All About Pocket Knives

I have been trying to find this knife all afternoon and can’t seem to figure what era it may be from could someone please help me?
It has a 3 3/4” blade and measures 8” overall
MARBLES
GLADSTONE
MICH. U.S.A.
is the tang stamp

It looks like a marbles canoe pattern to me. circa 1940's.

The markings were in Serif fonts, and the letter A could either be seen facing right or left. Here’s how to date them apart:

Serif A facing right – the 1940s to 1950s era;
Serif A facing left – 1911 – 1930s era.

No canoes made in the 1940s, it was discontinued early. The thingy crossing the A is not a serif, serifs are the little feet at the bottom of letters. I also dispute as do many other collectors that the left facing cross on the A dates are incorrect in the orange book. I think it's a shortened 4&1/4" Ideal model and the sheath is way newer than the knife.

Yea, thats a good one there.

The short blade with a fuller, the single guard, and that pommel - very interesting.
The vintage Ideal model had the fuller and a dual guard (top and bottom), but this one has a shorter blade.
I think the newer Marble's series had a sportman or sport or something with a short blade and fuller, but still not like yours.

Intrigued by this one, thinking is it custom, and nicely done too.

The Ideal was sold with either a full cross guard OR a single guard like the one here. It is not true that the Ideal was a double guard knife. The owner has still not answered if they measured the blade from the tip to the guard or the tip to the ricasso. Marbles did make a small knife called the Sport model but it had no fullers. The knife in question did not leave the factory with that pommel, some previous owner did that. I could do it in five minutes, aluminum is soft and easy to file and polish.

Looks like the OP hasn’t been back here since about 3 hours after the post asking for help.

Ken

I looked in Dunathan's and Schmeling's books, nothing close. Could be a custom handle on a reprofiled Ideal.

Sorry all I had trouble posting yesterday I have measured the tip of knife to top of guard and it measures 4 1/4” overall length of knife is 8 1/8” pommel nut measures 3/8”, I found this at a gs this weekend.

So it's an Ideal with a modified pommel, no mysteries here.

Any idea as to year of manufacture? Was it worth $75 that I spent? Thanks for all of the information.

Definitely worth $75 even with the modified pommel, and a trusted user.

That’s good to know Redrider any idea as to the age? Also, can you steer me in the direction of a good information book on marbles?

Chief-wahoo wrote: ↑Thu Feb 01, 2024 5:07 pm That’s good to know Redrider any idea as to the age? Also, can you steer me in the direction of a good information book on marbles?

Are the spacers brass or white? They look white in this picture-

Dunathan's book says around 1970 white spacers replaced the brass spacers. The two most inclusive books are Schmeling's and Dunathan's.

Thanks again redrider 3 of the 4 spacers are brass the one closest to pomel is white nice catch!