My first whittler

Doug Add

Doug Add

Joined
Jan 9, 2012
Messages
3,331
Earlier this month I picked up a Remington R1178 trapper. FES expressed interest in it, so we worked out a trade. The Böker USA 8313 Tree Brand whittler he sent to me arrived in today's mail (I'm hoping the trapper has arrived, or will soon arrive, in NZ). I like the blade and spring setup, as I said, my first experience with this pattern.
 
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That´s a great looking knife. I´m looking foward seeing the Remington Trapper in NZ :)

What on this Böker is new to me, are the two separated backsprings with a spacer between that gets narrow til the mainblade. Interessting!

Thanks for sharing
 
Congratulations, nice acquisition. It looks sharp :)
This is the first time I've seen a knife with this unusual grind, sabre on one side and full flat on the other. Is there a particular reason for it?
 
I already showed the blade arrangement with them all closed, and the back springs. I have added a sixth photo, showing the springs from the inside, with the blades opened.

I should have showed this when I first posted, but did not think of it at the time.
 
sturzi said:
This is the first time I've seen a knife with this unusual grind, sabre on one side and full flat on the other. Is there a particular reason for it?
Click to expand...

I haven't a clue. Hopefully someone who knows something about this will chime in.
 
sturzi said:
Congratulations, nice acquisition. It looks sharp :)
This is the first time I've seen a knife with this unusual grind, sabre on one side and full flat on the other. Is there a particular reason for it?
Click to expand...

Doug Add said:
I haven't a clue. Hopefully someone who knows something about this will chime in.
Click to expand...

Schrade Walden did this in the 40's and 50's (Schrade Cut Co and Schrade Walden) with a serpentine jack pattern. They called it a half-sabre clip blade. I think it was ground flat on the back for two purposes; to give the blade a thinner slicing profile, and made it easier to fit both blades in the frame.

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Walden_NY_294_f.jpg
Walden_NY_294_b.jpg
 
Nice serpentine whittler, Doug. That half-sabre blade is neat. Another thing I find interesting about it is that the back corner on the coping blade is rounded rather than left sharp. I think it's also rounded on the German Bokers... and the swell center whittler from Canal Street Cutlery. In my opinion, the rounded back corner makes the knife more comfortable to hold when using the other blades.
 
thawk said:
I think it was ground flat on the back for two purposes; to give the blade a thinner slicing profile, and made it easier to fit both blades in the frame.
Click to expand...
I would bet it's the latter reason. If they wanted a thinner slicing profile, they probably wouldn't have sabre-ground either side, since they have transformed it into a wedge even doing one side. They may have wanted the look of a sabre blade, but without the aggravation of having to make it fit well inside adjacent the other blades.
 
Thanks Hal. Great information, and lovely pictures!

supratentorial said:
Another thing I find interesting about it is that the back corner on the coping blade is rounded rather than left sharp. ... In my opinion, the rounded back corner makes the knife more comfortable to hold when using the other blades.
Click to expand...

Jake I wholeheartedly agree. I like it also for aesthetic reasons. The sharp corner of the typical coping blade just does not appeal to me.
 
Congrats Doug! I really like that knife.

Great info Hal....Just a note: I have a Camillus whittler that has a main blade with a Saber grind on front and flat grind on back.
 
sturzi said:
Congratulations, nice acquisition. It looks sharp :)
This is the first time I've seen a knife with this unusual grind, sabre on one side and full flat on the other. Is there a particular reason for it?
Click to expand...

This grind not so rare, here is similar pattern by Schrade ca 1953-4.

IMG_3914.JPG


Mike
 
I don't know much about Boker, USA and have never read a detailed history. There seems to be less collector interest than for other vintage USA manufacturers. In 1921 they had 2 manufacturing plants in USA so they must have made a lot of knives.
Anybody know when they stopped making knives ? Maybe 1986 ?
And, did they ever contract out ? Camillus made more knives for other companies than knives made with their own markings.
I have a few Boker USA knives, all quite used. The 2 blade jigged bone Jacks are good knives.
Doug, you could become a Boker USA collector. They show up on ebay regularly and don't get a lot of bidding, so prices are quite moderate.
roland
 
That de-Luxe Congress (Half?) looks a very tidy knife too.

Always interesting to see old catalogues or adverts, thanks for letting us see Jake.

The modern Böker (Germany) carbon Whittlers are also well worth getting. No split spring construction (you get that oddly enough on the RR version) but tapered spring, very good finish too.

Regards, Will
 
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