Legendary Boker Quality, what a joke

Yo Mama

Yo Mama

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Sep 25, 2011
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Tried the Boker Stout Commander out, mainly the glow carbon fiber caught my eye, looked interesting.

Well, I should have know better!

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Yep, that's rust on a brand new knife. Boker, do you even know what you are doing with D2? I have many blades in d2, never seen like this. Nice fuller for making a rust bucket.

But wait, there's more!

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Great tear outs on the cf scale. Wow Boker, you sure read legendary quality, let me tell ya.

The vendor is not a member here I believe, but note to self only order from a place that has one of these new fangled devices called a......phone! Took me 3 days just to hear back and I couldn't send this back quick enough.

Boker get real, for the price you are asking I see no value with this level of fit and finish. My 6 year old could do a better job. Legendary Boker quality = a bad joke.
 
Böker manufactures in seven countries:

China
Taiwan
Argentina
USA
Spain
Portugal
Germany

I could envision slight differences between each, but yours is totally unacceptable IMO.

My Böker Tree Brand made in Solingen, Germany is absolute perfection.

There is NO reason that Böker can’t approximate that in the other six countries. I hope it all gets sorted out for you.
 
link to non-supporting commercial site removed per terms of service.

a link to the Boker manufacturer's site is acceptable if you should choose to edit.
 
Not saying it is acceptable but I could get over the corrosion as this is non stainless, could have been due to storage or shipping conditions somewhere in transit and will probably wipe off. However, the voids in the handle would bother me.
 
K.O.D. said:
It must be a German to English translation issue. Maybe mythical quality?
Click to expand...

Nice shot. Well deserved, though.

I remember back in the 60s, to late 70s or so that Boker was the only competitor for affordable folding knives of quality around here (sorry Imperial, Colonial, Sabre, etc. from the 5 &10) to CASE. I had both and loved both. Following a similar path as CASE, it is now buyer beware.

I wouldn't buy either brand without being able to personally inspect them. I bought two Boker large folding hunter patterned knives about 5 years ago, one for me and one for a buddy. On was so full of grit that one of the blades refused to open. The other knife had a cracked horn scale that was broken due to the fact that the pin holding the scale was peened off center and one side dug into the scale, cracking it. Neither of them were ground close to correct. I didn't want to spend a day flushing the crap out of them to get them to open with some kind of ease and another few hours rebeveling the blades before I could sharpen them. Thankfully, I bought from a BF vendor so back they went. A quick call to the vendor, and he wasn't surprised at my experience.

Still liking the pattern, I kept an eye out for the Boker I wanted at the gun/sporting shows. The dealers there encouraged me to look hard at the Boker knives before I purchased as they didn't want any static from me later.

No problem. Bought what I wanted in Rough Rider brand and all is good. I don't have the time to (and won't) do a company's quality control for them, even if they are "legendary".

Robert
 
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As I've said before, anything made by man is bound to get fouled up at some point!!! I've had, and have a bunch of Boker & Boker plus knives that were perfect.

Send it back! Shouldn't be an issue!! If it is, then your dealing with the wrong company.

I hope you get a perfect specimen on the rebound.
 
I've had hit and miss experience with Boker. I've got several on the kwaikens, and those are fantastic. Had a Boker Haddock that was awful though.
 
Boker has significantly gone own hill over te last 10 or so years, based on my experience with them.
Good luck on getting their Customer "Service"/"Support" to respond to your issues.

Three years ago, I wanted a 440C knife. Boker's 4 blade Scout/Camp knife was advertized as having 440C blades, so I bought one. (it is one of their "Magnum" line)
The tin box it came in said "440C". Boker's website said "440C". The blade says "440A".

After over 3 years, five mails, and a couple posts in ther manufacturer's forum here, I'm still waiting for verification of which steel it is.
Also, three of the blades have a nice 5 to 5.5 pull. The 4th is in the vicinity of a 14 (fourteen). Pliers are needed to open it, even after I rounded/eased a 90 degree edge on that corner of the tang, and the blade next to it (on a different back spring) is open. The 14 pull on a blade I use quite often, (the screwdriver-cap lifter) makes the knife unuseable. They never responded on this issue, either. Based on my experience with their Customer "Service"/"Support (note quotes), and the issues with the knife, I'll never buy another Boker or reccommend them.
the cost to return it to the seller is more than I have, so I have to eat it. The thing stays in my cigar box.

The Tree Brand may be O.K., I never have and never own, one as they are way outside my price range. Even if they weren't, the lack of customer support is a deal murderer for me.

A lot of people bad mouth the BTI offshore made Schrade knives. At least BTI responds to issues and stands behind their warranty. The bail pin on the mark side of my 25OT Scout knife went AWOl. BTI sent me areplacement knife, no problems, no potage due on my end. They didn't even want the defective 25OT sent to them.

Good luck with Boker's Customer "Service"/"Support". I hope you have better luck with them than I did. :)
 
The two bokers I got were both fun knives: dessert warrior and mermaid. I wouldn't buy a boker knife to rely on (watch some of Pete's videos).

Their solingen knives are kind of expensive and if I judge them based on what I've seen boker do, I wouldn't risk that kind of money. I did pickup a rangebuster used off of a BF friend here and it's quite nice, but I'd hesitate to pay full for it.

It's what boker will be for me, fun cheap knives.

Even then, the mermaid came duller than my pizza cutter and the dessert warrior came with one side at like 20 and one side at 13 or something...that AUS8 also refuses to get sharp...

My experience
 
I think probably what a few here are lamenting is the fact that "the old gray mare ain't what she used to be". At least that's it for me. I am always sad to see a company or business damage or throw away a great reputation. A little sad, but at this point pretty used to it.

As a contractor, many of the tools I use are considered to be consumables. They may last a short while, may last a long while, but we do wear them out. They sure wear out a lot faster than they used to, and the vendors I buy from are so used to hit and miss quality that they don't even complain when I take them back.

For all manner of reasons, nothing is as it was, and knives are no different. You can still get the "perfect tool" made with scrupulous attention to detail in design and manufacture. It costs about 3X what I pay for the "pro" grade tools I buy. Likewise, although maybe not so big a difference, you can do the same with knives. Otherwise, I don't think the phrase "buyer beware" has ever been more applicable to just about all purchasing as it is now.

Robert
 
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Isn’t that a countycomm exclusive that has been out a year or 2 now? You’d think the vendor deserves to be named for sending it out like that. Why just call out Boker?
Edited for spelling
 
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I concur with the OP, at least regarding their Böker "Plus" line. My frustrations come from the Kwaiken when it was first released a few years ago. I tried four of them from different lots and time periods. Quality was all over the place. My experience coupled with reports of other negative experiences turned me off. Never looked at another Boker Plus since.

The premium Böker "Solingen" line is perhaps another story, but I have little experience with these as I find few models of interest.
 
Weird, I have almost that same knife, except the dimpled carbon fiber version, and my d2 blade is pristine even after sitting in the basement for months. Carbon fiber is nice on mine as well.
 
First of all, as some have mentioned, the rust on the blade has nothing to do with Boker. D2 will rust. It is not a stainless steel. I don't think anyone can say with the info in the OP that Boker would have sent it out like that. Probably it has been exposed to some adverse conditions since leaving the factory and the vendor has just sent it out without checking it. No problem, send it back to the vendor.

As to the tear out/pitting in the scales, that looks like a reasonably minor quality control failure, albeit one that should have been noticed before leaving the factory. You are already sending it back, so no problem. This is the only obvious issue that is Boker's responsibility IMO.
 
Well a couple points:
Boker will not pay to have quality made over seas. The only dependably high quality Bokers are the Tree Brand. I've had bad luck with the rest. It doesn't have to be that way, high quality knives are made everywhere. They just won't spend the money.
And as said, this is D2 - a semi-stainless steel. At most it buys you some time before it needs to be dried.
 
"Boker Plus" is the Boker line in which Boker designs the knife, but contracts its manufacture out to a subcontractor, typically one in the Far East. I would guess the rust occurred during the transpacific voyage from the manufacturing site to the wherever Boker warehouses their stock. D2 is prone to rust spots if you give it much chance. And bad things happen on container ships. (My company can tell you horror stories about transoceanic shipment of aircraft parts.)

The rust spots will clean up if you want a user. If not, by all means return it to the vendor. Poop happens when you ship pieces of high carbon non-stainless steel across the ocean.
 
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