Song of the Humpback, Part 3: the New Traditional Series from Böker.

Welcome to the third article in my ongoing series on collecting the Böker 182 and its humpbacked 6-blade scout/camp knife ilk from numerous other makers. Today’s article will be a shorter one, since the only point of discussion is Böker’s new series of knives in this pattern. There are new materials, new lower prices, and a new mystery to discuss.

New scale materials on the Böker Traditional series humpbacks.

A Quick Review.

If you just arrived here, you might want to go back and read Part 1 of the series, Song of the Humpback, where I introduced the subject of these knives generally. Where Part 1 addresses various makers of the pattern, Song of the Humpback, Part 2 discusses the history and evolution of the Böker 182 specifically.

Böker says that they’ve made a traditional camp knife since 1869, the year of founding for the company. I see no reason to doubt this, but I don’t believe that the humpbacked pattern specifically, their Model 182, was produced before the late 1920’s, and even then there is debate over whether the pattern originated from Böker or its American competitor Remington.

100 years of Böker humpback evolution.

The Last of the True Humpbacks?

One problem with keeping up with Böker’s humpbacked scout/camp knife is that it has become very expensive. Up until a few years ago, they still produced a version with synthetic handles, but on Böker.de today the only offering is a stag-handled version from their Classic series, and it costs €299 plus tax and shipping. On Böker USA’s site, the same knife is $399 plus tax and shipping.

The stag-handled humpback from Böker’s Classic series.

The New Affordable Humpback.

So I was immediately intrigued when my friend and fellow collector Hobie Farmer let me know that Böker USA had announced a new version of this knife, but as a part of their Traditional series. There are only two pictures of the new knife on Böker’s USA site, so you can’t see the awl, and it doesn’t appear to be offered on their German site at all. But if you go to an online retailer, like Knife Center, there are several pictures of the knife, and, strangely, they don’t appear to show the awl either. What’s this then? A 6-bladed traditional scout/camp knife with only five blades? Surely these pictures are just some incorrect, A.I.-hallucinated renderings, right?

The new stag-handled humpback from Böker’s Traditional series. Note the blade etch and shiny steel bolsters.

As someone with Collector Personality Disorder, I ordered the knife from Knife Center in all three handle materials — stag, brown jigged bone, and black jigged bone. The price of all three was significantly less than the price of just one of the Classic series stag-handled knives. They arrived just a few days later and I excitedly opened the package.

The new cost-cutter box.

Böker, really?

The fancy collector box and felt zipper pouch are gone, replaced by a simple cardboard box, so that’s one way they’re saving cost. After unwrapping the knife from its tissue paper, my first impressions are that the knife itself has a good heft to it. The walk and talk seems fine, just like on any of my late model Böker Classic series humpbacks, and the quality of the materials and construction appears very high overall. But the awl is AWOL.

Holy missing implements, Batman!

How could Böker do this? I would argue that the awl is more fundamental to the knife than the small pen knife blade. If Böker had said they were eliminating the pen blade to save cost, I would’ve understood and been fine with that. Obviously everyone has his own preferences, but I never use the pen blade anyway, and there’s a perfectly good main spearpoint blade so you could even argue that the pen blade was redundant.

Maybe this statement refers only to the box itself?

They didn’t even make an effort to fill in the space where the awl lives; there’s just a little vestigial length of tool stock in the space where the pin passes through. Looking at some of the other details on the knife, a few bear mention. Böker’s website claims these new knives are “Handmade in Solingen, Germany” and the box is similarly stamped. But the blade’s tang stamps make no such claim.

Tang stamps on the new humpback from Böker.

One disparity with Böker’s website description of the new stag-handled knife is the blade etch, which is clearly pictured. I was excited to see them bring back the old Tree Brand etch. Alas, there is no blade etch on the new knives. And another disparity that I found is the stag-handled knife’s bolsters, which appear to be shiny steel on the web rendering but in actuality are nickel-silver. The Ni-Ag bolsters look better anyway, but still.

The tool stock is significantly thinner on the new Traditional series knives.

The tool stock is considerably thinner on the new knives. This is most pronounced on the cap lifter. Thickness seems adequate on the knife blades but the wire the corkscrew is formed from seems a bit thin and flimsy. Unsurprisingly then, the corkscrew on my black jigged bone knife was bent, and stood up proud of the case. I’m sure I could’ve sent it back to Knife Center, but I chose just to bend it back myself. It looks as good as the other two knives now. Another note about the new tool stock — it isn’t any thinner than on the first generation Classic Gold that Böker sold a few years ago.

The new old shield.

Perhaps the smallest detail is that they have switched back to an older style shield, and it no longer says Solingen under the tree. Instead, it says Germany. Another collector told me this was always the case on the Traditional series.

And that’s about it. I would’ve been thrilled with these new humpbacks if they were complete knives. The price seems fair for the quality, and it keeps the humpback scout/camp knife going. I guess if you want your 6-bladed humpbacked scout/camp knife to have all six blades, you’d better buy one of the last stag examples from the Classic series. And I hope you really like the $240 awl that comes with it.

As always, I welcome your factual corrections and comments below. Thanks for reading.