Boker Plus Caracal

[JasonPaul]

I just wanted to share my experience with this knife for others who favor larger knives and may be on the fence with considering this one.

This knife remained off of my radar until I held one at a local sports store. After getting it in my hand, I immediately decided to purchase it.

Selling points were... no blade play in any direction and the knife deployed and closed smoothly. The ergonomics were great and the jimping was in all the right spots. It just worked in every way with my size hands and I have come to enjoy the wear resistance of D2 steel. The build is solid on this thing. Blade was centered and the deep carry clip was unique in a good way.

Another reason I wanted it was the only major gripe I had with it in its factory finished form. I could not get my chunky thumb to access the damn liner lock. A single instance of disengaging the lock resulted in my thick padded thumbs feeling less masculine in their swollen and liner lock patterned state. An opportunity to mod and make it better? Challenge accepted.

I penciled how much of the handle I wanted to cut off and wanted to focus on making the hole actually useful for deployment. The results were successful and I can now disengage the lock easily and it flicks open easily with the hole. The flipper is still preferred unless I want to open it slowly, then I opt for the hole. I followed the cutting session with a hot bath in black rit dye to bring the factory black back in the areas I dremeled and sanded. It's now one of my favorite knives in my EDC rotation.

Hope my brief review was helpful to someone. I couldn't find many reviews elsewhere so wanted to share. Thanks for humoring me and reading this far! Onto some pics....

 

[Torrin]

Nice post and pics! Im a big fan of Boker knives. I believe they are a great value!
I have the Caracal fixed blade. It became my EDC immediately upon purchase over some other quite nice production level knives, Benchmade etc. I also knew I had to have it as soon as I held it in store.
The D2 is done better in my opinion than any other I own, just slightly better than my BM Adamas. It was razor sharp out of the box with flawless fit and finish.
I am continually impressed with each Boker I purchase. They really seem to have a handle on executing the treatments of each steel they use for optimal performance.
The only downside I've found from Boker Plus knives is they are not made in my home country.
Some of the kydex sheaths that have come with Boker knives I've purchased are on the ecconmical side but always do their job well, and are definitely suited to the price point they are offered at.
My only real complaint might be with the plastic clips that come with some of their kydex sheaths, they don't seem strong enough for my taste. I take the hardware off the clips and away they go the circular file to be replaced with a DOT or leather straps. I make leather sheaths for most every knife I will carry anyway, so I don't care too much what sheath they come with (I've never bought a knife that came with a sheath better than one of my own . I do have to say the leather sheath that came with my Boker Arbolito El Gigante is really nicely done.

 

[Valor_53]

I just got this knife and I love it. I too had a problem disengaging the liner lock. I've sanded down the same side you did and its perfect now. I don't think I took it as far as you did but just enough to where the liner lock was easily felt. I still might sand it further to be able to access the thumb hole but we'll see. I was really surprised at how easily it was to shape the handle seamlessly. I don't think I would be able to tell it was any different than it was out of the box if I hadn't altered it myself.