Welcome Home...THANK YOU FOR BEING A PART OF OUR COMMUNITY

iKnife Collector

The online community of knife collectors, A Knife Family Forged in Steel

MSA knife identification

I am a novice so please be patient with me. I have a MSA Gladstone Mich hunting knife of which I know very little. In what I have read I think this might possibly be an early first generation Marbles knife. It is 9 1/2 inches overall with a 5 1/2 blade, and has a full stag handle. I"ve been unable to locate one like it on the internet. I'm wondering how old this knife is and is the handle original or a replacement?

Thanks

Craig Berry

0 members like this

Attachments:

20150921_163912.jpg, 1.7 MB
20150921_163923.jpg, 1.8 MB

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Jan Carter on September 21, 2015 at 20:21

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Jan Carter on September 21, 2015 at 20:22

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Jan Carter on September 21, 2015 at 20:36

Craig,

Can you get us a better pic of the tang. M.S.A CO. over gladstone over Mich USA was used as late as 2002. But there is a tell tale sign for the very early ones Gladstone is spelled incorrectly on some

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Craig Berry on September 21, 2015 at 20:57

Lets try this, thanks for your quick reply

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Craig Berry on September 22, 2015 at 8:50

More pictures of MSA knife. The blade is quite worn and certainly looks like an old knife.

Craig Berry

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Craig Berry on September 22, 2015 at 8:51

More pictures of MSA knife. The blade is quite worn and certainly looks like an old knife.

Craig Berry

Attachments:

20150921_164011.jpg, 1.1 MB

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Craig Berry on September 22, 2015 at 8:55

More pictures of MSA knife. The blade is quite worn and certainly looks like an old knife.

Craig Berry

Attachments:

20150921_164011.jpg, 1.1 MB
20150921_163942.jpg, 995 KB

▶ Reply

In MemoriamPermalink Reply by D ale on September 22, 2015 at 17:00

The handle is definitely not original.
I've never seen an original Marble's hunting knife w/o a pommel. A white glue / adhesive / silicone sealent is visible both sides of the bolster.

I believe .. however .. the blade to be quite old. I've posted below one of the pics you attached .. of the stamping. Thank you !!! Given that .. we should be able to attach a window of dates w/i which that stamping was used.

??? Are there any other markings on the blade ..or.. other unique identifying features ???

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Craig Berry on September 22, 2015 at 17:40

D ale said:

The handle is definitely not original.
I've never seen an original Marble's hunting knife w/o a pommel. A white glue / adhesive / silicone sealent is visible both sides of the bolster.

I believe .. however .. the blade to be quite old. I've posted below one of the pics you attached .. of the stamping. Thank you !!! Given that .. we should be able to attach a window of dates w/i which that stamping was used.

??? Are there any other markings on the blade ..or.. other unique identifying features ???

That is the only marking on the knife. The glue/sealant is only visible under the lens of a camera. I kinda thought that the handle was a later addition, I guess impossible to tell when it was added but I would certainly like to know more about the blade. Thank You.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Craig Berry on September 22, 2015 at 17:43

Craig Berry said:

D ale said:

The handle is definitely not original.
I've never seen an original Marble's hunting knife w/o a pommel. A white glue / adhesive / silicone sealent is visible both sides of the bolster.

I believe .. however .. the blade to be quite old. I've posted below one of the pics you attached .. of the stamping. Thank you !!! Given that .. we should be able to attach a window of dates w/i which that stamping was used.

??? Are there any other markings on the blade ..or.. other unique identifying features ???

That is the only marking on the knife. The glue/sealant is only visible under the lens of a camera. I kinda thought that the handle was a later addition, I guess impossible to tell when it was added but I would certainly like to know more about the blade. Thank You.

▶ Reply

In MemoriamPermalink Reply by D ale on September 22, 2015 at 18:07

" One of the most important events to Marble’s collectors occurred in April of 1911, when the firm officially changed their name from the Marble Safety Axe Co. to the Marble Arms and Manufacturing Company and adopted the well known “Marble’s”trademark. However important this change to the rest of the line, it did not immediately affect the Safety Hunter. Instead, the inventory of M.S.A. Co. marked parts were used up in the best tradition of “waste not, want not.” "

From an old Knife World article

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Jan Carter on September 22, 2015 at 19:14

This is the original Marbles Products book from 1999 put together by Robert Schmeling from 65 of the old Marbles catalogs from as early as 1902 right up into the 70s. This book is a wealth of infromation for the collector . Every Ideal, Canoe, Trailmaker,Deweese, Safety Folders ,axes ,compass ,gamegetter , match safes,oil cans,shell extractors,sheaths,calls,fish gafs and on and on with dates and configurations.

THIS LOOKS LIKE A GREAT BOOK!