All About Pocket Knives

So this guy is rated highly, but is this for real? The tree thingy is even there.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Boker-Tree-Bra ... 0005.m1851




I am also wondering if plastic is what is called bone here

Just curious, what are your concerns about the knife?

My impression: Recent years iterations of Boker 'German' knives require an insider knowledge to know the exact provenance. The Solingen-based company has been obfuscative for decades with their tang-stamps, but more recently with their alliance with Chinese companies, and I, for one, cannot be sure of exactly what a particular recently made Boker 'is.' The originally posted knife here has what I would call Chinese bone, if it is bone, and I think that it probably is bone. Just a thought, and perhaps not very informative. My interest in Bokers is pretty much confined to those that were born before I was (not exactly the Pleistocene, but some time ago .

Note that the shield says "Germany" not Solingen. The story Boker is putting out there is that these knives are made from parts produced in China then shipped back to Germany for assembly. I'm very skeptical about the assembly aspect because the biggest advantage of having knives made in China is the lower labor costs. Having the parts shipped back to Germany for assembly would negate much of that cost savings.
I've been told there are some firm restrictions involving the use of "Solingen" on knives and only those actually made in Solingen can bear the name.

Difficult to say from a picture but my initial impression was synthetic handles.

For posterity:

The Chinese cutleries in the last few years are able to furnish bone covers on knives possibly as cheaply as Delrin (for instance). There are not that many cattle in China, so I suspect that they are importing the bone, or using pig bone. Almost all knives coming out of China are in bone and I feel that I can spot the jigging as Chinese iconic, most of the time, as here. I can't go too far with this, as I no longer (one or two weeks in 2008 or 2009) buy any Chinese knives. I like to look for the name "Solingen" on Boker knives (not to be confused with "Soligen", as generally seen. LOL).

Steve Warden wrote:Just curious, what are your concerns about the knife?

My suspicions were mostly the cover materials but, with all these posts, my memory is jogged and I, remember these observations, in other posts. I think they may be bone, but not sure. I am guessing its a great knife, especially if bone. I have a $13 Magnum, in bone and a great knife. Gotta give em credit, at least sometimes.

Bokers are also manufactured in Argentina as well as China. And have previously been produced in the U.S. as I recall. I have no experience with these but I have heard them praised. Just to re-emphasize to anyone new to Boker: If Solingen does not appear on the knife it was NOT made in Germany.

Philco raises an interesting point about those marked Germany being "assembled" there. I don't know the answer. If the company is ethical then assembled will mean exactly that; they construct the knife out of the parts from China. If unethical, it could mean they just put the already finished China knife in a box.

JACK OF ALL TIRADES wrote:So this guy is rated highly, but is this for real? The tree thingy is even there.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Boker-Tree-Bra ... 0005.m1851




I am also wondering if plastic is what is called bone here

You really can’t fault the seller when Boker is so elusive about the details concerning manufacturing and assembly. I have a similar stockman that I have listed in the past. It’s jigged bone, but not the same jigging as this one. It’s marked in an identical way. It was sold to me as manufactured in Germany and that is how I have listed it. But now I am going to leave the country of origin off of this in the future.
I brought this up almost ten years ago on another forum and got my head bit off for it. At the time the Euro was rising and Boker prices were falling. When I asked if they could be using parts made in China, one of the moderators accused me of slander. I am glad to see that we can finally discuss this openly now. I think Boker has been doing somethings like this for a lot longer than we know.
It doesn’t sour me on Boker at this time. The manufacturers warranty is still a lifetime guarantee, I checked. For the price point, the quality is actually superb.
And I don’t think the handle is plastic or delrin. It looks like bone to me.
SSk