I stumbled across an original with the stag scales in an 'antique store' just the other day. The pattern has interested me for some time and, in spite of having taken dimensions online and looked at pics of originals and the late Marble's repro., I was surprised at how small it really is. The blade is quite thin and the OAL about 'a size smaller' than I thought it would be and the jimping on the back is shallow and close. Here are the dimensions as I measured them:
OAL- almost 7", Handle-almost 3 1/4", Blade-3 3/4", Blade Height- 1", Thickness- right at .0700", full tang. I read that there were 4 interations of them with minor variations through those years.
It really does look like what a guy can make out of a plain ol' butcher blade, and not the heavy duty thicker ones either (unless that is what you want). I looked at the tag and was all ready to snatch it up at the $97.50 then I looked again and it was $975.00. Hate it when my eyes/brain do that to me.......
As I recall without looking it back up, Marble's introduced it in the 1906 catalog at $1.75 and discontinued the model soon after Deweese's death about 1931ish. It has been said that he was the biggest customer for them as he gave them away to about everybody. It has also been said that he didnt carry one, preferring a big, fancy 'bowie' showblade. I dont know......but at least Ive seen a nice original now!
BTW, in another case was a 'fish knife', very similar in size and shape, and my guess is that it was from maybe mid-20th C.; the profile similar, a simple wood small butcher knife type handle, but heavy, deep and wide spaced jimping on the back (to be a 'scaler/scraper', I presume). It has a 'fish', like a bass, fading logo midway up the blade. In the fish body is 'CHROME' with 'PLATED' under it and below the fish is 'MADE IN U.S.A'. Anyone have any idea what company might have used this logo? At $7.95 I bought it.......and Ive seen a lot of chrome plating, this doesnt look plated to me, more like a chrome vanadium?
Here are its dimensions:
OAL-8 5/8", Handle-4 3/8", Blade-4 1/4", Blade height-7/8 at choil to 1" before the clip, Thickness-.055 at the choil to .065 at the clip, 1/2 tang
FWIW, my home-mod butcher into a Kephart first, then clipped to be more of a Deweese, is a fine all-rounder user, though a tad bigger I can see now. That spear point of the Kep was just not all that usable for me and this was a good 'improvement'. This 'fish knife' is about a size smaller in scale and is a fine slicer and might be a half-decent small panfish knife, but Im no fisherman.
Here is a look at one:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Rare-Antique-Marbles-M-S-A-Dall-DeWeese-Pattern-Knife-Old-Vtg-Collection-MSA-/111270044384?pt=Collectible_Knives&hash=item19e83622e0
