I received my knife today and after playing with it for a few hours threw together a written review and a few pictures. I'll post the video sometime later tonight.
Specs, courtesy of BladeHQ
• Overall Length: 8.00"
• Blade Length: 3.25"
• Blade Thickness: 0.19"
• Blade Material: S30V
• Blade Style: Clip Point
• Blade Finish: Satin
• Edge Type: Plain
• Handle Length: 4.75"
• Handle Thickness: 0.56"
• Handle Material: Titanium
• Weight: 6.55 oz.
• Pocket Clip: Right Hand, Tip-Up
• Knife Type: Manual
• Opener: Thumb Hole
• Lock Type: Frame Lock
• Brand: Boker
• Model: 01BO333
• Designer: Jesper Voxnaes
• Country of Origin: China
Well my Boker F3 arrived today and my overall impression is that this is a very well made knife, especially for Boker. Quality is very good, approaching but not quite reaching excellent.
This is their first knife using S30V and I’m very glad that they are finally stepping into the realm of modern metals that most enthusiasts expect from collaboration with makers of this caliber. The satin finish on the S30V is quite attractive and uniform over the entire blade. The edge is scary sharp with a nice deep profile that absolutely glides through paper; very impressive. The attractive swedge on top is a nice aesthetic feature, unfortunately it’s asymmetrical. A little disappointing but honestly I wasn’t expecting perfection from Boker.
Opening the knife is accomplished using an oval shape cutout in the blade. It’s not quite as versatile as the Spyder-Hole, but better than the more rectangular shapes out there. The edge is the tiniest bit sharp on the opening oval, but I’ve had some Spyerco models that were worse. There is also a nice cutout in the frame to access the entire oval, which also functions as a lock-bar relief cutout; making opening and closing a simple task with this knife.
The knife runs on Teflon washers, and is relatively smooth. Not quite as smooth as a Chris Reeve or Spyderco Gayle Bradley, but with time to smooth out and the right lubricant, I’ll be interested to see how smooth it becomes.
Lockup is nice and solid with no play in any direction, and thankfully they went with a stainless steel lock insert to ensure reliable, solid, stick free lockup. There is however, no over-travel stop to prevent hyperextending the lockbar.
The hardware includes a nicely anodized blue back-spacer and pocket clip, along with stainless steel torx screws and pivot. The knife did come tip town, but it was easy enough to switch to my preferred tip up carry, they even provide a tool just for that purpose. It’s worth noting that you get a deeper carry with the knife in the tip down position, the lanyard hole on the butt of the knife make it sit higher in your pocket when orientated tip up position. I generally prefer to have more purchase on the knife when extracting it from my pocket, so the tip up configuration benefits are twofold for me.
Although it’s not a problem for me, I know that people are going to complain about the backspacer having sharp edges. In my XL hands the backspacer provides a little more traction without being uncomfortable. Perhaps smaller hands will get the full brunt of the sharp back-spacer?
My only worry with the knife is the thin titanium pocket clip. While it’s nice that they took the time to make a blue anodized titanium pocket clip, the thickness of the clip leaves something to be desired. The knife is heavy enough that you don’t really need to worry about it slipping out of your pocket, but I would guess that a lot of these clips are going to get bent and need replacing.
Ergos are actually pretty good as well, despite the fact that the knife is relatively flat and fairly wide, it’s quite comfortable in the hand and give a confidence inspiring grip. All of the edges have been nicely chamfered to prevent any hot spots while you use it for basic cutting, or even white knuckle it.
As an interesting note, the blade has a huge stop pin. But what’s odd about it is that the curved cut out in the blade is a smaller size than the stop pin, which results in the blade seating on top of the stop pin rather than wrapping around it. It’s like a combination of a flat contact point and a curved contact point. Most manufacturers stopped using the flat contacts due to warping of the stop pin over time and the curved ones are supposed to dissipate the force more evening preventing this. Since I’m not an engineer I can’t tell you if this was intentional, has some added benefit or potential to flatten over time. Just an interesting note.
Overall, I think this is a great effort from Boker and Jesper Voxnaes. I read that the process entailed several prototypes because kept pushing them to improve on certain aspects of the knife, and I’m glad he did so until they got it right. For around $160 street you are getting an awesome Vox design that has been executed with great materials, nice details, fit and finishing while remaining relatively well priced as compared to the competition.
