Old Marbels Gladstone knife help!

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Brock07

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Feb 20, 2013
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Hey everyone, quick question here... I was given my grandfathers old hunting knife and on inspection and a little research I figured out it is an old Marbles Gladstone, the blade is a little short of 5 inches (pics below). I have a few questions... Is this a good quality hunting/survival knife when compared to modern 5 inch blade counterparts?

Secondly it is pretty beaten up and the butt of the knife turns, like its loose and it looks like it almost has some sorta screw at the bottom (I'm not a knife expert and have no idea what it is). It is kinda hard too see in the second picture but I tried to illustrate what I was describing.. you can twist the bottom part left or right quite a bit. Not sure if this is really that big of a problem or not but I was wondering if this was fixable. Any thoughts or comments would be greatly appreciated!!

http://imgur.com/DYr7bHB

http://imgur.com/4hpFZYG
 
Marbles were made in Gladstone Michigan. It's a great old knife. It's not beat up, it has a fine patina. Couple of things to try for the loose part. You can make a tool from a screwdriver to fit the slots. Grind or file out the center of the screwdriver blade until it will fit, then turn the screw to tighten. That should work. If not, try saturating the stacked leather handle with pure neatsfoot oil which you can get at a leather working shop like Tandy's or order on line.
 
Nothing wrong with that knife, I'd be proud to use that blade. Even though there are newer & harder steels available, there is nothing that your knife can't do compared to modern knives when it comes to real outdoors work.

That brass nut at the base is screwed into the knife tang and holds everything together. You should try to tighten it if possible, but only if you can mod a tool to do it right, you don't want to scuff or strip it.

Personally, I wouldn't put neatsfoot oil on the handle. I understand that this will make the leather expand, but it will also soften the leather.
 
Ka-Bar and BlackJack made a ton of knives for them, Gladstone appears on most of them, but that doesn't mean it was made there. It is however a good quality knife.
 
I would contact Mike Stewart of Bark River Knives.


He could give you the background/history of that old Marble's.




Big Mike
 
A closeup photo of the blade stamp would help nail down the age of the knife.
 
It's obviously a Marbles Ideal hunting knife. If the nut on the end of pommel is 1/2 " in diameter it was made between 1919 and 1923. The half hilt and the stamp design also help to identify it to that time period.
 
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