Boker Air Force survival knife?

Chris Pierce

Chris Pierce

Joined
Nov 15, 2006
Messages
4,837
Howdy folks
I was just wondering what you all thought about the Boker Air Force Survival knife.
It's apparently SK-5 steel which is a good carbon steel, not as much carbon as 1095 generally but it should be tougher.
I like the leather handle and the brass/aluminum fittings.
I wonder how it stacks up to the Ontario Air Force survival knife.
I wound imagine that the Boker has a better factory edge since you can't do much worse than the Ontario's edge.

Pictures (shamelessly stolen from the internet)

BO155.jpg


knife.jpg



Thanks
-Chris
 
I may be wrong, but I heard somewhere that SK-5 is roughly the Japanese equivalent of 1084. If its properly hardened and tempered, I would think it would have all the toughness of 1095 and then some. Personally never handled one, the blade looks off too me. Like its too narrow or something.
 
Just looking at the 2 knives, you can see they were designed for different purposes. The Ontario can take a good edge but it was made for heavier work than the Boker. The Boker was expected to serve as a woodsman's knife, so the pilot could make his way through wild country. The Ontario came from a combat background. The sawback was for egress from a damaged aircraft. Different survival scenarios.
 
Yep, 1084/sk5 should be tougher than 1095 when properly heat treated. Anybody have experience with Boker's sk5?
Yeah the blade is pretty narrow, but that's okay if it's also thin. My biggest complaint with my Ontario AFS is that it's too thick.
 
That's a good point Esav. I should be more clear, I'm more concerned about the quality of the knife. The Boker sure doesn't look like it would saw through a plexiglass window or an aluminum fuselage.
 
The Ontario was my first fixed blade for a walk through the woods. Good for digging. :)
The Boker should be a decent quality for real bushcraft, skinning & fileting, whittling.
 
The Ontario was my first fixed blade for a walk through the woods. Good for digging. :)
The Boker should be a decent quality for real bushcraft, skinning & fileting, whittling.
 
I've got one of the Boker plus SAC knives somewhere and to be honest I carried it on one occasion hunting and never used it again, I just plain forgot about it. It's a nice knife by all means and the SK-5 had already started to discolor. I have a feeling that this particular carbon steel would take a nice dark patina. All in all it's a fascinating take on a "Survival Knife". Definitely a far cry from knives bearing this moniker in this day and age.
 
Yeah exactly. When I think survival knife I think KNIFE. A knife that is a knife. Not a knife that's a hatchet and a saw and a prybar. But to each their own. I think if I was going to pick one of these up I might but a nice dark vinegar patina on it since I've never done one on a mirror polished blade.

Chris, good question. I didn't even notice that that sheath pictured is left handed.
 
Well its a combat pilot's knife, it was made to be on your lefthand side out of the way so you could keep a pistol on your dominate right side.
 
Chris Pierce said:
Yep, 1084/sk5 should be tougher than 1095 when properly heat treated. Anybody have experience with Boker's sk5?
Yeah the blade is pretty narrow, but that's okay if it's also thin. My biggest complaint with my Ontario AFS is that it's too thick.
Click to expand...

Chris,

The Ontario is definitely not too thick for it's intended purpose. In addition to being a combat knife, it has to be able to chop branches, pry rocks, dig holes, etc. Actually; the Boker is way too thin.

As for the finish; no military organization in the world would issue a "survival knife" with a bright shiny blade and handle. Evasion is the primary goal at hand, a shiny knife will advertise your presence.

I was issued an Ontario like the picture, only all black, many years ago. The only survival knife I have seen that's better is the Ka-Bar marine knife, again in all black.

The Boker looks like a nice camping knife, but is not at all suited for military survival use.
 
Well I'm not in the military :)
And knives are for cutting. If I want a pry bar I'll buy a pry bar. Etc Etc Etc. I think your idea of a knife and mine are different. And that's okay. I'm not looking for a "survival" knife, I'm not really even looking for a knife at all since I have more than I'll ever need. I was just wondering about the build quality on the Boker knife.


Good point 23698012.
 
jnichols2 said:
As for the finish; no military organization in the world would issue a "survival knife" with a bright shiny blade and handle. Evasion is the primary goal at hand, a shiny knife will advertise your presence.
Click to expand...

Ahemmm..............No the scales aren't shiny....but the blade is. Well used to be its all scratched up, I actually use it.:o


Fallkniven F1 (Swedish pilots survival knife)

100_1756.jpg
 
I haven't handled this particular Boker Plus knife, but have a couple of others, one of which is SK-5 and have had no issues with it, I like SK5 for toughness. My older SOG Bowie was made of SK5 and I put it through hell in survival studies and it never failed me...but it was pretty thick with a hollow grind.
 
Keep in mind that a knife made for mass issue to Air Force pilots is meant to be an effective survival tool, made to be as tough as possible for the lowest unit price possible in as short a time as possible. I took the Ontario knife to Bosnia on my first deployment in '96 (not a pilot, I was a cop) and carried it until I got a Becker Campanion (now BK-2). I figured it was good enough for what I might run into and cheap enough that I wouldn't cry long if I lost or broke it.
 
Boker also has a reproduction Mark I Navy knife in SK5. Remember it was released around same time as Kabar's Mark I. They were about same price if i recall... i went with the USA made kabar with kraton and kydex but a black coated blade leather handled sheathed model became widely available soon after.
 
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