All About Pocket Knives

I had to bring this one home from a local gun show today...nice old Woodcraft with split stag handle's and pommel, blade in decent shape. The tang stamp is different from other Woodcraft's I have...I'm thinking the pat pend stamp mite date it around 1915...? The sheath does have a Marble snap on the keeper, but I'm not sure if it's original to this knife...your thought's and opinion's would be most appreciated.

Almost forgot...the back of the blade is checkered...something I haven't seen before.

That's a beauty Bob. I have some Marbles and that nice old sheath looks fine to me.

Yep, Pat. Pend. indicated a 1915 production knife according to Dunathan's book. The sheath looks good too, check page 96. That stag reminds me of an old gnarly oak tree. Sweet looking knife and sheath!

Thank's guys...I wasn't too sure about the sheath, but with that stag I really didn't care...

1967...I didn't know there was a book on Marbles, I'll check it out...

I think Forensic Jim turned me on to this book, The Encyclopedia of Marbles Knives and Sporting Collectibles by Arni Dunathan. Great book for the Marbles collector!

WelderBob, Really Nice old Woodcraft, Pat. Pend. Old knife there is some good information
on page 52 of the book that was referenced to you earlier. Sent a couple pictures of one of mine with the Patd, 1916 U.S.A. Pictures should enlarge. I like your old knife!!

Thank's Stockman, that's a mighty fine Patd 1916 you have. I was looking for one like yours when I happened across this one...tough to find any of these in decent condition.

Those are both very nice knives

Here is one that I have.............

Nice knife & sheath, Miller!

Bob, stag is beautifull on that Woody you found, nice !!!
stockman, you took the cake with that 96 yr old honey of yours
Very nice to see a Marble's post...as Marble's has been the main
driving force in my knife collecting life
Reckon that kind of shows the way I windbag about em in my store !!!
Will
http://www.allaboutpocketknives.com/clearcreekknives

Hello
I just found this thread. A full stag pat pending is very rare. I have only seen 4 or 5 in 30 years buying and selling Marbles knives . By the way your sheath is right for the knife. Very early ones had a trademark sheath with a pinwheel snap. The way to tell on your sheath is the way the leather is cur where it ends later straps were rounded. Here is a link to a very early pat pending I purchased a while ago. eBay item number:380433128692
Dennis aka nifman

Nice pickup WelderBob. Most of the first model Woodcraft knives were leather with stag cap handles. This full stag is hard to find and a beautiful knife!

nifman wrote: Very early ones had a trademark sheath with a pinwheel snap

I bought one last year that has that kind of snap.

nifman wrote: Here is a link to a very early pat pending I purchased a while ago. eBay item number:380433128692

I can't seem to find that can you post a live link?

nifman wrote:Hello
I just found this thread. A full stag pat pending is very rare. I have only seen 4 or 5 in 30 years buying and selling Marbles knives . By the way your sheath is right for the knife. Very early ones had a trademark sheath with a pinwheel snap. The way to tell on your sheath is the way the leather is cur where it ends later straps were rounded. Here is a link to a very early pat pending I purchased a while ago. eBay item number:380433128692
Dennis aka nifman

I believe the cross-hatched spine is the earliest version as well. Wow!

Here is a link but the pictures are gone. I may be able to borrow the knife for pictures, but I will not see the guy that bought it until April. I got the knife and sheath for $149. A good deal, the knife was so so but the sheath was nice,
.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Pat-Pend-Marble ... 328wt_1362

Dennis aka nifman

Thank you Dennis I appreciate that

Webster Marble applied for the Woodcraft patent in 1915...these models were stamped Pat.Pend. on the off side
Patent was awarded in february of 1916...these were stamped Pat'd 1916 on the off side
Patent ran out in mid 1920's and the Woody was copied by Case, KA-BAR, several German cutlerly outfits,
really the most copied fixed blade knife I know of in history !!!

Marble's called the thumb rest "checkered" in 1915, and this was on all the Woodcrafts made
Thumb rest went from checkered to "file back" about 2-3 years after the start of production,
then just before WW-1, they went to what they called a "comb back" thumb rest,
regardless, thumb rest was present on the 1st 50 years they made em...after the Marble
family sold the company in early 1950's, I have seen several without a thumb rest...
1997-2001 during the Lauerman / Stewart era at Marble's, they all had thumb rests and the blade
after 85 yrs of being 4 1/2" was made by Mike to be 4 3/4"...my favorite being a touch longer
Gorgeous Woodies in this post fella's !!!

Will
http://www.allaboutpocketknives.com/clearcreekknives

I believe this one came from the 1999-2001 Mike Stewart era. Please correct me if I'm wrong. The thumb rest is plain. The blade is 4¾".

Some beautiful stag being shown here!
My only Woodcraft is a 1916 stamped one with the original(I think)sheath. When I got it the threaded tang was sticking out about 1/4 of an inch and the nut was loose.Rather than make a couple of spacers for it I ground off the tang and made a tool to tighten the nut. Oh well it is still a nice knife.

When Mike came to Marble's Jerry..they finished up all the blades that was in the factory
before going into regular production...or it could be a over run for an organization or club
that wanted older pattern Woodcraft..amazing the runs from 1 to 2 to 100 knives that they did for the public.. customer service from Stewart and Lauerman like I have never saw before with any knife outfit,,,saw several birds eye maple handle's with logo's on them over the yrs, alot of clubs in the UP
you got a scarcer one there with no etch...and it was in the latter part of Mike's tenure there that they made
the change in blade length after looking it up, not at the start

Will
http://www.allaboutpocketknives.com/clearcreekknives

Thanks Will. It's good to get the story straight from someone who knows the details.

And Jerry...I was wrong by 2 1/2 yrs.... that 4 3/4" blade came on line in late 2001
They then got rid of the Bobcat box and went to the box you see with the Webster Marble pic on it
The stamp also changed, Gladstone MI. U.S.A. was eliminated and they were just stamped
with the Banner stamp Marble's
Good thing I made notes over the yrs about stuff I was curious about, this getting old gig ain't so fun sometimes !!!
Thanks Jerry for bringing my mistake to light so no one else gets off track, 1 more great thing about AAPK surfacing, ya got to love it !!!

Will
http://www.allaboutpocketknives.com/clearcreekknives

Almost forgot this one! Got this from a friend of mine who had a bunch of Marbles stuff. Don't know the era of it but I still have the original box.Will that help date it stagman?

When this subject came up before, Stagman wrote --->

"Stagman
Wed Oct 05, 2016 5:01 am
They used Bobcat boxes 1997-2001 Jerry......you can also tell by the 1997-98 years...the
knives were all stamped Marble's Gladstone Mi USA....1999-2001 they were laser etch stamped the same thing
You can tell "the exact" years Stewart era knives were made from 1998 to 2001 by the color sequence of the spacers
So Stewart era knives are quite easily identified
I have several in my store, check stamps and spacers and you will see what I mean"