Boker G4 production history question......?

[sambo.]

heys all;

i recently won a Chad Los Banos designed Boker G4 wharncliffe tactical folder in a competition at another forum.

i've read up on the knife in question and it appears that it should have the word "China" stamped on the base of the blade near the pivot.

i cannot, for the life of me, find the word 'China' written/stamped anywhere on the knife or in the packaging. please believe me, i've looked.

i'm wondering if perhaps there was an early production run out of Germany and i've gotten lucky.

any ideas? any idea of who i can ask? i can't find the G4 listed under known Boker counterfeits and i'm pretty sure it's a genuine Boker knife.

(dang, i just noticed the Boker USA sub forum.
could a kindly mod please move this for me?)

 

[adnj]

I thought that all of these were out of China... prototypes too. "CHINA" should be stamped on the blade edge near the liner lock thumb ramp. I believe its a nice knife for the money.

 

[sambo.]

I thought that all of these were out of China... prototypes too.

me too.....

"CHINA" should be stamped on the blade edge near the liner lock thumb ramp.

i know where it should be, but it isn't there..... i have looked very carefully all over the knife and i can't find a 'China' stamp (or any other country of origin stamp) on it.

got me confused.

i've emailed Boker to ask.

I believe its a nice knife for the money.

once you look beyond the truly retarded mall-ninja styling, yeah, it aint all bad. but whichever way you look at it, it's a spectacularly vulgar piece of bladeware.

i'm planning a bit of a review on it once i've had a chance to test it a bit.

 

[cutter17]

I just received two of these knives. Bought one for a friend, and one for me because I love the wharncliffe designed blade. I had an early one, and gave it to another friend. The China stamp is where others have said it is located. Maybe use a magniflying glass? If I remember correctly, I was able to use cleaning compound on the China stamp and remove it. It lightened up that area of the tang in doing so.

 

[adnj]

I bought one to support Chad. The knife fills the hand well and the two slabs of G10 surrounding the steel frame are grippy and still give you a fairly thin and lightweight package with some great jimping on the G10. The high hollow grind and wharncliff blade make for a serviceable slicer. Boker does well with 440C so this is a good under $30 knife.

Aesthetics are subjective but you could have done a whole lot worse.

... but whichever way you look at it, it's a spectacularly vulgar piece of bladeware.

 

[sambo.]

I just received two of these knives. Bought one for a friend, and one for me because I love the wharncliffe designed blade. I had an early one, and gave it to another friend. The China stamp is where others have said it is located. Maybe use a magniflying glass? If I remember correctly, I was able to use cleaning compound on the China stamp and remove it. It lightened up that area of the tang in doing so.

i'll pull out a 2:1 macro lens and take a pic of where it's supposed to be.

trust me, it aint there......

Boker does well with 440C so this is a good under $30 knife.

that's the good bit about the knife. 440C is a decent steel and Boker (from what i've read) has a great heat treat process.

for $30 it's decent value, i'll grant you that.

Aesthetics are subjective but you could have done a whole lot worse.

true. i've had a look at some of the other Boker tacky-cool folders and the G4, while no Nicole Kidman, certainly aint the fugliest knife in there.

 

[robbobus]

Could be a European market knife, laws regarding country of origin markings are different over there I understand. I have a Boker plus Valkyrie with no country marking on it.

 

[jimnolimit]

this is my boker plus titan, very clever IMO:

 

[sambo.]

Could be a European market knife, laws regarding country of origin markings are different over there I understand. I have a Boker plus Valkyrie with no country marking on it.

this appears to be the story. my G4 looks like it was originally intended for the European market rather than the US.

i received the following reply from Boker:

Dear sambo.

Thank you for your mail.



The G4 was never made in Germany, same like any other Boker Plus model (coming mostly from Taiwan, some also from China).

But there are sure a lot of knives without the “China”-inscription.

Other than in the US, it´s not necessary in Germany to stamp the origin on the knife.

So this is done only for the US, and it might have happened that one of the knives for the German market however found its way to the US.

Additionally I can say that there are many counterfeits, but so far I never saw a copy of the G4.

I hope that information helps.

Mit freundlichen Grüßen - Best Regards
Marc Götzmann

Heinr. Böker Baumwerk GmbH
Produktmanagement