All About Pocket Knives

An old German company, Boker started in the late 1700's making tools. Herman Boeker went to New York City in 1837 where he founded H. Boker & Company, a business to exclusively import knives made at the family's factory in Germany. Other members of the family went to Canada, Mexico, and Argentina (where a factory was later started). Sales of the German knives was strong. In 1902 Carl F. Boker was president of Valley Forge Cutlery in New Jersey. By 1916 Boker gained control of the firm where Boker USA knives would be made alongside the Valley Forge knives. The Valley Forge trademark was discontinued in 1950. Boker bought the George Schrade company in 1956 and ran it for two years before closing it. Both the USA and German knives were sold until 1984 when the American factory was closed, after having moved to North Carolina in 1978. The German factory gained control of the import firm in 1986. They are still in business.

As far as quality is concerned the early Bokers were way ahead of most of the German cutlery at the time.

Let's see some of these fine old knives!

Is that one actually marked Germany? Its a beautiful piece. I have wondered as to whether the H BOKER IMPROVED CUTLERY tang stamp was used on knives made by Boker in the US in their NJ factory.

Thank you , it's not marked Germany. I don't know too much about Bokers, but from what I've learned I think it's a German made one, it also doesn't have the same "look" as any Valley Forges I've seen.

Here's an old Boker I acquired recently with ivory handles, silver inlay, and tortoise shell shield. It's a bit damaged, but definately a high end knife in it's day.

Anyone else have any old Bokers?

I've got a few old 2020's but no pics, will have to remedy that

Good thread to start!

As per Boker and G. Schrade... You will sometimes find a knife on ebay and the seller is peeing his pants as he describes something rare and unusual and unique: It has a G. Schrade blade on it! Yikes! Gotta be a factory mixup or something else to make the knife one of a kind! Bid high and often!

But Boker, as many old knife companies that joined together did, was simply using up left over parts.

My only Boker, a five inch toothpick, which is what I collect. Sorry, it is NOT one of the old H Boker knives. I just realized as I photographed the knife that I never dated it, or established country of origin. Can someone help? Tang stamp is BOKER. Has a 'Tree Brand' blade etch. On reverse tang, there is only the Boker 'Tree' symbol.

Seems as tho most of the BOKER Brands I find are broken in one way or another. Here is an old pen marked BOKER on main front and the Tree on the backside.
moss

Sorry, but I do not have any knives to contribute to this thread. Wish I did!

AKC- I love that old bone handled jack!

Phil- That tooth pick is a winner! I can’t recall seeing a Boker toothpick before.

Tmwsiy- Those scissors are very nice. I like to find old all metal scissors. IMHO they are far superior to the metal blades with plastic handles we see so often today.

I am in the same boat as Moss; most old Bokers I find are pretty well used up. We are both in the same geographic region. Maybe that has something to do with it.

Keep posting these fine old knives. I may not have ones to post myself, but I will sure drool over yours!

Dale

Here is an oldie, it too has a broken pen blade

But I like the pattern and the jigged bone handles




M.B.

Hi, I received this knife from my grandmother, and it was passed to her by his grandmother as a gift from her because that was the knife that the father of the grandmother of my grandmother used!

So in a few words, this knife is at least 120+ years..... I think that the mark of Solingen is the mark that it was made on Germany, and I will love to have an approximate age of the knife.

Hope anyone from here can help me!

I don't know how can I attach or upload images, if anyone can help me I can share pictures of the knife.

thanks!

only one i have

Here's an old H. Boker serpentine pen knife. It has the acorn shield which I believe was introduced to Remington when Boker's workers were hired en masse by Remington when they began producing knives. The acorn shield is slightly elongated compared to the Remington acorn.