EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) – No apologies or mistakes here: I am a budget knife kind of guy through and through.
I do love looking at more expensive knives, kind of like how I appreciate a Jaguar but drive a Honda.
Over the past year, I have become a big fan of Rough Rider (sometimes spelled Rough Ryder), the house brand for Smoky Mountain Knife Works.
And I am always on the hunt for a bargain.
My latest budget find just happened to be delivered right to my front door – in that box of knives that my good friend and mentor JB at Big Red EDC sent to me right around New Year’s.
I have already explored some of the contents in that box, with columns on the Tenable Knives Model 6, the QSP Hedgehog with a spearpoint blade and the RoseCraft Walleye.
Included with those “headliners” was a knife whose cost screams “opening act” but it really performs and looks like an A-lister.
I’m talking about a Marble’s lockback with brown checkered bone handles. (Marbles MR677, to be exact, with the model number.)
I have heard of the Marble’s brand before, but wasn’t super familiar with it. I certainly had never held one in my hand before.
Anyway, here are some first impressions.
First off, it came in a cigar-box-type container that I am definitely keeping to store this knife in.
The box is labeled “Exhibition Grade” and that set this knife up for some big expectations, which it pretty much more or less met.
The description of this knife says it has “checkered bone” handles. Well, the handles are most definitely not made of bone, but probably G10 or some other sort of blended plastic.
Still, whatever they are made of, the handles are beautiful. The checkered motif conjures up images of a hunting rifle or gun stock. It also has a lighter brown-color “shark fin” swoosh that breaks up the look of the knife. The shield actually is in the shape of a rifle bullet with the name “Marble’s” written on it.
The knife also has a nickel silver bolster that gives it a look similar to a traditional Barlow. The clip-point blade is sharp but there is no halfstop and the walk-and-talk is kind of spongy, not a lot of snap.
The lockback works great and really locks the blade into place.
It has etching on the blade that reads “Marble’s Quality Knives.” I normally don’t like that sort of thing, but it works on this knife.
Overall, it is a quality knife, especially for the price point. I showed it to several buddies who are starting to get into knives and they thought that it would cost $40 or $50.
Try half of that.
I found this knife on the Chicago Knife Works website for $15.07, as of this writing. At Atlantic Knife, the same knife was listed for $22.95.
That’s the very definition of a knife that “punches above its weight class” to mix my metaphors with the sweet science of boxing.
Rounding out this Marble’s knife is a custom leather slip that my friend Steven over at Sanctified Leather made for me.
The handmade slip has a textured feel that goes well with the knife’s handle – again conjuring up images of the stock of a hunting rifle.
Of course, the slip contains Sanctified Leather’s signature logo – a hiker on a mountain with a giant cross at the top and a star shining down upon it.
I have mentioned Sanctified Leather a time or two in this space. One of the things I really like about his work, the featured image reminds me of Mount Cristo Rey, with its statue of Christ at the top, in nearby Sunland Park, New Mexico.
The slip is rounded out with some gorgeous hand stitching in another shade of brown.
Here are some links to the Marble lockback at Chicago Knife Works and at Atlantic Knife.
If you are interested in Sanctified Leather, Steven has a YouTube channel you can find by clicking here. He also is on Instagram. You can find out more about his leather work by clicking here.
Here are some other YouTube channels dealing with knives and EDC that I consider informative and hopefully a bit entertaining.
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