sceva
Gold Member
- Joined
- Sep 18, 2002
- Messages
- 1,780
I had decided I would like a small congress style. GEC has gotten too pricey for me so I looked on the friendly popular auction site and found this one. It is a United Boker, Made in Solingen Germany. After Cooper Industries decided to close down the Boker USA facility in the early 1980's there was no longer a source for Boker knives in the US so from what I currently understand SMKW and Blue Ridge entered into an agreemant with Boker Germany to import under the United Boker name. It started in 1984 and was ran until 1990 or 1994. In the meantime Boker Germany bought the Boker name back from Cooper / Wiss and Boker USA was re-born. I believe but am not sure that the first of these United Bokers were a nice red bone then they came with green bone and later various celluloids.
My knife is a Courthouse Congress, model UC126G. About 3 3/16" lone closed. This knife was basically never used and never sharpened. The green bone is nicely jigged and the color, depending on how the light hits it varies from a dark olive to almost black.. The shield is the round United Boker shield with a red fill and contrasts nicely with the scales. There are no gaps in between the liners and springs, the scaled fit well as does the shield. Shield is glued, not pinned. Back springs are flush in both the open and closed positions. The blades are well finished and were tumbled and both have half stops. The blades were nice and sharp requiring only a light stropping on my AG Russell ceramic sticks, they are also nice and thin as I like them. Both blades and backspring are, I believe carbon steel based on a test with cold blue, this is a plus for me. As for blade fit; they nest nicely in the slot when closed allowing for a thin knife which I like. When opened; the pen blade suffers from the downward cant that seems very common to Bokers and other brands. The sheepfoot blade opens straight however the back corner of the blade sits slightly (.030 or so as an estimate) but is not objectionable since the corner was rounded in the tumbling operation so it feels nice and smooth.
I guess my older GEC's ( from when they were more affordable and before I retired) and my 1950's John Primble had spoiled me as at first I thought of the blade corner to spring end fit was faulty. But then I looked at a lot of photos of Case, Boker and other knives produced for the mass market at a reasonable price and realized that it is the nature of the beast. I could file and polish the main blade down to match with teh spring but I doubt I will as this is another nice user for me and the blade as it sits now is not objectionable. This and the pen blade canting down seems to be the norm for a lot of knives, I did file the end of the spring at the pen end to lessen the cant a little. I may file more down the road.
The only other things I have done with this one are: Rounded the bolster corners slightly, not for a flaw, I just prefer slightly radiused rather than almost sharp corners. and I wiped the spring \back with a little cold blue because I like the contrast. As for the blades, with use I expect them to develop a nice patina; sliced up an apple today a they already have a light stain/patina starting. Whoopee.
Here are photos, there is still some lint and polish in the scale jigging that has since been removed
My knife is a Courthouse Congress, model UC126G. About 3 3/16" lone closed. This knife was basically never used and never sharpened. The green bone is nicely jigged and the color, depending on how the light hits it varies from a dark olive to almost black.. The shield is the round United Boker shield with a red fill and contrasts nicely with the scales. There are no gaps in between the liners and springs, the scaled fit well as does the shield. Shield is glued, not pinned. Back springs are flush in both the open and closed positions. The blades are well finished and were tumbled and both have half stops. The blades were nice and sharp requiring only a light stropping on my AG Russell ceramic sticks, they are also nice and thin as I like them. Both blades and backspring are, I believe carbon steel based on a test with cold blue, this is a plus for me. As for blade fit; they nest nicely in the slot when closed allowing for a thin knife which I like. When opened; the pen blade suffers from the downward cant that seems very common to Bokers and other brands. The sheepfoot blade opens straight however the back corner of the blade sits slightly (.030 or so as an estimate) but is not objectionable since the corner was rounded in the tumbling operation so it feels nice and smooth.
I guess my older GEC's ( from when they were more affordable and before I retired) and my 1950's John Primble had spoiled me as at first I thought of the blade corner to spring end fit was faulty. But then I looked at a lot of photos of Case, Boker and other knives produced for the mass market at a reasonable price and realized that it is the nature of the beast. I could file and polish the main blade down to match with teh spring but I doubt I will as this is another nice user for me and the blade as it sits now is not objectionable. This and the pen blade canting down seems to be the norm for a lot of knives, I did file the end of the spring at the pen end to lessen the cant a little. I may file more down the road.
The only other things I have done with this one are: Rounded the bolster corners slightly, not for a flaw, I just prefer slightly radiused rather than almost sharp corners. and I wiped the spring \back with a little cold blue because I like the contrast. As for the blades, with use I expect them to develop a nice patina; sliced up an apple today a they already have a light stain/patina starting. Whoopee.
Here are photos, there is still some lint and polish in the scale jigging that has since been removed
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