Photos Vintage Marble's Woodcraft ?

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kwackster

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Dec 23, 2005
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Recently i bought this nice little knife, and although it looks quite a bit like an old Marble's Woodcraft model i don't think it's a real one.
The blade has no markings and the pommel doesn't have the mushroom shape like the Woodcraft models i've seen online.
Based on this and the typical handle construction with 2 stag panels held together by brass rivets my best guess is that it's a Solingen made Woodcraft copy from the 1930's or even the 1920's.
It is however a well made knife with hard steel (harder than my F.Dick basterd file), and i intend to find out if i can get the blade in working order again.
Anyone seen these before or got any idea about a maker or manufacturer ?







 
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Looks like a great knife with plenty of blade life left.
It could be a Solingen or Sheffield made knife, but weren't those always marked?
Maybe it was made by a (then) local blacksmith or perhaps a Marbles employee who managed to get the blade blank before it was stamped?

Since the blade is harder than a good file, it is somewhat surprising that a previous owner did not introduce it to a grinder.
I doubt that an Arkansas Stone is going to do much to bring back an edge.
Maybe a SiC or diamond bench stone, or one of those modern fancy powered sharpening systems will give it a good edge.
 
After removing all the edge damage and restoring the full convex blade shape with 400 and 800 grit wet & dry using WD40 oil as a lubricant on a semi-hard rubber backing.
Removed the tiny burr with some 1.0 micron diamond paste on hard cardboard, and the new edge angle is +/- 26 degrees inclusive.
It's apex will whittle a chesthair from root to tip, and was also tested by whittling an old piece of wooden cutting board, which it does just fine.
The swedge was recut using 2 diamond files.
(You can click 2x on each pic for a bit more detail)



 
kwackster said:
Recently i bought this nice little knife, and although it looks quite a bit like an old Marble's Woodcraft model i don't think it's a real one.
The blade has no markings and the pommel doesn't have the mushroom shape like the Woodcraft models i've seen online.
Based on this and the typical handle construction with 2 stag panels held together by brass rivets my best guess is that it's a Solingen made Woodcraft copy from the 1930's or even the 1920's.
It is however a well made knife with hard steel (harder than my F.Dick basterd file), and i intend to find out if i can get the blade in working order again.
Anyone seen these before or got any idea about a maker or manufacturer ?







Click to expand...
I would put my money on that being an Anton Wingen Jr (Othello) woodcraft... the pommel shape and handle construction is spot on. They did make contract knives with blade etch markings.
 
I've compared my knife online to various similar Anton Wingen models, but the ones i've found are all slightly different.
Mine has brass washers between the fiber ones plus it has jimping on the rounded back of the blade, both of which the AW models lack.
They are however quite close in overall appearance.
 
This is how the knife currently looks.
Reground the blade by hand to it's original full convex zero edge shape, but used only 800 grit wet & dry (using WD40 as a lubricant on a rubber backing)
This was coarse enough to get a good sharp apex again but also fine enough to leave most of the old patina intact, which was the idea.
The sheath has been cleaned, waxed, and restitched.









 
I find projects like these to be very rewarding, as not only do you get to bring pieces of knife history back to life, it's quite useful to practice your skills, plus it pays for itself as generally i use the proceeds of the sale of a restored knife to buy other oldies that could use some work.
Currently busy with another old Woodcraft.







 
A few old pictures from the net.
The first one shows Webster Marble (on the left) together with an associate.




 
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