What's up with Marble's?

R

RaynorShine

Joined
Jan 27, 2000
Messages
39
Does anyone know if there are any problems with Marble's? I sent an e-mail inquiry to them on 1/24 requesting some info and have heard nothing back. That in itself was not of too much concern until today. I placed an order recently with the Cutlery Shoppe and one knife shipped last week and the other was on backorder. I was thinking about ordering a different model (they have some different, non-standard handle configurations) and was surprised that the Cutlery Shoppe no longer had any Marble's knives listed on the web page. I called to see if they still carried the knives and to check on the status of the one on backorder. I was advised that the decision was made last week to no longer carry Marble's. As far as the one on backorder I was told no decision had been made yet on how that would be handled but I would be advised of the status once a decision was made. I asked what drove the decision to drop them and received no answer other than a decision had been made to no longer carry them. I really like the products but am concerned that they may be experiencing some problems. Can anybody shed any light here?
 
I will go back and read that thread soon.
But, in the interim.....knifeforums.com now has a Marbles forum......very new but, should, grow.

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BrianWE

Believe me....being this old and having to live with all this experience is not the picnic I thought it was going to be.
 
OH MY GOSH YOU ARE AT 666 POSTS

THE DEVIL........

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Re: What’s up with Marble’s?

I would like to answer your question “What up with Marble’s” for you and your fellow readers. As many of you know we have been here in Gladstone, MI manufacturing the highest quality of products for the outdoors person since 1892. This tradition continues today and will for another 100 years.

If you have not followed our company in the past few years, we began full production of our cutlery lines in 1997. We have finished knives from original components that we have been storing for over 60 years. We have reintroduced many of the traditional Marble styles- Woodcraft, Expert , Trailmaker , Ideal , #9 Belt Axe to list a few. We are developing new popular styles of knives. We have teamed up with Bob Loveless and presented our Sport 99 this past year.

In the year 2000 we will be reintroducing our #4 Safety Axe, Marble’s Safety Folder, another new folder, along with a set of fillet knives as a start.

In addition to the knives, we will be expanding our line of shooting and outdoor accessories. We are selling more of our traditional style brass compasses, brass cleaning rods and Poly-Choke items than ever before. We continue to manufacture rifle and shotgun sights for all of the major gun companies in the country- Browning, Ruger, Marlin, Mossberg, Thompson/Center, Winchester, Remington, and many others.

Business is better than it has ever been in the history of the company. We are excited about the new products and the direction the company is going.

We have complied a huge mailing list and receive thousands of requests from our web page. At times information is not received or lost. We review to every e-mail on a daily basis. I recommend to anyone that has requested information from us and has not received a response to re-send his or her request.

We have thousands of dealers across the country that carry our products. At times for many reasons, we break our business ties with certain dealers. If you are looking for a certain Marble’s item that you can not find at your local dealer you have many options: Our web sight will be listing all of our authorized dealers by state in the next few weeks, you can call Marble’s and ask Mike or Jason Stewart for any information that you will need or you are welcome to contact me personally.

In the future I would appreciate that you call Marble’s to find out from the horses mouth what is happening with our company before you print hypotheticals that imply negative connotations.

I appreciate BladeForums allowing us to post these statements.

Best regards,


Craig R. Lauerman
President, Marble’s
 
Your welcome Craig. Welcome aboard.

I am building a new forum which will allow any manufacturer to post announcements or new products and the like. It will be in our manufacturers section and it will allow manufacturers who do not neceaasarily wish to operate a forum 24/7, a place to make announcements and to interact with consumers. It should be up by the time you read this.

It will be taking the place of the Non-Specific Manufacturers forum.

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Best Regards,
Mike Turber
BladeForums Site Owner and Administrator
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Also let's not point to the thread about Mike Stewart in regards to Marbles. Hopefully Marbles will see a different future than the many other companies Mike has been invloved with.

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Best Regards,
Mike Turber
BladeForums Site Owner and Administrator
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Hello,
I am an authorized Marble Arms dealer. No problem with getting product here. Would be happy to help. bayshore@portup.com
906-428-9687 or 906-428-2950
Connie Brooks
 
Hooray!!!! I've been eyeing Marble's products in a catalog I got, but I'm having a dickens of a time finding a store that carries them so I can handle one. Can't wait until the dealer listing comes out on their website.

Those trailmakers look downright irresistable!
 
I heard a rumor about what I just read [New about Black Jack knives I could not talk about til now
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], and I still can't believe what is posted here. I realize that people will always believe what they want to, but in this case I am still floored by what I have seen.

(Mike Turber, I don't know you and I would if your facts were true.)

The person that has the most facts right so far is NHB. Even though NHB should have left emotions out of this, he is still the most accurate. I was employed by BJK Inc. during the end of the golden years of 125 employees all the way until the bitter end. I was part of the management team and was informed of business decisions as they were being decided on. I don't like what happened to BJK, and if you people feel good about hoisting someone up onto the cross, I'm glad it was Mike Stewart. The reason that I say that is because of all of the people in the BJK organization that could have been blamed for this unfortunate turn of events, he is the only one that could have handled it. No one else. Not One. When a business fails nobody walks away from it happy, especially the ones that truly loved the company. I still curse the factors for it's failure (people, circumstances, and timing) but I can't let you people bash Mike Stewart like this. He is a good man and like a true captain, he went down with the ship.

As far as the article, I haven't read it yet, but if it implicates MS as the bad guy in this "fraud" investigation, then it is only for a short time until the real facts come out. Remember that the Effingham Daily News is a business like every other and it's job is to make it's ad sale dollars go up and to make those advertisers look good.

If you have any questions about which piece failed for BJK, look at the knives that Marbles is producing and the business that they are doing, and come to your own conclusions as to whether it was the man or the people that left him to swing from the tree on this one.

BTW, Marbles has the sharpest and best backed knives on the market as of now.

Thanks for letting me set the record straight,

Andy Brown
 
Craig:

As someone who has to deal with around 300 e-mails per day let me suggest that you might have avoided this issue if your company had responded to e-mails in a timely fashion. The truth is very few manufacturers respond to emails and I think it's a problem.

Either they should respond or they should eliminate the email link from the web site and replace it with phone number. Dealing with a large volume of emails really is a time consuming process but it's important, I think. Just a thought.

I still have the Marble's hunting knife my father gave me in the late 50's. Great product.

By the way, what is the URL to your web site?

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Fred
Knife Outlet
http://www.knifeoutlet.com
 
Andy,

Welcome to BladeForums.

Seems like we have a lot of Marbles activity on the net in the last few days. I can't remember having this many posts in the last year on Marbles. Maybe this is an orchestrated event, maybe not.

I would like to make it clear to you, Craig, Jason and Mike that I posted the article as news. It is news and I will report news in our industry good or bad.

People come here for the truth and no BS. People on the net know me and although I may be a bit brash, have an obvious ego problem, can't spell or whatever I do, I tell it like it is.

I am not sure which of my facts you are referring to that is not true. I agree I worded the post improperly by stating that I had inside information on Mike Stewart. I am not saying that I don't, I am just saying that to say that was not proper. Sorry for that, and I won't do that again. That however does not discredit the story and should Mike be cleared of any or all charges, I will be happy to report that as well.

It also appears from your post that you cleared up your own situation with Mike Stewart. Good for you.

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Best Regards,
Mike Turber
BladeForums Site Owner and Administrator
Do it! Do it right! Do it right NOW!
CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW RIGHT NOW! YOU WILL BE GLAD YOU DID!
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Well, as the originator of this thread, I feel Mike's comments regarding a possible orchestrated event are directed at me. I can assure you, that at least from my perspective, there is no orchestration going on.

I have taken exception with some of Mr. Lauerman's comments posted here (and elsewhere on the Internet) privately via e-mail and see no need to discuss our differences publicly unless he so chooses.

While I believe Marble's makes fine products, I believe there are some improvements that they (and others) can make in how customer inquiries are addressed and how they distribute info to customers. I will summarize lessons that can be learned as I see them. Adopt a customer centric focus and view your company from the consumer perspective. As Fred pointed out in this thread if you have a web site answer your e-mail. Marble's is not the first manufacturer or personal knife maker I have contacted via e-mail or telephone (or both) that has not responded to initial inquiries. If you don't care enough to respond then you won't get my business. If you expect people to call for information, then use a toll free number. At my place of employment, personal long distance calls are discouraged. Unless I use a calling card, I can't call long distance during "normal" business hours and you have made it difficult for the customer to contact you. If you make it hard enough for me to get information, I won't. The Internet is a powerful tool, just like a knife. Use it correctly and it will be an obedient friend. Ignore the fundamentals and you will get hurt. There are many examples of makers and manufacturers who post here that have demonstrated the customer responsiveness I am referencing.

I believe that the recent postings from Marble's and their participation in another forum indicate their recognitition of the power of the Internet. We have learned that Marble's is preparing to post info on their site regarding who distributes their products. Another step in the right direction. As a result of my original posting in this thread, thanks to the help of others, I got answers to questions that originally were directed to Marble's and yet went unanswered.

Pontification mode off

Cliff Raynor


 
Sorry Cliff, it was not directed at you. It was directed at everyone who seems to now be associated with Marbles coming out of the wood work all of the sudden.

My original post was about Mike Stewart and Black Jack, not Marbles.

I think these controversial posts are timed with the Moon somehow
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Best Regards,
Mike Turber
BladeForums Site Owner and Administrator
Do it! Do it right! Do it right NOW!
CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW RIGHT NOW! YOU WILL BE GLAD YOU DID!
www.bladeforums.com/ubb/Forum8/HTML/001202.html
 
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