Need Help with info on a Ka-Bar. Cant Find another like it!

The KA-BAR brand originated as a trademark of the Tidioute Cutlery Company. Tidioute was later taken over & renamed the Union Cutlery Company which continued making the brand until Union eventually adopted it as the company name in 1952. Cutco Corporation later acquired the company in 1996.
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HumbleHunter
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Need Help with info on a Ka-Bar. Cant Find another like it!

Post by HumbleHunter »

So I am not a collector, I am just your ordinary avid Michigan Outdoors man. I know a little about a lot and a lot about little!! LOL!! MY knife expertise is lacking... I had came across 3 small similar knifes in a box from an auction. Being from Michigan I knew right away I had some nice knives sitting in front of me when I seen the stamp Marbles on two of them and Ka-Bar on the other. I didn't realize until I started looking them up on how rare the Marbles Knives are and how hard it is to find any information on them and no information at all on the Ka-Bar Knife... The Marbles Knives are what look to be the original 1920s era Bird and Trout knife. The Ka-Bar is a little bit longer than the Marbles knife but I cant find a lick of info on the knife.... If anyone has any information on the knife it would be greatly appreciated!! I am going to try to add a pic on here but there will only be one Marbles Knife in it. I gave the other Marbles knife to my Dad as an early fathers day gift. He loved it!!
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stagman
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Re: Need Help with info on a Ka-Bar. Cant Find another like it!

Post by stagman »

I can't quite tell by the angle of the pic if the Marble's has that short
top grind tword the tip...looks like from my angle its the 1919-1930 knife
Thats the only 1 piece knife they ever made back then...
Can't say about the KA-BAR...don't mess with them much

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Gunsil
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Re: Need Help with info on a Ka-Bar. Cant Find another like it!

Post by Gunsil »

The KA-BAR one is scarcer than the Marbles one which are actually fairly common. The Marbles ones were also reproduced in the early 2000s. I think KA-BAR made them for Marbles although that thought sometimes makes Marbles guys crazy. Fact is that Marbles stamps were found in the KA-BAR factory so they must have done some work for Marbles. At one point before WW2 the people of Gladstone were tired of the noise from the stamping mill and Marbles had their blades blanked out by an eastern company, likely Union Cut. This was documented by a former Marbles employee in the old Knife World Magazine.
HumbleHunter
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Re: Need Help with info on a Ka-Bar. Cant Find another like it!

Post by HumbleHunter »

I was thinking the same thing, that one of the two companies may have produced some for the other... They are very similar to one another! I just found out that I can send some pics of it to Ka-Bar and then they can try to date it and hopefully tell me a little more about it. I will ask if they know about their conpany producing any of these for Marbles in years past. Cant hurt to ask... I will let ya know what they say! How rear are the two knives? Do serious collectors come across these fairly often?
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Re: Need Help with info on a Ka-Bar. Cant Find another like it!

Post by Gunsil »

Good luck with that!! The company was sold to Cole National in 1966 and moved to Ohio, sold again to somebody else, bought by Alcas around 1996. There is nothing left of the old factory and the present owners know little about the early knives. Their "company historian" knows little about any knives before the late 1970s, and most of the early old brochures on hunting and fishing knives in their archives were donated to them by me. I may have a brochure showing your knife around here someplace I haven't had time to look for it.
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Re: Need Help with info on a Ka-Bar. Cant Find another like it!

Post by Gunsil »

I got a chance to look through my old KA-BAR hunting/fishing knife brochures. These little trout knives first appear in a brochure that came out in 1934 and they are still shown in the 1938 brochure. There are no later brochures known than the 1938 and these knives were likely discontinued during WW2 and never made again. There are none in my 1950 catalog. I would think they were likely made from 1934-1941 or 42.
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Miller Bro's
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Re: Need Help with info on a Ka-Bar. Cant Find another like it!

Post by Miller Bro's »

Excellent information Gene ::tu::

When did Marbles patent it?
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HumbleHunter
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Re: Need Help with info on a Ka-Bar. Cant Find another like it!

Post by HumbleHunter »

I greatly appreciate your time looking into your old catalogs!! It is nice knowing there are people willing to take a little time to share there knowledge and resources. This is a great forum, I am glad I joined. I did hear back from KABAR and they said it was from the same time frame also. I did not ask if they made any for Marbles in my email to them. It seamed a bit of an off topic I figured I had better just stay on task on just finding more out about the knife itself! I have to say that in my time digging into these old knives and seeing some others out there that have cought my eye. I am liking the idea of making theses two the start of my own little vintage knife collection and maybe picking up a few more. Taking a knife almost 100 years old that has so much history already and adding a little more to it seams like a cool way to add a little more to an already awesome huntung experience!! Or is that wrong of me to think that.... Is a knife that old better off tucked away in a collection and not really used? Do you guys use your old knives at all when hunting?
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Re: Need Help with info on a Ka-Bar. Cant Find another like it!

Post by Gunsil »

Dimitri, I have no idea when Marbles made their or if the even patented it. I suppose a patent office search might show some deeper info. HH, glad to hear KA-BAR gave you a similar answer, I gave them copies of the old brochures I have but not the date key to them. I do know guys who use vintage hunting/fishing knives in the field, but they use ones that have condition problems that lower the collectability but not the functionality of the knife. I mean it would be foolish to many to use a mint condition antique knife and lower it's collector value.
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Re: Need Help with info on a Ka-Bar. Cant Find another like it!

Post by Gunsil »

And now he has them on ebay!! I don't mind at all looking up info for collectors but I am more hesitant to help out ebay sellers.
HumbleHunter
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Re: Need Help with info on a Ka-Bar. Cant Find another like it!

Post by HumbleHunter »

My appologies!!! I didnt mean to step on anyones toes by doing so but yes, I did post them up for sale on ebay. I tossed around the Idea of keeping them and adding them to my collection but decided against it. My collection is not really much of a collection at all. Most of my knives get used for one thing or another hunting and fishing and get a little beat up a bit in the process. I felt like I should just let them go to someone else who has an actual collection rather than sitting in my gun safe for the next 30 years till I die. I felt like I had a lack of options when looking to sell or trade and I guess I was not aware ebay was not a good place to sell knives. I am new to the whole thing so again I appologise!! I seen a lot of them on there and I just figured I would give it a whirl because I have more hunting and fishing crap I dont use anymore that I could sell on there too. I first looked into posting them them here and on Bladforums page. With a basic membership I was limited to responding to posts but not allowed to post in the for sale or trade sections. I also had people tell me the knives values were from one end of the spectrum to the other. I even went as far as paying to have the knives appraised by the guy Ka-Bar refered me to "Brenard Lavine" and I was not 100% sure on their value afterwards. I didn't want to ask too much or little so I opted to go the ebay rout and just let the chips fall where they fall and hope they make their way into someones hands who can add them to their collection and get some enjoyment out of them.
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