Rough Rider and Marbles?

W

WILLIAM BOTTS

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Jan 29, 2020
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27
My 11 year old son has been getting into knives for a few years now, around 8 he started and it has really took off. I have always been partial to Buck but have noticed other brands in the same price range and even cheaper getting good reviews on the selling sites. I thought I would ask here about Rough Rider knives because some selling sites may post false reviews, I handled one at a recent yard sale and it looked good, it was the Peanut the guy said with staglon handles. Fit and finish was near perfect and it said 440 steel made in China, I bought it for $5 and my son likes it. My question is, is Rough Rider overall ok knives and do they mostly have good fit and finish? Just about ready to post this and my wife tells me she also found Marbles knives in the same price range as Rough Rider, so I will add them as well. Thanks for any help
 
Yes, RR generally has pretty fair fit and finish. The American company which owns the brand has a lot of experience with knives. The blade steel is roughly 440A and the heat treat seems pretty fair.

As far as I know, Marbles knives are made in the same factory and the brand is owned by the same American outfit.
 
I have a couple of Rough Rider slipjoints, purchased in 2015 I think. Really decent knives. They had some of the best factory edges I have encountered on slipjoints. 440a steel is how they are marked. Sharpened up even sharper. One is on my desk right now.

Maybe I just got a couple of good samples, but I was impressed by them, especially at their price point of around $10 to $12 when I got them.

There is a nearly 300 page thread here about them, going back to 2008 but with posts as recent as a few days ago. Some good reading if you are interested in the Rough Rider/Ryder and Marbles brands (both owned by the same US company):

Rough Rider & Related Slipjoints

Hi, I've had these about a week now. I've never had these patterns, so it's been fun trying them. The fit and finish is a little variable between the three. The green mini-trapper is far and away the best for fit and finish. I'd put it against any production slippie out there. It walks...
www.bladeforums.com www.bladeforums.com
 
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My experience with RR knives is limited, but I have found them to be acceptable. I also bought one of the Peanuts and it came in as one of the sharpest out of the box knives I ever bought. Also have another in fake pearl scaled and it looks pretty nice. Last was a Barlow and it also came in scary sharp. They seem to hold up pretty well. I don't really carry or use them much though. They are a good way to try a particular pattern of pocketknife to see if you bond with it for little monetary investment.
 
I first bought a Rough Rider pocket knife in 2014. At that time, RR sold "sampler sets" of a dozen different patterns with matching covers, so I bought 12 amber jigged bone knives (for less than $8/knife shipped to my door in those days). The set happened to include a canoe and a sowbelly stockman, neither of which I had handled before, and to my surprise, both patterns resonated with me greatly and are currently 2 of my top 4 patterns. All the knives were sharp, functioned well (no blade play, opened and closed reliably, I've never worried about small gaps between springs and liners), were built well, and looked good to me.

That experience "sold" me on RRs. I've owned 90-100 RR knives (including lots of canoes and sowbelly stockman models) and still have all but about 6 that I traded or gave away. I've had 2 RR knives with bad dye jobs on the bone; I returned one for a replacement and kept the other because the "bad side", although it didn't match the advertised smooth black bone on the other side of the knife, actually looked kinda good to me with an appaloosa bone kind of blotchiness/dappling.

When I see someone here post a GEC or Case knife that appeals strongly to me, the first thing I do is check if RR has a similar pattern that fits my knife budget better. The prices of RR have more than doubled in the past 8+ years, but I can still often get what I consider a good knife for under $20. (As the OP noted, they are made in China, and that's a total deal breaker for many folks, but obviously not for me.)

- GT
 
I buy a new Rough Rider every year when we visit the Smokeys at SMKW. They have all been super solid knives and I generally end up abusing them as they are so cheap. Its nice to be able to handle them before purchase to make sure I get the best one they have but if you buy online you can always buy a couple and send back the ones that dont make the cut.

Matt
 
Very good knives for an 11 year old to develop his tastes on and the budget is very reasonable too, an important point for any parent. Like others, I've been pleased with most of the ones I bought and they arrive very sharp and keep an impressive edge.

I'm glad to hear that you're able to encourage your boy in his interest. Knives are intricate and beautiful objects as well as tools which actually encourage a child's dexterity something which is being weakened in Digi society, few write well with pens as they used to...
 
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All the ones I have owned I have liked and really don’t have any complaints with them. You can’t go wrong with one especially for the price. Their reserve line are also really nice. Just wish they would give some different handle choices in the reserve line.
 
RR and Marbles are both excellent knives.
Out of 60 odd RR, I've received one with something more serious than a cosmetic defect. (nail nicks are about 1/2 as deep as on my other knives in that series. Sometimes my thumbnail slips off.)
I'll return it for warranty replacement sooner or later.
Two of my Marbles suffered a broken backspring. The first (an MR409) after I had it for roughly ten years. They sent me a replacement, no questions asked, and did not want the broken knife sent to them. The second, an MR278 "Demo Knife" (with a no MR number Marbles SPORK) arrived with a broken backspring. All 4 blades were partly opened in the hangpack. (opening two blades without 1/2 stops on the same spring part way is just asking for a broken spring.)
They replaced it no questions, and again, did not want the broken knife. They even sent a second SPORK, even tho I told them there was nothing wrong with the SPORK I had.

FWIW, both Marbles knifes have a current retail of under $7.⁰⁰, yet they still honored the lifetime warrantee. I was not even charged shipping costs for the replacement knives.

I highly recommend Rough Ryder (I have no experience with the Rough Ryder Reserve, their fixed blades, or their "modern" knives, so cannot vouch for them) and the Marbles slipjoints.
 
RR and Marbles basicly decent knives for the price, but don't be surprised if you get one with buried nail nicks (one blade not accessible behind another or a knife with a nail braking pull weigth about 200 .
 
Hello from the UK ,
Coming in a little late on this thread but I just thought I would add my own experiences .First of all Ive been collecting all kinds of knives for over 60 years from Khukuris , Military style knives , smaller fixed blade models to my now latest collection of small slipjoints mainly Rough Ryders with the odd Queens or Marbles thrown in . Back in the 1960s in the UK it was possible as a kid to walk into your local newsagents and buy small pocket knives usually manufactured in Sheffield ( the home of British knife making ) . Back in those days there were no thoughts of using a knife as a weapon and we just used them to whittle branches into spears or throwing our knives into trees to make them stick or playing chicken whereby two players stood close to each other with their legs spread apart and each player in turn would try to stick the knife as close as possible to the other players foot until one player chickened out ! admittedly there were sometimes slight accidents but no harm intended .
Moving on from those days and into my early teens I collected the odd larger knife as I was always fascinated as to the quality of the builds etc and serving later in the Military I used various knives as a combat survival instructor , so Ive always been around knives even making my own scandi knives back in the day .
A few of years ago I discovered Rough Ryder knives and bought a couple to check them out , I didnt really pay much attention to them and ended up gifting them to friends . Then about two years back I became interested in RRs after viewing a thread about them on a knife forum and once again started a small collection of various models which suit me fine as I do like the traditional style pocket knives . I now have a small collection of fourteen RRs and one of each of Queens and Marbles as well as a couple of Bucks and other smaller knives . I have to say that when I do buy any knife I always ask the stockist to give them the once over to make sure the blades are centred correctly , zero blade play lateral or vertical , no gaps between liners and scales , no general damage etc etc , so I am always looking for something as near perfect as possible and I have to say my RRs are as near to these standards as possible which I then put straight into my collection case ( for display only ).
I understand the partisan aspect when people are buying knives and the fact that RRs are manufactured in china does put a lot of people off them and thats fine but for me I cannot really fault them especially for the low price they are offered at ! They are traditional styles which are very pleasing to the eye with the majority of them having natural material scales and all in all very well put together usually giving a great fit and finish . OK it seems a bit of a mystery as to how good the blade steel is ( 440A SS ? ) and how well it may be heat treated and forged but the company has been around for over 30 years now so they must be doing something right ! Just my thoughts .
 
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