Marto Brewer Explorer Survivor knife? New guy with questions. Need help from experts!

B

badman400

Joined
Aug 11, 2013
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Greetings everyone!

New guy here from SC, looking for info. I traded a friend for a MARTO BREWER Explorer Survivor knife. Thought it was pretty much one of those cheap "Rocky" era survival knives that you used to be able to pick up for a dime a dozen.

Then last night I looked it up and found a video review and a couple of ebay ads that were fetching some lofty amounts. I was surprised and also intrigued.

Can any of you knife sages here tell me a little more about what I have?

Mine is the one with the shiny, 5.5" blade and aluminum/gray colored handle. 11-1/8" overall length of knife, and overall in sheath of about 13-5/8". It's in used but decent shape. Not in as good a shape as the two on ebay but very few scratches/blemishes on the blade. All the blade markings, ie the sextant and words are clear and visible. "MARTO SPAIN Patent Brewer" is printed/engraved? near the handle on one side, with a nice legible serial number that matches the sheath, on the other side.

The sheath is also in fairly good shape. Fine weave nylon in OD green color with hidden whet stone and small polished steel mirror. All the velcro is still good. The compass and tube are still in the handle. The salt pills are mostly crumbled, but a few remain solid. I could see a few hooks and some fishing line in a gray powdery dust inside. That's as far as I went, not wanting to make a mess. And now I'm glad I didn't, so as not to cause damage to anything that might be left inside. Mine doesn't have the book or the harpoon attachment with. The tube has a gray color with the Morse Code Alphabet on the tube.

I've always loved knives since, I was a boy. Well, I'm a grandpa now and still love 'em! But I'm certainly no expert. Trying to figure out if I should sell this thing, or just hang onto it as a collectible.

A little soap, water and some elbow grease and this thing could probably be brought to a very nice or at least above average condition.

Not sure as to what I should do about the tube in the handle. Should I open it, dump everything out, clean all the individual items, or is it worth more leaving it as is?

Anything any of you knife sages could tell me, would be greatly appreciated.











 
Just got word from my buddy today. Says he is pretty sure he still has the harpoon attachment and the manual for it as well! :thumbup:
 
to know about this fascinating knife,
one would equally be drawn to the fascinating life of the designer of the knife
Dr. Charles Brewer Carias...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Brewer-Carías
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/apr/06/charles-brewer-carias-naturalist-venezuela
unfortunately for the good doctor,
he had the short end of the stick
whilst dealing with the spanish cutlery manufacturer marto
http://translate.google.com/transla...Carias+&lr=&hl=en&as_qdr=all&biw=1024&bih=618
the knife you have is the shorter of the two sizes available then.
though it is my opinion that the longer version proved more popular.
so that now, the short version could be rather rare?
the gray powder in your survival tube
is probably the remains of the flint stick
having cracked and flaked.
imo, it was water purification tablets
which were provided at the base of the capsule.
so besides these two packed fragile items,
(and perhaps those tiny fishing lead weights)
the rest of the stuff is pretty hardy.
it's quite a gem to hold on to.
 
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I know I'm late getting to this thread but nostalgia is gripping me and I wanted to respond. I was Charles Brewer's partner in the early 80's when we developed and first started marketing the knife we called the "Explora." This was way before Marto had anything to do with the knife but manufacturing. GIRLYmann seems to know quite a bit about Charles and the knife history so I suspect we may even know each other. He is right about the flint stick turning to powder with the water purification tablets. I would be careful about multiple openings of the plastic tube as the ones in the "Marto" knife were crap. The contents of our originals, including the windproof matches, fishing kit, compass and fire starter were of much higher grade. I still have a couple of our prototypes still in the wooden presentation cases we used when we were promoting the knife at Survival shows back then. We had already placed the knife with several domestic and foreign special forces teams for trial by then. Then we had our problems as GIRLYmann puts it and it all fell apart and apparently Gutmann sold the rights back to Marto and the rest is history and a great knife with potential became what it ended up being. To badman400 I would say keep the knife as a collectable unless you need the money. Otherwise, get the best you can as this knife has way more history than most anyone will ever know.
 
As a point of interest, I designed the original compass (small black with rounded edges) with a Japanese compass manufacture. It is glycerine filled and the design was meant to be easily swallowed and retrieved.
 
Dravenx, thanks for the contribution to the thread. I did quite a bit of research into it back then and learned about the modern day Indiana Jones. However, at the time I did need the money. I was able to get the book and harpoon attachments, and sold the knife for $365.

If I still had it now, I would probably hang onto it.

I wouldn't have wanted to "retrieve" that compass. :cool:
 
Hi Dravenx. Guess I'm even later than you getting to this than you! By any chance do you know where an interested person (me) might be able to purchase one of these? I'm looking for the version with the longer blade and dark finish, that's in good or better condition and, of course, for the right price.

For that matter, do you know of any plans to re-release the Explora? I doubt Marto will do it. That company's all about medieval junk pieces than anything else these days. Forgive my frankness, but I have a few ideas that could improve the design and quiet all those hollow handle naysayers out there.
 
Okay. You asked:
A) Fabricate the blade and pommel steel with a newer, more resilient high carbon stainless.
B) (I've never used the saw on the blade so bear with me on this one. It might not need it.) Update the saw teeth, a la leatherman or swiss army knife. (My leatherman saws through anything like a hot knife through butter, and a friend of mine sawed down his Xmas tree a couple years back with his! God's Truth.)
C) Replace the aluminum grip with one made of titanium or other, more durable material.
D) Coat the grip for a better, well, grip. (rubber/plastic based?)
E) Bifurcate and extend the tang in a kind of thick "dual rat tang" approach with a trapezoidal cross section so that it can extend through the length of the hilt without compromising the handle compartment.
F) Replace the tang holding pin with one of those hex-nut pins you see a lot these days on knife scales. Add smaller versions of the hex pins to hold near the tips of the rat tangs.
G) For that matter, widen the handle compartment a tad.
H) Junk the pill bottle and replace with a pocketed roll bag that could double as a water container. (You can also print a lot more than morse code on it.)
I) Update the items stored in the handle.
J) Give it a higher quality, removable, double-sided whetstone.
K) Add a storage space in the scabbard. (I've seen versions that seem to have something like this, but I'm not sure if they were legit or knockoffs. Assuming they were, nix the dual tube design for a single compartment for with more internal space.)
L) Oh yeah, give it a saber or "scandi" grind. No secondary bevel.
 
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Maztor said:
Okay. You asked: ...
Click to expand...

Well, interesting.

Hardly the kind of stuff that will, as you claim, "quiet all those hollow handle naysayers out there." though.

Ultimately what you are proposing a still a hollow handle knife but with an extra, new stress riser where stick tang bifurcates. And the tang/blade join is "the issue" with hollow handled knives, not what is in the handle, or what the blade is made of, or storage space in the sheath, or the type of sharpening stone, etc etc etc.
 
Maztor said:
Okay. You asked:
A) Fabricate the blade and pommel steel with a newer, more resilient high carbon stainless.
B) (I've never used the saw on the blade so bear with me on this one. It might not need it.) Update the saw teeth, a la leatherman or swiss army knife. (My leatherman saws through anything like a hot knife through butter, and a friend of mine sawed down his Xmas tree a couple years back with his! God's Truth.)
C) Replace the aluminum grip with one made of titanium or other, more durable material.
D) Coat the grip for a better, well, grip. (rubber/plastic based?)
E) Bifurcate and extend the tang in a kind of thick "dual rat tang" approach with a trapezoidal cross section so that it can extend through the length of the hilt without compromising the handle compartment.
F) Replace the tang holding pin with one of those hex-nut pins you see a lot these days on knife scales. Add smaller versions of the hex pins to hold near the tips of the rat tangs.
G) For that matter, widen the handle compartment a tad.
H) Junk the pill bottle and replace with a pocketed roll bag that could double as a water container. (You can also print a lot more than morse code on it.)
I) Update the items stored in the handle.
J) Give it a higher quality, removable, double-sided whetstone.
K) Add a storage space in the scabbard. (I've seen versions that seem to have something like this, but I'm not sure if they were legit or knockoffs. Assuming they were, nix the dual tube design for a single compartment for with more internal space.)
L) Oh yeah, give it a saber or "scandi" grind. No secondary bevel.
Click to expand...

So basically just make it better and a lot more expensive?
 
LifeKnife, who made/imported the Lifeknife line of survival knives from Japan in the 80's - 90's offered a hollow handle folder.

The saw on the Brewer is actually well cut, like that on a Swiss Army, the problem is, it's very short.

Edit - LifeKnife Folder -

1_0c7e0e0cf1292ed41e81ed17a6224c85.jpg
.
 
Last edited:
marcinek said:
Well, interesting.

Hardly the kind of stuff that will, as you claim, "quiet all those hollow handle naysayers out there." though.

Ultimately what you are proposing a still a hollow handle knife but with an extra, new stress riser where stick tang bifurcates. And the tang/blade join is "the issue" with hollow handled knives, not what is in the handle, or what the blade is made of, or storage space in the sheath, or the type of sharpening stone, etc etc etc.
Click to expand...

Good point. It would be easier if I saw what the actual tang looked like. My tang idea was based on the assumption that the initial tang is the same width as the blade until it reach the first (and currently only) retaining pin. My idea was meant to spread the force load through the hilt to include the titanium (?) handle. Still, adding a force riser isn't good, either. What did you think of my other ideas?
 
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