All About Pocket Knives

I finished a Boker stockman a couple days ago that someone sent to me fro repair.
The knife had been rehandled once before with red stag and the owner didn't like it.

I had forgotten how poorly Boker attaches their bolsters, and 3 of the 4 bolsters fell off.
I had to re-solder the bolsters and for some reason the solder didn't want to stick.
It was a real pain! The tape on the liner held the bolsters in the proper place until I could soldier them.

I got it all put back together and the pins in place to check the fit and took it back apart and in so doing chipped the handle at the pin.

I ordered a new set of bone handles and paid the $10 for shipping
Then I put it all back together and everything came out right.
After all the trouble with the bolsters I was not sure how it would look, but I was pleasantly surprised.

Hope you enjoy the pics. And best of all the blades all set nicely in the pocket without any rubbing or even touching.

Dale,
That looks great! It's interesting to learn some of the difficulties y'all run into when redoing a knife. The stag handles you replaced don't all that bad, is there enough meat there to be refitted to another knife?
Treefarmer

Thanks Phil.
The big problem is finding a knife with the same pin hole configuration and same shield. Basically it would need to be another Boker 4474 stockman then it would likely fit, but of course, no guarantees!

Looks very good, as usual!

Your work is fine as usual, but man....that red stag looked pretty good to my eyes...to each their own

looks good dale!

I hate german solder jobs! buck creek, german eye and most other german knives i've ever had apart require bolster re-attachment

I have to resolder a lot of bolsters back on during mods, so I feel your pain. It adds more steps that I didn't anticipate.

As to your knife, that new bone looks great! That stag looked good too, but the new choice in bone goes very well with that pattern. And what do you know, it has a shield! That's a rarity in itself, LOL.

Great work, the owner should be quite pleased!

Thanks guys, I appreciate the positive reinforcement.

glennbad wrote:I have to resolder a lot of bolsters back on during mods, so I feel your pain. It adds more steps that I didn't anticipate.

Glenn,
Have you ever noticed that most of the knives with soldered bolsters that fall off are German?
It sure seems that way to me. I have seen some German bolsters that weren't even soldered, just held in place with the pins. I real pain to try and reassemble!
I think many of the Sheffield companies solder bolsters also, but their bolsters don't seem to fall off, they use enough solder to keep them attached.

Dale I am really poor at soldering. I have tried to watch some of the on line videos and still have little luck with it. The next time you take one of these apart why not post a tutorial on soldering the bolsters to the liners including getting the bolsters square. Not as easy as you might think and if the bolsters aren't square it presents a new challenge in fitting the scales. Thanks

just bob wrote:Dale I am really poor at soldering. I have tried to watch some of the on line videos and still have little luck with it. The next time you take one of these apart why not post a tutorial on soldering the bolsters to the liners including getting the bolsters square. Not as easy as you might think and if the bolsters aren't square it presents a new challenge in fitting the scales. Thanks

Very true Bob, it is difficult to get the bolsters square & if they are out of the original position it does mess up the alignment, especially if you are trying to reuse the original handles.

I was actually thinking of never working on another knife with soldered bolsters; i.e. no more Bokers, but if I run across another one I will try and make a tutorial about soldering bolsters, although I am not sure I am any better at it than you are!