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When David Morphis packed his gear for deployment to Iraq, he did what thousands of American fighting men had done since World War One: he took a good friend with him. Excerpted from his letter to Marble's Cutlery, here's how the soldier explained it.
Our man in Iraq.
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My grandpa was raised knowing every boy carried a good knife and if something is intended to last it must be of good stock.
He was truly a guy's guy and prided himself on having the right tools for any job. His MARBLE'S knife was kept with his other valuable tools.
After he passed away, his belongings were given to me to sort. In one of the boxes I found the MARBLE"S still in its sheath. My eyes twinkled as I pulled the Woodcraft from its sheath and discovered my all-time favorite knife.
I decided to bring it to Iraq because I thought if I had to use a knife in combat I would like to use what belonged to my grandpa as a tribute to him.
I wrote to MARBLE'S and asked questions. It amazed me that something made seventy five to eighty years ago could be in such good condition.
Everyone who handles my favorite grandpa memory is equally amazed and dazzled at its workmanship and ability to remain so beautiful for so many years.
I am proud and honored to build new and lasting memories with tools that once belonged to my grandpa and can be passed down to my own children.
His legacy will continue.
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Over the years I've talked with scores of World War Two and Korean Conflict veterans who recall using MARBLE'S gear in combat or knowing comrades who did. But how could a company who never engaged in defense contracting have such a presence on the battle field?
During WW II, MARBLE'S first priority was selling personal protection gear (primarily knives) to individual soldiers. From 1942 through 1944, virtually nothing was sold to civilians.
(Dave Nyberg)
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The answers are many: Men bought their own MARBLE'S gear from home; men bought MARBLE'S equipment from off post stores before shipping out; friends and relatives send MARBLE'S equipment as gifts; unit commanders bought gear on the open market, sometimes from MARBLE'S; citizens donated equipment to community knife drives for distribution to troops overseas.
Ivory Handle Knife.
A father's knife given to his soldier son, this vintage Woodcraft came home victorious but war weary. Restored and fitted with scrimshawed boar's tooth ivory handle, it is a distinguished veteran. (Bob Salmi)
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The knives, compasses and matchboxes MARBLE'S sold to GIs were standard sporting patterns. Knives were predominantly Woodcrafts and 5 inch Ideals. Toward the end of the war, the company ran out of aluminum and substituted Bakelite pommels. But without a credible story attached, they cannot be told from regular sporting stock.
Cliff Murker in uniform.
(John Pickard)
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Old soldier's stories are always humble and, when they talk of MARBLE'S, tinged with reverence for a trademark they trusted. Here's my all time favorite.
Young Cliff Murker of Gladstone, Michigan had just begun to work at MARBLE'S, when he was drafted into service for World War One. After basic training, Murker shipped to France as a member of the famed Red Arrow Division of the 125th Infantry, the first Americans to fight on German soil.
In 20 days of continuous fighting, the unit destroyed eleven German Divisions including the elite Prussian Guards, but at a terrible cost. Fourteen thousand Americans lost their lives; Murker was very nearly one of them.
He first told the story to his parents in a letter written from Base Hospital No. 34, August 7, 1918.
Dear Dad,
Well, how are you this morning? I hope fine as usual. I am in pretty good shape myself although I am in a hospital. I was hit in the big drive at (Censored) and a Hun machine gun managed to find me and put me out of the way for a while.
Thanks to ... the Marble match box that I had in my coat pocket, the force of the bullet was spent on the match box and merely went into my hip. Not at all serious but darn sore. They took an X-ray and then took the bullet out. Believe me, we sure get good medical services over here...
We sure have the Hun on the run and are giving them hell. I have two to my credit that I know of and I am sure there are more because I was shooting an automatic rifle. The two I picked off with the old Springfield...
I have a debt to pay to those boys yet and will try and pay it before long when I get back on the job... They are awful pressed for men and are using the most brutal methods you could think of... They use a lot of mustard gas and it sure is hell. They shoot it at us when we are all sweated up and it sure burns...
Well what is doing in the old town for excitement? I suppose it is just as dead as ever... |
Murker was discharged at the end of the war and returned to Gladstone. Webster Marble asked the young hero what job he wanted at the factory. Murker chose the stock room where he spent the rest of his working life, retiring as foreman.
The Murker Matchbox as grandson John Pickard remembers it, deeply creased but unpunctured. The matches rattled when the children shook it and they thought the bullet that shot grandpa was inside.
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Sometime over the years, the matchbox with the bullet crease in it escaped the family's caretakers and fell into the hands of a private and unknown collector. There it remains, mute but eloquent testimony to the prophesy Webster Marble made hundreds of times in dozens of ways.
"Life itself may depend upon the absolute reliability of the compass, or knife, or axe, or matchsafe you carry."
© 2006 Arni Dunathan
Arni Dunathan is the author of the newly published collector's guide "The Encyclopedia of MARBLE'S Knives and Sporting Collectables." |
