The Knife Edge: One Man, So Many Knives©: Christmas Knife Connections

 Is it too late
to brag about Christmas presents?

My wife got me a Microtech Zombietech 85 OTF
for Christmas and backed it up with a vintage Zombietech tee-shirt.  It is way too cool and I’ve wanted one for
years!

I’ve always liked Microtech.  They make a high-end knife with tight precision.  That drives the price up, but makes for an
amazing knife.  Knife designer Greg
Lightfoot has remarked that these tolerances are what makes Microtech factory
knives so close to custom-designed knives: “It has the same quality as a
handmade custom.”

You might not be familiar with Microtech
Knives.  You should be ashamed of yourself.

Beginning in 1994, Susan and Anthony
Marfione created Microtech with a simple idea: Create the best knives possible.  Like many entrepreneurs they started in their
apartment and later moved to a storage bay in Vero Beach, Florida.

Now headquartered in Western North
Carolina Microtech Knives operates with the same mission statement:  Make the best knives possible.  This concept has grown the company to over
150 employees.

Quality stands out and there is a market
for it.  Microtech along with Benchmade
is credited with the responsibility for the resurgence in the popularity of
tactical automatic knives in the 1990s.  These
knives are seen as precision-made tools utilizing powerful springs and high-grade
components.  They aren’t toys, as many auto
knives are perceived.  

I have a few other Microtech knives from the
Blade Shows, but nothing this fancy.  I’m
really happy to have it.

On Christmas Eve Karen and I cooked pheasant
paprikas so I had to dissemble the pheasant. 
I used my CRKT Taco Viper and it worked great.

Pheasant and CRKT’s Taco Viper

Since it was a new knife, I pulled out the poultry
shears, just in case.  My wife got the
shears from her mother, so they have to be at least 60 years old.  I know my mom had one, but I believe it is
with one of my sisters.  At least I hope
so.  It’s been a while since I needed poultry
shears so I took a few moments to check them out.

Guess what?  They are made by Boker in the USA.  Boker is an underappreciated knife line. 

Boker and Chromium

Böker traces its origin to the 17th
century as a tool maker in Germany.  By
the 1860s the company had fractured with a branch of the family emigrating to
North America and setting up plants in Canada, New York, and Mexico. The German
and North American factories produced similar knives and used the “Tree
Brand” trademark. 

Boker Poultry Shears

WWII rolls up and we can’t have a German
company operating in America.  The
outcome, Boker America, no umlaut, is established.  During the war the Solingen factory was
destroyed and “Boker USA” took control of the trademark until the
German factory was rebuilt in the 1950s.  It’s difficult for me to understand, but even
during war, business law rules.

In the 1960s and 1970s, the company changed
hands several times, with the New York facility (Hermann Boker & Co)
shutting down in 1983.  In 1986, Boker
reacquired the rights to the American brand and Boker USA was started in
Denver, Colorado for US production.  They
also make knives in Germany, China and Argentina.

 

All three companies, Microtech, CRKT, and
Boker make nice knives.  You owe it to
yourself to check them out.