All About Pocket Knives

Ricky and I had the unique problem of having more knives to show than available room in our new book. So we thought we would show some models that didn't make it into the book for one reason or another. Enclosed is a large fancy cigar pattern at 4-3/16 inches with genuine bone handles. Designated as the model 9471, this good looking American made Boker knife seemed to have had a fairly short run from the early 1950s to the 1960s.

That one is a good looker. Simple, just business and looking good doing it.

I like it!

Where are the rest of them?

Ken

Here is my 9471.
kj

That is a real beauty right there KJ. I love the color of that bone!

Here's one I would have loved to have included, but it is a fairly recent pickup. 1920s-1930s Boys Knife, with stamped metal handles (pattern #3911). This was originally painted brown to look more like jigged bone. You can still see traces of the brown paint. There was also one made for the South American market!

Thanks, doglegg and Mumbleypeg. Very nice example, Kootenay Joe.
Great old metal handled model Ricky, which would have looked good in the book. Guess it will have to go in the second edition.

Here is a pretty old gal from around the 1930s which also appeared to late to make it in the book.

Glad that AAPK is ground zero for Appendix A of the first volume.

Second edition? Put me down for one.___Dave

Thanks, Tsar Bomba and djknife 13.
I'm sure we will give it some thought if we ever sell enough books to cover the the cost of the first one.

The above Swell Center Stabber Jack is a real beauty.
Are some of the Boker USA knives contract, made by other manufacturer ? Or did all Boker USA knives come from the Boker USA factory ?
kj

KJ, that is a tough one! The world may never know for sure.
In all my digging I haven't found any real evidence to prove one way or the other.
We know that it was a pretty common practice to outsource to other cutlers, but personally I don't think Boker made it a habit.
Boker USA had their own manufacturing plant in Maplewood, NJ, where they primarily made Boker and Valley Forge knives.
We know they also manufactured knives under other trade names, and outsourced work for other retailers - BELKNAP for example, under the John Primble brand.
Boker USA was also the primary importer for H. Boker in Solingen. So, Boker USA had not just one, but TWO factories at its disposal. I don't think Boker would have outsourced knife manufacture due to not having enough manufacturing capacity, so the only other reason I can imagine they might have outsourced production is if someone was making something that Boker could not make, or if the quantities of a pattern was going to be so small that they didn't want to invest in the specialised tooling.
The only knives I even suspected that Boker USA may have outsourced were some of their fixed blade knives. Some of the stacked leather handle models and also the silver stag series in the 1960s look a lot like the WESTERN brand. However, almost every knife maker in Solingen made stacked handle fixed blades like that.

akarangerbluedog wrote:KJ, that is a tough one! The world may never know for sure.
In all my digging I haven't found any real evidence to prove one way or the other.
We know that it was a pretty common practice to outsource to other cutlers, but personally I don't think Boker made it a habit.
Boker USA had their own manufacturing plant in Maplewood, NJ, where they primarily made Boker and Valley Forge knives.
We know they also manufactured knives under other trade names, and outsourced work for other retailers - BELKNAP for example, under the John Primble brand.
Boker USA was also the primary importer for H. Boker in Solingen. So, Boker USA had not just one, but TWO factories at its disposal. I don't think Boker would have outsourced knife manufacture due to not having enough manufacturing capacity, so the only other reason I can imagine they might have outsourced production is if someone was making something that Boker could not make, or if the quantities of a pattern was going to be so small that they didn't want to invest in the specialised tooling.
The only knives I even suspected that Boker USA may have outsourced were some of their fixed blade knives. Some of the stacked leather handle models and also the silver stag series in the 1960s look a lot like the WESTERN brand. However, almost every knife maker in Solingen made stacked handle fixed blades like that.

Good explanation, and I agree.

Thank you. I very much appreciate your knowledgeable reply and this is now a reference for those wondering the same thing.
I do wonder about how a USA company could import from Germany an item that has not been marked "Germany".
If Boker USA contracted out just the blade of a fixed blade knife to Boker Germany and then built it into a finished knife in their USA factory, would that blade have to be marked "Germany" ?
kj

kootenay joe wrote:Thank you. I very much appreciate your knowledgeable reply and this is now a reference for those wondering the same thing.
I do wonder about how a USA company could import from Germany an item that has not been marked "Germany".
If Boker USA contracted out just the blade of a fixed blade knife to Boker Germany and then built it into a finished knife in their USA factory, would that blade have to be marked "Germany" ?
kj

While you are correct that all knives imported into the U.S. after 1891 were supposed to have the "country" of origin stamped on them, it seems that some German made Boker knives brought into the U.S. got away with only "Solingen" stamped on the blade. For the most part though, all German made Boker knives imported into America from early on will have "Germany", "Solingen", or "Solingen - Germany" stamped on the blades.

One of my favorite parts is the final chapter, in which we included a 100 year pattern chart. In its original form, the pattern chart was much larger, and would have doubled the size of the book. In order to make something that folks could afford, we trimmed some of the details out of the chart, but there are still a couple that might be useful. So here in all it's original glory - except for pictures - is a list of congress patterns made by Boker during the years of 1900-2008. (as found in U.S. cutlery and hardware catalogs)

Here's one more, listing the Limited Edition Knives Boker made from 1971 to 2002. It doesn't include the GREAT AMERICAN STORY knives made by BOKER USA from 1974-1978, but that list is available elsewhere online. All the limited edition knives in the attached list were made in Solingen. I don't think there is a published list anywhere available that is as complete as this one.

Thank you Mason. My question was more about knife parts; e.g. the blade for a fixed blade knife: could this have been imported with no markings to suggest Germany and then built into a finished knife in the USA factory ?
kj

kootenay joe wrote:Thank you Mason. My question was more about knife parts; e.g. the blade for a fixed blade knife: could this have been imported with no markings to suggest Germany and then built into a finished knife in the USA factory ?
kj

I don't know about the importation of knife parts which certainly could have been brought over, with or without country of origin stamps. Probably not a great need to do so though since both the German and American companies had large and complete fabrication shops.

Great Boker charts Blue, which are invaluable in precisely identifying a particular model.