1977 Boker Bone Limited Edition Set

[rangerbluedog]

Houston Price, in his book OFFICIAL PRICE GUIDE TO COLLECTOR KNIVES, mentions a limited edition set made by Boker in 1977.
His description:
"5,000 sets containing five different patterns made by Boker, Solingen, in 1977. Total of 25,000 knives made."

Is this knife from that set?
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... K:MEWAX:IT

[smiling-knife]

Hi, your knife looks like these. I thought mine were from 1974-75. There was a note in one of the boxes advertising the Great American knives that were coming out 'next year' Perhpas that wasn't original to the knife Does you knife have a box? Mine were in green boxes. s-k

http://www.allaboutpocketknives.com/kni ... 60&t=16325

[rangerbluedog]

Hey Smiling-Knife,
I knew I had seen that "BONE" blade etch somewhere before!
I think the ebay seller is mistaken on his assertion that this knife is from the 1980's. I believe both it and your knives are from the 1977 bone set! Boker started using that second shield with the serial number in the Summer of 1976. I think all of the Series II, Great American Story knives had that second shield. They went through 1978, so maybe the GAS knives coming out "next year" were for 1978!
I think I've convinced myself that your knives are from that 1977 Bone set. I wonder what the other pattern was?

[smiling-knife]

Hi, thanks for the response. Here is the the little ad that was in one of the boxes. It seems to imply that the American Story knives were about to be released. I thought this would date it to 1975. Of course, it may not have originally accompanied these knives. Each knife has it own box like the one shown here. I don't have any other pics at the moment. s-k

[rangerbluedog]

Interesting stuff S-K!
1976-1977 was the timeframe when J.Wiss & Sons sold Boker to the Cooper Group. Maybe they were using up some of the leftover paper inserts? It is also possible that Price had the date of issue wrong in his book. Judging by the "Genuine Bone" on your box, I'd say this is indeed from the BONE Commemorative set. But perhaps it came out in 1976 instead of 1977.
I have pictures below of the inserts from a couple of Great American Story knives I have in my collection. The first one is from knife #1779 (Lafayette Escadrille). This knife came out in February 1976. Note that the insert has J.Wiss & Sons, and the date of printing at the bottom (8/75). The back of this insert is exactly like yours.
The next picture is an insert with the Cooper Group logo. This is knife #1788 (Modern Fuel). It was issued in September 1977.
I would venture a guess that your knives were manufactured sometime between Aug 1976 when they started putting the second shield on, and before September 1977 when they went to the Cooper Group insert.
If someone has some of the earlier Series II GAS knives maybe they could help clear this up further.

[rangerbluedog]

Thinking about it nowadays, bone handles don't seem so special. But if you look at a J.Wiss & Sons catalog from 1975, the only handle materials they offered were "Pearl", "Ebonite", and "Improved Stag Type" - which to me sounds like code for Delrin.

Ahhh, the seventies...