All About Pocket Knives

Posted: **Fri Dec 14, 2018 12:17 am**

Here are just a few of the neat blade etches that Boker used. These are all pre WWII examples.

Posted: **Fri Dec 14, 2018 12:47 am**

Wow, are those nice. A great picture for comparison purposes.

Posted: **Fri Dec 14, 2018 12:50 am**

Those are all very nicely preserved and quite interesting. Do you know the story behind the "RADIUM" etch ?

Posted: **Fri Dec 14, 2018 3:46 am**

NICE group Neal! Here's a few more older Boker blade etches.

Posted: **Fri Dec 14, 2018 4:00 am**

My favorites are the old Tree Brand ones.

Posted: **Fri Dec 14, 2018 4:12 am**

Thanks Olde Cutler and Philco.

Don't know for certain on the "Radium" etch, but here is my theory...

I believe that "Radium" falls into the same age related cool category as "Electric" and "Magnetic", as terms that were seen on various knife blades during the turn of the twentieth century. Radium, which was discovered by Marie and Pierre (husband) Curie in 1898 was soon used as a radioactive element in glow in the dark watch faces in the early 1900s. That, by the way, didn't turn out so well for the women who applied the Radium paint solutions on the watch faces. But, in the early 1900s, Radium, like electricity and magnetism (in electric form) were all relatively new and simply amazing things to most people. Boker started using "RADIUM" as an etch at least as early as 1909 and it stuck around for about twenty years.

Posted: **Fri Dec 14, 2018 4:18 am**

Beautiful examples Greedy, thanks for posting those!!!
If I remember correctly, you have a few (thousand) nice Bokers.

Those are my favorites as well, wlf, along with most every other Boker.

Posted: **Fri Dec 14, 2018 4:27 am**

One for wlf...

Posted: **Fri Dec 14, 2018 4:47 am**

philco wrote:Those are all very nicely preserved and quite interesting. Do you know the story behind the "RADIUM" etch ?

Hey Philco, I don't know the whole story behind the radium blade etches used by Boker, but as Mason stated, it was probably just a marketing ploy used to sell knives. Boker trademarked radium in 1904.

Posted: **Fri Dec 14, 2018 4:54 am**

Mason wrote:Beautiful examples Greedy, thanks for posting those!!!
If I remember correctly, you have a few (thousand) nice Bokers.

Those are my favorites as well, wlf, along with most every other Boker.

I am partial to the old stuff myself.

Mason: I don't have that many knives, but would like to add to the total if you ever want to sell any of that group you posted?

Posted: **Fri Dec 14, 2018 1:10 pm**

Mason wrote:Here are just a few of the neat blade etches that Boker used.

Mason:

First of all, what a beautiful collection of Boker's you have there. I don't own any Boker knives but I am very impressed by yours.

Second, on the top knife, there appears to be 4 numbers written on the blade: 7473. Would you happen to know what those numbers mean? Could that knife have been a "Salesmen's Sample" or something to that effect?

____________
Mike

Posted: **Fri Dec 14, 2018 1:47 pm**

Beautiful knives posted

Posted: **Fri Dec 14, 2018 3:46 pm**

XX Case XX wrote:
Mason wrote:Here are just a few of the neat blade etches that Boker used.
Mason:

First of all, what a beautiful collection of Boker's you have there. I don't own any Boker knives but I am very impressed by yours.

Second, on the top knife, there appears to be 4 numbers written on the blade: 7473. Would you happen to know what those numbers mean? Could that knife have been a "Salesmen's Sample" or something to that effect?
Mike,in the last couple years,Smokey Mountain broke up a large factory board that had knives with those red factory #'s on them.I have/had a couple myself.One dealer I knew had 50 or 60 of them.
____________
Mike

Posted: **Fri Dec 14, 2018 4:20 pm**

Thanks Roger. I've seen knives with numbers on them before. Many of them were Schrades. I don't know why but I like those with the numbers, they look cool.

___________
Mike

Posted: **Fri Dec 14, 2018 7:09 pm**

thegreedygulo wrote:
philco wrote:Those are all very nicely preserved and quite interesting. Do you know the story behind the "RADIUM" etch ?
Hey Philco, I don't know the whole story behind the radium blade etches used by Boker, but as Mason stated, it was probably just a marketing ploy used to sell knives. Boker trademarked radium in 1904.

Interesting that we don't see the "RADIUM" blade etch in the 1906 factory Boker catalog?

Posted: **Fri Dec 14, 2018 7:12 pm**

XX Case XX wrote:
Mason wrote:Here are just a few of the neat blade etches that Boker used.
Mason:

First of all, what a beautiful collection of Boker's you have there. I don't own any Boker knives but I am very impressed by yours.

Second, on the top knife, there appears to be 4 numbers written on the blade: 7473. Would you happen to know what those numbers mean? Could that knife have been a "Salesmen's Sample" or something to that effect?

____________
Mike

Thanks XX Case XX, Those knives are all salesman sample models and the inked numbers are the model numbers. Many have the inked numbers on the back side of the blade.

Posted: **Sat Dec 15, 2018 2:53 pm**

Also many of the Boker etches are reversed etches.Something rarely seen in old American made knives.

Posted: **Sat Dec 15, 2018 3:19 pm**

Mason wrote:One for wlf...

Thanks, I had these in mind when I patterned my etch . As a matter of fact, I downloaded these images, probably all from Roger R.

Posted: **Sat Dec 15, 2018 4:55 pm**

Very impressive knives being shown here. The new Boker book contains all the tang stamps from 1828 thru 1983.

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