A Letter From A. G. Russell Jan. 2008

January 9, 2008

My Dear Friends,

In 2001, we introduced a program of knifemaking that we called A. G. Russell™ Shopmade®. This program was intended to produce a good portion of the knives we sell and to provide the kinds of knives that we are unable to find from any other source. Unfortunately, an accident in 2002 left us without a knifemaker and the program stopped before it really got started.

Late in 2006, we added an engineer to our team and, late in 2007, we added a knifemaker, allowing us to revive the Shopmade® program. A Shopmade® knife has blades that are CNC cut, heat-treated and machine ground by experts in those operations. The finish grind and polish, the handle work and sharpening is all done in our own shop. All operations are tightly controlled by myself or by our staff. The designs will be original, mostly my own, and will include both fixed blades and folding knives.

The first Shopmade knife in several years, and the fourth overall, was the cover knife in the Winter 2008 A. G. Russell™ catalog, which appears on page 55 in this catalog. It is the A. G. Russell™ Shopmade® Pilot and Parachute Knife (Chute Knife) which will be limited to a maximum of 350 pieces. The next Shopmade® knife will be a slipjoint folder, probably either a Gentleman?s Knife or a Sowbelly Texas Jack. We had planned a Slim Trapper designed by the greatest slipjoint maker in today?s knife world. Sadly, one of our subcontractors has failed us so badly that we will have at least one and maybe two other knives before we manage to get that one produced.

I am excited about the potential for this new program and I think you will be as well. It is my intention to create knives that cannot otherwise be found in today?s knife market. Some will be in very short runs, with very unique handle material or blade steels, or both, and some will become a regular part of our knife line.

We are looking forward to 2008 and all of the new knives we intend for it to bring. We have many in the planning stages and several actually in some state of preparation for production. We appreciate your business and your interest in what we do.

All The Best,

A.G. Russell