You need a what?

Something from a co-worker who seems to know me pretty good!

Boker Mini Kalashnikov Auto

Boker knives are some of the hidden gems in the knife market.  Mostly because they don’t have the advertisement clout others do.  But smart thinkers and cagey knife users should be thinking about the Boker brand.

Boker traces its roots to tool manufacturing the 1800s in Germany.  Swords were the name of the game, but they diversified into other edged products.  The family owned company sent representatives to America and opened up manufacturing in America.  They both shared the “Tree Brand“ logo.

During the Second World War the Solingen plant was destroyed and Boker USA took control of the trademark.  In the 1950s the German factory was rebuilt.  Over the years the American company closed.  The German company changed hands but in 1986 Boker reacquired the rights to the American brand and established facilities in Denver, Colorado.

Boker has manufacturing  in Germany (of course!), Argentina, Taiwan and China and now in the USA.  They produce three basic levels depending on the price point: Boker, Magnum and Boker Plus.

I once did a special order of a special knife to commemorate the customer’s son-in-law’s military promotion.  It was a beautiful Damascus bladed folder.  The blade was carved from 300-fold forged Damascus steel from the barrel of a German Leopard 1 tank.

The knife came in a nice wood presentation box with the instruction and history in German.  The buyer was very happy, as his son-in-law spoke German for the Army.  I have a friend who spoke German for the Army; he was a spy.  I didn’t ask any more questions.

So if your introduction and thoughts about Boker are from the Magnum $7 knife pile, think again.

Boker's switchblade

I just got my hands on the Boker Mini Kalashnikov auto.  I’m very impressed.  Here’s the stats:

Blade:       drop point

Steel:        AUS8

Blade Length:    2.5 inches

Handle length:  3.5 inches

Weight:    2.1 ounces

Handle:   reinforced nylon

Country of origin: Taiwan

The Boker website claims the handle is aluminum but they also claim the blade is wood.  Hummm, someone’s website has been hacked.

Clip side

The blade shows the same powerful spring action I’ve seen in Benchmade autos.  Block the blade from completely opening and when the obstacle is removed, the spring still has enough force to finish the opening and lock the blade in place.  The pocket clip is reversible and the handle sports a lanyard hole. 

The finger grooves really provide a grip so you can concentrate on using the knife and not holding the knife

The finger scallops fit my hand pretty good for a small knife.  And between the scallops and the jimping on the blades spine and handle you get a very good grip.  The blade release is a basic plunge lock system.  This system has been used for many years and is very dependable if you keep it clean.  But isn’t that true of all machinery?

The open back allows for easy cleanup and makes oiling the spring much simpler.

I suspect it uses a coil spring and the knife has Torx screws so you can replace the spring if necessary.

I have come to like auto more and more.  I don’t suspect they open any significantly faster than the assisted or many of the tactical knives.  But I do think pushing a button is a gross motor skill and doesn’t require the fine motor skills which are lost under the influence of fight/freeze/flee conditions.

I wish I could take it for a drive, but it isn’t mine.  I have no doubt it would serve me well.

It retails for about $55 but you can get it for less if you shop around.  I’ve got two for sale, but that’s another story. 

Ready…. Set… Count!

Guinness records just established a category for the world’s largest knife collection.  They decided it takes at least 2100 unique knives to define a large collection.  So now you know.  If someone asks you if you have a large collection the answer is mostly likely “no.”

The current record holder is Luis Bernardo Mercado (Fremont, CA.) who comes in at 2175.  Congratulations, Luis!

These knives represent 6 continents, 29 countries and 400 different brands and custom makers and 50 years of collecting.

The process of documenting the size of your collection isn’t trivial.  Perhaps that’s a new category for Guinness: most difficult documentation.  Of course as soon as you win this one, it’s likely the documentation of your documentation would cancel out your win.

Luis started collecting at five, so it may be too late for some of us to attempt to claim that title for ourself, but he’s confident the title is only transitory as he’s the first to claim it.

Spring Sharpening

With the arrival of warm weather my grass has redoubled its effort to make my yard an uneven carpet of green.  Before getting the lawn mower out I needed to resharpen the blade.

I’ve stopped taking it to a lawn or garden center and getting the blade resharpened.  I bought a little attachment for my Dremel tool.  The attachment screws on to the front of the tool and come with a special diameter grinding stone.  A guide helps me hold the blade angle and lets me grind out the really dull and damaged

areas. 

Start your sharpening!

 On my electric lawn mower the blade rotates at 3600 times a minute.  A rounded edge will cut the grass by tearing it, but cleanly cut blades make for a better lawn.  Better looking grass without significantly increasing my work load is my goal, so sharpening the blade makes sense.

I clamp the blade down on a sheet of plywood and run the Dremel grinding stone over the old edge several times until the old discoloration is gone and so are the majority of nicks and gouges in the edge.  I use the plastic guide to hold the angle, but perfection isn’t required.  A fine dry stone pulls the wire edge off the other side.  I should mention my mower blade is a classic chisel grind.  I test the sharpness by shaving the edge of the plywood board I use as a work station.

The last step before reinstalling the blade is to check the balance.   If one side of the blade was significantly heavier, the mower would vibrate and damage itself, perhaps even break a blade.  The heavy side just gets another pass and a second balance check.  Repeat as required.

Since I was in sharpening mode I got out my Ken Onion Work Sharp blade grinder and sharpened my hatchet. 

As you know I recently discovered my SOG camp hatchet was extremely dull but luckily my friend Derrick brought his Gerber hatchet.  Having a fire in the fireplace as part of the evening’s entertainment and as a back-up to winter storm power failures is a nice luxury.  The price you pay for this is splitting wood into suitable burning size.  A sharp hatchet is required and mine needed a good sharpening. 

Every fire deserves a sharp hatchet

 I selected the course belt and an angle of 25 degrees as a starting place and ran a black marker pen over the edge.  The marker helps me see what I’m doing and where I’m taking metal off.   A couple of passes and I had removed the entire marker pen.  I flipped it over and did that side. 

Before sharpening, note nicks in blade

The blade looked good so I changed to a medium grit.  That took a little more off and I was satisfied.  But how you really tell if your axe is sharp?

I decided performance was the only way.  I grabbed a section of a landscaping tie and a length of pine 2X4 and tried it out.  I was less than impressed.

The hatchet didn’t cut the wood fibers, but crushed them.  Definitely not sharp.  I changed the angle to 10 degrees and repeated the process.  This angle worked better. 

bye-bye nicks!

While I was touching up the edge I noticed the cutting edge wasn’t centered in the blade’s secondary bevel.  This typically happens when one side of a blade is sharpened more than the other.  I played with it for a while and discovered one side the bevel is flat ground while the other is slightly convex.  This bevel asymmetry is the cause for the non-centered edge.

I worked on the edge a bit more and called it finished.  It’s not perfect, but it’s sharper than it was.  Chopping pine boards may not be the best material to judge hatchet performance.  I’ll look around for actual logs to try it out.