All About Pocket Knives

Recently I bought a couple very nice old Marbles. One was a Woodcraft and without a book I cannot find any info about this knife.
It has the Bakelite pommel.

Tang Stamp:
Can anyone share some info on this knife with me?
I wood like to know the age? Pattern name and any other info you might have on this knife. Also the approximate value.

Thanks in advance,
Dale

I have two excellent books on Marbles which I will convey to you, Dale, for a small fee. More later.

Thanks Cal.

You show a Marbles "EXPERT". The bakelite pommel indicates WW2 and a couple years after production. One of the books states that a left facing crossbar on the A in Marbles indicates an early knife but the book is mistaken since there are plenty of these WW2 era knives with the left facing A crossbar. The book also calls it a "serif" which it is not. Looks like a nice condition example!! For some reason I don't understand the Expert models are lower in desirability than Ideals or Woodcraft models. At least I have a harder time selling them at knife shows.

Not useful, but just for fun:

orvet wrote: ↑Sun Apr 11, 2021 3:55 pm Recently I bought a couple very nice old Marbles. One was a Woodcraft and without a book I cannot find any info about this knife.

20210410_104025~2.jpg

It has the Bakelite pommel.

20210410_104131~2.jpg


Tang Stamp:

20210410_090816~2.jpg

Can anyone share some info on this knife with me?
I wood like to know the age? Pattern name and any other info you might have on this knife. Also the approximate value.

Thanks in advance,
Dale

That's an Expert, Dale, great looking one too!

tongueriver wrote: ↑Sun Apr 11, 2021 8:52 pm Not useful, but just for fun:
Marbles001 (Large).jpg

Those are gorgeous, tongue!
The bottom 2 line stamped Ideal is on the rare side.

Since Cal posted a couple, here are the King and Queen of Marbles Ideals. Super rare factory made with elephant ivory handles and pommels. 7" and 8" blades although sadly were cleaned by a previous owner. Much more sadly, in a fit of minor poverty I sold my even rarer ivory/ivory Woodcraft. I don't think I ever had more seller's remorse than when I sold that ivory woodcraft. The customer was only five feet from my table when I looked down at a fist full of money in my hand and the guy walking away with a big grin and my ivory Woodcraft and realized how stupid I was. Oh well, I just can't keep them all forever. A guy has been trying to buy my ivory Ideals for a few years, sooner or later I will have to part with them.

Wow! Those are really something! I once had a pair of Marbles in buffalo horn and a letter of authenticity- they were made by the Marbles shop foreman. I don't remember his name and all my documentation is gone now. And he has passed away.

Gunsil wrote: ↑Mon Apr 12, 2021 1:15 pm Since Cal posted a couple, here are the King and Queen of Marbles Ideals. Super rare factory made with elephant ivory handles and pommels. 7" and 8" blades although sadly were cleaned by a previous owner. Much more sadly, in a fit of minor poverty I sold my even rarer ivory/ivory Woodcraft. I don't think I ever had more seller's remorse than when I sold that ivory woodcraft. The customer was only five feet from my table when I looked down at a fist full of money in my hand and the guy walking away with a big grin and my ivory Woodcraft and realized how stupid I was. Oh well, I just can't keep them all forever. A guy has been trying to buy my ivory Ideals for a few years, sooner or later I will have to part with them.

5942ED5F-9A16-4B51-B92A-50B1BD7F69FB_1_201_a.jpeg6C1CF6A9-73A7-4688-861E-E3F6DB295F21.jpeg

Wow, Gene, those are amazing and wonderful and beautiful and......

tongueriver wrote: ↑Mon Apr 12, 2021 1:23 pm Wow! Those are really something! I once had a pair of Marbles in buffalo horn and a letter of authenticity- they were made by the Marbles shop foreman. I don't remember his name and all my documentation is gone now. And he has passed away.

Cal, I think the buffalo horn models were made during the rebirth of Marbles, sometime in the 1990s. These Ivory ones are 1920s I think, one has the small "gunsight" mark and the other the large two line mark. I have seen the buffalo handles ones with aluminum pommels, very handsome knives. Thanks to all for the compliments, these two are the priciest knives I have ever paid for. I have seen a few other Ideals in ivory/ivory, they are known, but very rare, the Woodcraft I had in ivory/ivory was an unknown knife, the book only lists ivory/aluminum as an option on the Woodcraft model. I sure love ivory but the present laws mean I can't sell them in some states or interstate. I still don't understand how we are saving the modern elephants by having a ban on older ivory.

The buffalo horn handled knives I had were made from old blades from the 1920s or 30s, even including the old spacers and old pommel. They were Ideals in two different lengths. I would hesitate to call them lunch box knives but they had nothing to do with the regular run of knives for sale.

When ivory was legal, it was managed in Africa rather well, to the benefit of the governments, the tribes, the elephants, the environment, the sportsmen, the merchants, taxidermists, collectors, craftsmen, ad infinitum. Now it is solely for the benefit of poachers, black market, and corrupt African governments and the elephants are on their way to extinction because the poachers are hitting them far harder. It is beyond stupid.

Gunsil, those are 2 Amazing beautiful old Marbles knives. They are the best looking fixed blades i have ever seen.
They have ivory handle and pommel. The one you sold you say was "ivory/ivory". How was it different from the 2 you show here ?
kj

Hi Roland, the one I sadly parted with was a Woodcraft model with a 4&1/2 inch blade like the stag/stag one on the top in Cal's photo of two stag/stag Marbles knives. The ivory/ivory Woodcraft appeared on ebay years ago and it was in worn, patinated finish, a beautiful thing. I got outbid on it but years later met the guy who outbid me for it and he finally sold it to me. The only problem was he went and cleaned and buffed the blade and ivory, I had thought it looked better with a natural aged look. Only one I or a bunch of Marbles guys had ever seen. By the way Roland, it is a fixed blade collector thing to describe handles and pommels as stag/stag (stag handle, stag pommel), or say, stag/aluminum, (stag handle, aluminum pommel), hence my use of ivory/ivory.


Something funny going on, I wasn't able to log into AAPK with Firefox, had to use Safari today. What's up with that??

Maybe you had to use Safari because you referenced elephants? lol

Roland, I know you love ivory like I do, and thank you for the fine compliment on my ivory Marbles knives. Here is another I was sad to see go, it is a late 1600s-early 1700s Arabic knife with wootz damascus steel and a walrus ivory handle. Sadly I didn't photo the scabbard before I parted with it, the scabbard was wood with a thin leather cover which was mostly gone and a long silver (probably coin silver about 825 fine) throat and tip, only about two inches of wood/leather showing between the two silver ends. It went to a collector of these knives who said it was odd because it had a small about 5") blade and he thought it must have been made for a child of royalty since usually this type of dagger is much longer.

Dale, didn't mean to hijack your thread.

For those of you who wonder about different ivories, this shows well the main attribute to walrus ivory as compared to elephant or mastodon ivory. Walrus ivory has a sort of pithy core or center, some collectors call it "Tapioca" and it is easily seen here on the end of the pommel and the center of the handle where it is narrowed down. It is not really soft like the pithy core of American stag, but it is the telltale sign of walrus tusks. This will never be seen on elephant/mastodon ivory which has the same pattern all the way through the tusk.

tongueriver wrote: ↑Mon Apr 12, 2021 7:10 pm Maybe you had to use Safari because you referenced elephants? lol

Good thinking Cal!! Had the same thing happen yesterday, did a re-start on my laptop and I was able to log in with Firefox, today I tried that and still couldn't log in with Firefox. At least I have both options.

Thanks guys for all your help. I did find a book on eBay which I have ordered.
You guys once again are a fountain of information! It's good to know a fountain or two.