Finally got my Colubris!

DerekH

DerekH

Handsome According to my Mother
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Thanks to the fine people at New Graham Knives I was able to finally get my hands on a Boker Colubris yesterday afternoon!

First off, this thing is completely different from any other knife I have ever handled. It looks so delightfully wicked (something I have always LOVED about DJ's designs) but at the same time is very comfortable. Every grip works, even ones I wouldn't normally consider for this knife based off looks alone. One of the first things I noticed was this knife is THICK! I was surprised at how much thicker this thing was than I thought. Not a bad thing, not too thick, but very nicely thick. The entire tang is solid with no skeletonization, and it has a definite heft to it without being "heavy". The handles were a bit thin for my tastes (surprising since I have rather smallish hands) but no worries there, I am a Beckerhead and I've yet to meet a knife I couldn't mod somehow. Liners on got me right where I wanted to be, so grip is not an issue.

I fold my own kydex, so it will definitely be getting a sheath of it's own out of thicker kydex, but the stock sheath will definitely be in the rotation. Following the suggestions from DJ's video on how to carry one of these IWB at 12 o'clock allowed me to wear this knife comfortably all day, both in the car, sitting in a camp chair, and at a high top at the local Buffalo Wild Wings with nary an issue. (I will say that adjustment of the length of your paracord tether is paramount however in determining the level of comfort you will experience.)

During the recent Becker Gathering we had in our midst AverageIowaGuy, whom some may be familiar with. What some may not know is that he is a surgeon, both general and plastic, and as such knows quite alot about the structure of the human hand and how the different muscles interact when grasping an object, and after some lengthy discussion of that process it makes me appreciate the handle design on this that much more. The spine of the handle is PERFECTLY shaped to meet the contours of my palm without any diffficult areas. The other side of the handle is, well, to be blunt, odd. There is a weird hump that for all appearances should catch me right in the middle of a finger, but during use just doesn't seem to. In fact it seems to force my fingers into an almost firmer grip, which I'm still trying to wrap my head around.

I was able to take it out and do a little bit of beating on it (which is why it is less than pristine in the pic) and I was pleased with how it performed. Since this knife is more of a jack of all trades type of device, I didn't have really high expectations of it, but despite this it performed fairly well with some basic batoning and making shavings. Not as great as some of my more dedicated "bushcraft" knives, but definitely would do the job. (This may be due to my newness to a blade of this style, so time will tell there. I may just need to adjust some of my technique, which is certainly not a bad thing.) However, in it's definite favor, whereas I would be hesitant to shank someone with a BK16 for instance, I most definitely would not have that same quandary with this blade. Words like "stabby" and "pointy" and "downright viciously capable of a proper evisceration" come to mind when it gets in your hand. I really wish I had a knife like this to send along with both of my brothers during any of their three deployments. This knife is that perfect size for day to day uses in the field while still being more than capable as a self defense weapon.

All in all, very pleased with this knife. I plan on getting some comparisons between it and a few other similarly sized knives, but I plan on comparing more than just "bushcraft" uses. Thankfully the recipe for ballistic gel isn't too complicated. Now to find a pig skull...

To anyone on the fence, get one. Even if you just spring for the Boker version I don't think you will be disappointed. 440c is definitely a good blade steel in the hands of Germans, and this one lived up to that nicely. After batoning through some still green pine and maple, and some seasoned oak, this thing was still shaving sharp (although technique has a lot to do with that too so not all the credit goes to Boker on their fantastic heat treat on this one).

:thumbup:

Expect tons more pics once I get out when it isn't raining.
 
Great write up, I ordered one of Mercop's tactical tethers just for this particular knife.
 
I went over to NGK to get one, just based on what DerekH says here....and damn if they aren't already out of stock!! Grrrrrr
 
Thanks man, that is sweet!

Love that its NOT chisel ground! Ill be looking into it more now, thanks bud.
 
Awesome ! Congrats on the score ! Can't wait to get one to compare it to DJs awesome original. Good review, too. Thanks for the post. ;)
 
How is the quality of the sheath? I've seen some of boker's kydex and it was pretty rough.
And how about the grind lines and edge?
 
245Trioxin said:
How is the quality of the sheath? I've seen some of boker's kydex and it was pretty rough.
And how about the grind lines and edge?
Click to expand...

The sheath is thin kydex, not sure which because I've never messed with the thin stuff. It had a bump on the edge side exterior where either something got caught while it was being pressed or it was bumped while still hot. Not a big issue. The grinds are off. There are a lot of funky lines to this thing, but looking at it you can see the grinds are off by about 1/16" or so in some places. Again, not a huge deal. Edge needed work, but I've yet to meet a knife that was sharp to my standards when it arrived.

All in all, it's a production knife, one with a lot of very unusual grind lines and shapes, and as such I ain't gonna complain about the things that were off. It performs as well as it would if everything were perfect. The handles though, those are perfectly machined. Maybe too much so! If you try to reattach the handle scales with the "bolts" inserted and come at it at anything other than exactly 90° it won't work. They are PRECISE. But I like that, means no chance of the handles slipping anywhere. Anyways, hope that helps. I am very excited, this knife has been on my list for quite some time now, and finally getting it in hand has made me one happy boy. I am hoping this weekend to get out and give it some use and hopefully get some more pics. Will post any up that I do manage to get.
 
Wow, that doesn't sound good. I'm glad I asked about details, I was a little worried when I saw Boker was involved
but I thought this could be a good production run.
 
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For the price, and considering none of it impacts use, I say get one, but if you are just collecting for the sake of having it, yeah, I would try to get where you can look at a few of them together. I guess where I come from Beckerland we don't put as much attention into even grind lines and whatnot since nothing out of a production line is ever perfect.
 
Thanks for the excellent review, Derek! Glad you're enjoying the knife.

How do you build the knife that's best for everything? You can't do it. Not possible. If you push the design in one direction, you're moving it away from something else. What I tried to do with this knife was design the best all around piece to work in the broadest cross section of applications while appealing to as many people as possible. With a focus on optimization for FMA grip and everyday IWB appendix carry. But it really did need to be able to do everything - it is a "If you could only carry one knife, this is it" kind of thing.

There are a great many considerations that go into designing a knife. Task orientation. Ergonomics. Size. Carry options. Materials. Divergent hand sizes. Divergent grips. It goes on and on. I like to say that it took me seven years to design this knife, because at the time, it really was the culmination of all of my experiences as a knife maker. And more importantly, a lifetime as a knife fiend/user.

I'm really quite pleased with how the Bokers have been turning out. Are they cosmetically perfect? Nope. Trust me, nobody is more aware of that than I am. But what do you expect for a machine made, overseas production knife? And with a retail of around $60!? That's CRAZY! Honestly, that is a tremendous amount of knife for the money, and I think they're fantastic.

Oh, and these do indeed work great with one of George's Merc-Harnesses. :D
 
manghu67 said:
Thanks for the excellent review, Derek! Glad you're enjoying the knife.

How do you build the knife that's best for everything? You can't do it. Not possible. If you push the design in one direction, you're moving it away from something else. What I tried to do with this knife was design the best all around piece to work in the broadest cross section of applications while appealing to as many people as possible. With a focus on optimization for FMA grip and everyday IWB appendix carry. But it really did need to be able to do everything - it is a "If you could only carry one knife, this is it" kind of thing.

There are a great many considerations that go into designing a knife. Task orientation. Ergonomics. Size. Carry options. Materials. Divergent hand sizes. Divergent grips. It goes on and on. I like to say that it took me seven years to design this knife, because at the time, it really was the culmination of all of my experiences as a knife maker. And more importantly, a lifetime as a knife fiend/user.

I'm really quite pleased with how the Bokers have been turning out. Are they cosmetically perfect? Nope. Trust me, nobody is more aware of that than I am. But what do you expect for a machine made, overseas production knife? And with a retail of around $60!? That's CRAZY! Honestly, that is a tremendous amount of knife for the money, and I think they're fantastic.

Oh, and these do indeed work great with one of George's Merc-Harnesses. :D
Click to expand...

I very much agree in that there is no one knife to do it all and do it fantastically. They are always going to have areas in which they excel over different designs, and vice versa. Holding this makes it clear that the orientation at the very least was considered for self defense if in fact that wasn't the point where it started at. Not a bad thing by any means. It stands out because of it. I removed the handle scale liners and decided to try it for awhile without, just to see if they are going to make that much of a difference in it's use. That inside the waistband carry you showed on your video, I am surprised to say it works INCREDIBLY well. I never though I could carry a knife of this size comfortably. In any event, you done good on this one sir, very good indeed. :thumbup:
 
Thanks man!

I'd be lying if I said that the design wasn't rooted in the combative applications side of things. Ultimately, that was the starting point. Reason being the whole "one knife" thing. My thoughts were that with the absolute worst case being your having to defend yourself with the knife, the design better be weighted at in that direction as much as possible without compromising its multi-task general utility capability, which is what users will mostly be using the knife for. You open boxes and packages. You open mail. You cut food. You make fires. You train your various cuts. Highly unlikely that you'll have to use that blade to defend your life, but if your day has gotten that bad, like I said, the design will also handle that problem with aplomb. Because at that point, every other task becomes secondary to ending the threat. So the knife had damn well better perform.

Yep, you're not to the first guy to remark about how well this knife carries IWB appendix with my lanyard setup. Once you get the lanyard length set appropriately, the knife just kind of disappears on you, yet it can still be deployed with extreme speed. Again, back to the "seven year design phase..." My ideas about what kind of knife one should carry, where, and how, have evolved a lot over that time (and long before it, even). At one point it was "What's the largest knife I can comfortably conceal in my pants," and things got pretty crazy there for a while. Turns out for me, an average sized guy, eight inches of blade is right at the bleeding edge of comfort. Three to five inches is about ideal.






DerekH said:
I very much agree in that there is no one knife to do it all and do it fantastically. They are always going to have areas in which they excel over different designs, and vice versa. Holding this makes it clear that the orientation at the very least was considered for self defense if in fact that wasn't the point where it started at. Not a bad thing by any means. It stands out because of it. I removed the handle scale liners and decided to try it for awhile without, just to see if they are going to make that much of a difference in it's use. That inside the waistband carry you showed on your video, I am surprised to say it works INCREDIBLY well. I never though I could carry a knife of this size comfortably. In any event, you done good on this one sir, very good indeed. :thumbup:
Click to expand...
 
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