The Green River Knife – An Integral Part of the Legend of the Old West

As surprising as it may seem, at the end of the 18^th century and beginning of the 19^th, there was not a single knifemaker in all America, despite the large number of people swarming all over it, all over that is except for the West, which was still too wild to venture into. The few metalsmiths concentrated essentially on plowing implements, horseshoes and odd repairs, but rarely the manufacture of blades. It was thus logical for the colonizers to look to their countries of origin for all cutlery requirements. The principal supplier was England. Apart from folding knives and various all-purpose straight models produced in the purest Sheffield style. It soon became necessary to create specific shapes to meet the requirements encountered in the vast New World. One of these requirements was skinning animals to make clothes, and so it was that the I. Wilson firm designed one of the first “skinner” type knives in 1750.

In 1818, Henry Harrington established the first cutlery factory on the continent, followed in 1834, by John Russell, whose clientele was now much large that that of his predecessor. Descended from an old family of English pioneers, John Russell chose the banks of the Green River, near Greenfield, Massachusetts, to set up his first factory, to the great astonishment of his family and friends. Here his first products were cast steel socket chisels and axe heads followed. In fact, John did not have the slightest experience in this domain of cutlery, his first activity having been a silversmith, followed by cotton in Georgia, where he amassed a considerable fortune. In 1832, he made as trip back down memory lane to his birthplace and decided to set up home there and take early retirement.

The place was so devoid of activity, through, that his only escape from depression was to throw him into a new professional occupation. But why knifemaking? There was no tradition of it in the country and he himself had no knowledge of the craft. Unfortunately history cannot enlighten us. Perhaps he just said to himself, “Why Not?”

Successive failures, like the destruction of the factory on two occasions by fire and once by flooding of the Green River, and the great difficulty in finding qualified labor, did not discourage him in the slightest. He also produced wooden tools that he sold through his brother Francis, who had the idea of opening a shop in New York. So when the first series of long knives was launched, there was already an excellent sale outlet based there in the East, from which it spread out through the interior of the continent.

In 1846 Russell was joined in business by his brother Francis and an investor named Henry Clapp. The new factory they built was christened the “Green River Works” a trade name that would soon be carried on knives across America. The Russell’s developed several labor saving devices and introduced a steam engine to power much of their equipment. Their innovative ideas also included setting wages at a rate that lured skilled cutlery workers from Sheffield, England. In the late 1830’s Russell began to make what was called “An American Hunting Knife”.

This first series comprised of five models, all of which are still sold today! Carefully planned manufacturing methods ensured a very large production, with the nearby river providing hydraulic energy for the power hammers. The materials were also of the highest quality, originating from Sheffield. Of an extremely simple flatsole design with two riveted wooden plaques for the handle, they were also intended for particular use; skinning and cutting up animals. These included the “Buffalo Skinner” with its characteristic wide point that turns up, and the “Dadley Universal”, which was an early “utility” knife”. Boning knife; ”semi-skinner”, which was easier for cutting up and skinning medium game than its big brother (for bison essentially) and the “beef-skinner”, later called the “butcher” which had a long 20 cm blade for cutting up meat.

In 1868, a fire destroyed much of the Greenfield Factory and a new one was built in Turner Falls, Massachusetts. The John Russell Manufacturing Company’s new cutlery factory was the largest in the world and featured many conveniences not found in the company’s previous facilities. Nearly 500 employees worked there, but it was reported that the factory was large enough to employ over a thousand workmen. Although business was good, with sales volume near $750,000, the new factory had drained the company’s financial resources. The company went bankrupt in 1873 and reorganization took place soon thereafter, with no members of the John Russell family remaining as investors.

Manufacture of pocketknives began in 1875 and by 1877 Russell made over 400 different patterns and had sold over a half-million pieces. Similar in the fame earned by Russell’s Green River knives, another knife pattern’s name would become synonymous with that of its manufacture. A Sheffield cutler, Obadiah Barlow, had invented the first “Barlow” about 1667 but it was Russell who would make it America’s favorite for several decades. It became famous by selling for 15¢ and 25¢ for the one-blade and two-blade models, respectively. When the post World War I steel price increased dictated a price increase on Russell’s Barlow’s, consumers were unhappy and the company discontinued its manufacture in the early 1930’s.

In 1933, the John Russell Manufacturing Company merged with the Harrington Cutlery Company to become the Russell-Harrington Company and was moved to Southbridge, Massachusetts. When a popular Louisville Courier Journal columnist, Allen Trout, founded the Barlow Bobcats Club in the early 1950s. (A requirement was to own an original Russell Barlow), the company participated for a while in the knife’s renewed popularity by restoring Russell Barlow’s for $1.00. Factory restored knives can be identified by the word SECOND etched on the face of the blade.

In 2001, the company changed its name to Dexter Russell, Inc. Knife production today is primarily in kitchen and industrial cutlery, and pocketknives have not been made since about 1930. Another company, probably Schrade manufactured the 12,000 Russell Barlow Commemorative knives introduced by Dexter Russell Company in 1974, these had Delrin handles.  Beginning the late 1990’s, the company had both standard and daddy Barlow’s made for the firm by different manufacturers. These were offered with handles of genuine stag, sawcut green bone, and sawcut red bone. The bolsters were made of nickel silver.

Counterfeits of the standard 3 3/8 Russell Barlow’s were factory made in Germany for a time in the early 1970s. Handled in bone or black composition, the stamps look very much like the original stamps and the ink stamping that reads GERMANY is easily wiped away. Luckily, examining the end handle pin, the one furthest away from the bolster, easily identifies the fakes. If the pin is nearly centered across the width of the handle, the knife is likely original. If however, that pin is located very near the edge of the handle, the knife is a German counterfeit.