Author Topic: Marbles Knives (Read 898 times)

rusty51 · « **on:** August 25, 2005, 05:56:35 PM »

I was looking at one of there fieldcraft knives does anyone have one, or know anything about them

pastorp · « **Reply #1 on:** August 31, 2005, 11:56:09 AM »

Rusty, I have no hands on experience with the new Marbles knives. However I did have a vintage marbles years ago. It was a fine knife. If the new ones have the same quality they should be great knives. Regards, Byron

Joel · « **Reply #2 on:** September 04, 2005, 06:16:55 AM »

Marbles knives have done interesting things to knife design over the years. Marbles was the first to popularize thick bladed hunting knives, the "sharpened crowbar" effect. They also popularized the stacked leather handles. I"ve handled them at stores when they first started re-making them after all those years but never bought one, since I felt that they were overpriced considering the blade finish I saw; they had very heavy grind marks, which I think are inapporpriate on a carbon steel blade. If any blade should be well polished(especially at that price) carbon steel should. Cuts down on surface pore size and helps some in slowing down rust formation. Current Marbles knives are made "offshore"(the fixed bladed ones). I believe they sold the folding knife portion to a different individual, whose name I can't recall; and I can't find the article that mentions that. That doesn't mean that the new Marbles are of less quality...they may be better. The design itself(fieldcraft) is timeless.

willysjeep134 · « **Reply #3 on:** September 07, 2005, 04:09:31 AM »

According to an e-mail from a company representative this morning, the Marble's Classic series is still made in Gladstone, MI. The folders and some others I assume aren't, but they didn't really say for sure. I am from Gladstone, and when I heard about the outsourcing I was extremely angry. I guess the company is expanding though, and they haven't really scaled back their gladstone operation, so I cant get too worked up about it yet. I won't buy their foreign made stuff though, and I made them aware of that. Marbles are still nice knives.

I have an older Fieldcraft from 1998. I like it, but I am thinking about getting a Woodcraft. The fieldcraft was a birdseye maple handle one given to me by my now deceased grandma, so I really don't want to use it too much in the field and have something happen to it. I'm thinking a leather stacked woodcraft would be slightly less painful to use in the woods. The fieldcraft is a nice design though. It works great for a deer gutting kinfe.

Joel · « **Reply #4 on:** September 08, 2005, 06:21:44 AM »

You're right about the classic series. My current Smokey Mountain catalog lists the stag handled versions with a made in the USA logo. The man who just bought Marble's cutlery division is named George Brinkley. His stated purpose is to concentrate on the fixed knife part and cut back some on the folders. Since the folders listed in the catalog don't have the USA logo, I'm assuming that they are all made offshore as well as some of the other fixed blades.