Boker AFD/Boker Escrima Knife
Review by Phil
Elmore
German knife manufacturer Boker
has turned up the heat on its “tactical” models in recent years,
producing an impressive array of contemporary folders. None
of these, however, impressed me quite as much as did the superb
AFD. The Advanced Folding Dagger is a serious piece of
hardware with a big, comfortable handle and great attention to detail.
The Advanced Folding Dagger
is a serious fighter with a big handle.
Designed by Dietmar Pohl, the AFD
is just under nine and a half inches overall with a four inch
blade. It weighs over six ounces. The blade is made
from 3/16-inch thick CPM S60V steel, which (according to Boker) is “a
unique tool steel made by the Crucible Particle Metallurgy process
using powder particles in an atomized melting process to develop highly
alloyed steels with a very uniform particle structure. The
result is a steel with much more carbon and additional vanadium for
exceptoinal edge retention and superb corrosion resistance.”
Boker’s Advanced Folding
Dagger shows good attention to detail.
The substantial handle is made of
anodized, aggressively grooved, CNC-machined 6061-T6
aluminum. It is very thick and fit my large hands
perfectly. Nicely squared, deeply ground grooves have been
cut into the dorsal and ventral portions of the handle at both ends and
around the butt. These provide excellent tactile reference
points for your fingers and also improve traction for a very good
overall grip. I am very picky about such grooves and found
the ones on the AFD to be just to my liking – particularly
the finer grooves cut into the double guard. The handle also
has a lanyard hole.
Grooves cut into the guards
form a thumb ramp on the dorsal side.
The
removable, stylized pocket clip has decent tension and works fairly
well, though there is no getting around the fact that this is a large
folder with a large handle (and thus may not be comfortable in the
pockets of all users). The clip could stand to be a little
tighter but I did not find it unsuitable. The knife is
configured for tip-down, right-hand carry only. The clip can
be removed but is not reversible.
The graduated,
elevated thumb post (which ships from the factory configured for
right-hand use) is held in place with a single Hex-key
fastener. A groove cut into the handle of the AFD
accommodates the stud when the blade is closed. To open the
knife using the stud takes considerable thumb pressure and is not my
preferred method of opening the AFD. Instead, I simply swipe
my index finger on the grooved guard and flip the blade open that
way. A firm swipe combined with a slight wrist flick is all
that is needed to lock the blade firmly in place. Out of the package my
AFD didn’t snap open as smoothly as it might have, so I oiled the pivot
lightly.
The blade is
sharpened on one side only but tapers to a false edge on the opposite
side. It is completely enclosed in the handle when
folded. Point of balance for the AFD is roughly even with the
handle groove cut for the thumb stud. Because it feels handle
heavy, the blade moves very well when the knife is locked into my
mitt. It feels fast and penetrates deeply. While
better suited for thrusting than for slashing, it does have a subtle
“wasp” shape that gives it a little “belly” for cutting.
The AFD is a
liner lock. It snaps open with an audible click and has
absolutely no blade play. The liner engages the blade tang
fully at the left side, with perfect lock-up and plenty of room for
wear.
Liner lock of the AFD
engages perfectly and has room for wear.
As a fist
load. the handle of the AFD makes an impressive weapon all by
itself. Strikes with the grooved butt left heavy indents in
discarded wood furniture. I would not want to be on the
receiving end of a blow from even the dull end of the AFD.
The butt of the AFD is
suitable for use as a striking tool.
My AFD shipped
to me in a nice padded
case for storage.
I do not believe I’ll feel inclined to store it for any length of time,
though. This is a knife that demands to be carried, if only
as insurance against things that go bump in dark alleys.
The Boker AFD left a very
favorable impression on The Martialist.
For those who participate in FMA or related martial
arts, Boker also manufactures the EFD, or Escrima Folding Dagger.
This is simply a repackaged AFD with slightly different handles.
All other features are the same. The butt of the knife is
tapered for use in striking.
The AFD and EFD are excellent fighting folders whose sense of style falls somewhere between “clean” and
“aggressively tactical.” There is no mistaking the German daggers for anything other than what they are. >>