- Joined
- May 28, 2011
- Messages
- 1,428
I recently decided to buy some Anso designed Boker knives. I already have a collection of Boker Plus Burnley Kwaikens and I love them. The fit and finish is outstanding. I was really impressed with the quality of the Kwaikens, with them on par with Taichung Spydercos in my opinion (which I think are about as good as massed produced production knives get). But until now I have stayed away from the Solingen produced knives because I have heard varying accounts of their quality, most of them negative. Well, I finally decided to check things out for myself, as I just couldn't stay away from the fantastic Jens Anso designs any longer.
I dove right in and bought the 67, Haddock, and Cox, all from a reputable, authorized dealer. I have to say, right of the bat, these knives blew me away. The finishing is just fantastic. The stonewashing is amazing, the scalloping on the G10 is perfect. Everything is nicely beveled. The blade grinds are all very precise and even. All three are hair popping sharp. Little details that I wasn't expecting, like all of the hardware being bead blasted, including the thumbstud on the 67, which provides a great contrast against the stonewashed blade and Ti, and ceramic detent balls were nice surpises. The function of these knives is also flawless. All three of my examples are perfectly centered. The 67 and Haddock both have about 35%-45% lockup, which is perfect. The detent on both is right were it should be. There is absolutely no play either locked or closed. The locks came with a tiny bit of stick, but after only a couple days, both have smoothed out nicely. The Cox (being a slipjoint) has very nice firm pull but is very easy to open. Nice walk and talk and a nice snap. Another nice finishing surprise, the Cox Ti scale is stonewashed on the flats, satin on the spine to match the backspring, and stonewashed on the blade side to match the blade. The only thing I could possibly say as a negative for these knives is a ~1cm section of the G10 bevel near the choil on the Cox that is slightly imperfect, but I wouldn't even be able to capture it on camera.
These are some of the finest full production knives that I've handled. So where does that leave us? I've heard so many horror stories about these, particularly with the lockup. Those accounts were the only thing that kept me away. Now that I've purchased them, I'm so glad that I did. I don't know if I got lucky (3 out of 3? not likely), or if there was just a review bias towards the few bad apples, with all the happy owners just not posting many reviews, or maybe Boker Solingen has just stepped up their game. I don't know. Let me know what you think. For me, I have 6 Bokers now, 3 from Taiwan and 3 from Germany, and they are all fantastic. They all rival my customs and midtechs for pocket time.
Alright, enough blabbering. Here are some pics of these beauties along with my Kwaikens:
I dove right in and bought the 67, Haddock, and Cox, all from a reputable, authorized dealer. I have to say, right of the bat, these knives blew me away. The finishing is just fantastic. The stonewashing is amazing, the scalloping on the G10 is perfect. Everything is nicely beveled. The blade grinds are all very precise and even. All three are hair popping sharp. Little details that I wasn't expecting, like all of the hardware being bead blasted, including the thumbstud on the 67, which provides a great contrast against the stonewashed blade and Ti, and ceramic detent balls were nice surpises. The function of these knives is also flawless. All three of my examples are perfectly centered. The 67 and Haddock both have about 35%-45% lockup, which is perfect. The detent on both is right were it should be. There is absolutely no play either locked or closed. The locks came with a tiny bit of stick, but after only a couple days, both have smoothed out nicely. The Cox (being a slipjoint) has very nice firm pull but is very easy to open. Nice walk and talk and a nice snap. Another nice finishing surprise, the Cox Ti scale is stonewashed on the flats, satin on the spine to match the backspring, and stonewashed on the blade side to match the blade. The only thing I could possibly say as a negative for these knives is a ~1cm section of the G10 bevel near the choil on the Cox that is slightly imperfect, but I wouldn't even be able to capture it on camera.
These are some of the finest full production knives that I've handled. So where does that leave us? I've heard so many horror stories about these, particularly with the lockup. Those accounts were the only thing that kept me away. Now that I've purchased them, I'm so glad that I did. I don't know if I got lucky (3 out of 3? not likely), or if there was just a review bias towards the few bad apples, with all the happy owners just not posting many reviews, or maybe Boker Solingen has just stepped up their game. I don't know. Let me know what you think. For me, I have 6 Bokers now, 3 from Taiwan and 3 from Germany, and they are all fantastic. They all rival my customs and midtechs for pocket time.
Alright, enough blabbering. Here are some pics of these beauties along with my Kwaikens:
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