Does a red shield mean anything ( United Boker )

[sceva]

I have a half congress on the way. It's a United Boker so made between 1984 - 1994? UC126G, green jigged bone. I am hoping it has carbon steel blades as I prefer them but will be ok with stainless. The shield on this one is read instead of silver, does that mean anything? I believe these were German made. Tried to find out on line bot nothing mentioned steel type. I did see that red bone ones I saw had the silver shield while all the green bone ones seemed to have the red shield. ????

 

[sceva]

Never Mind; This forum is only for the Boker USA knives. I thought that this was the forum for all things Boker but found I was mistaken; from what I found in a search is that questions about the United Boker knives are referred to United Cutlery.

I am confused about some of the comments I saw about United Boker's not being "real Bokers". Please correct me if I am wrong but I thought that after Boker USA closed in the early 1980's that United entered into an agreement with Boker to be the US source for Boker under the United Boker banner. Knives were made by Boker and were for the most part existing Boker models with awful blade etches and nice handle scales ( except for the Celluloid ones which can outgas) So. are they Boker knives? or are they as I saw hinted at, lesser knives that United had made "somewhere" and used the Boker name and tree under license?

 

[SilverAlert]

No idea @scevbut you got me interested enough to follow.

 

[sceva]

I did reach out to United Cutlery but they are not the same company either.

 

[fishface5]

Boker website timeline says "1984: United BOKER formed with Smoky Mountain Knife and Blue Ridge Knife to create a financial sales partnership ."

All About Pocket Knives has a post:
"They are different companies, but the United Boker knives are made by Boker in Solingen Germany.
Kevin Pipes, of SMKW, and a few other guys formed United Cutlery to strengthen their knife-buying power. They partnered with Boker Solingen around 1984 when BOKER USA ceased knife production in the United States. The partnership between United Cutlery and Boker lasted until around 1994."

 

[sceva]

I asked SMKW about it



So; it appears that the United Bokers are "real" Solingen, Germany made Bokers. Probably are standard Boker patterns with different scales, shield and blade etches.

 

[sceva]

Thank all of you for the info. I have the knife in hand and it is a nicely made knife. The bolsters were a little square cornered for my use ( I carry and use my knives )so I did my usual rounding the corners a little. I also note that when opened the blade back is not flush with the back spring with the sheep foot a little proud and the pen blade low and angled down some. I see this in Boker photos; is that how Boker normally fits them? No matter, a little judicious filing on the spring at the pen end made it better, not perfectly straight but decent now. The Green bone is a nice dark olive to almost black, The blades are carbon steel, YAY, as proved by touching an out of the was area with some gun blue. The spring is too.