a hen and rooster half congress I bought lately. Tang stamps are on the opposite side of the shield and no country of origin.