Pros: Handle Material, Blade Sharpness
Cons: Handle Feel
Decent knife lacking fit-and-finish
Upon receiving this folder I was initially disappointed. Straight out of the box the first thing I noticed were light wood scales, not what you would expect from bog oak which should have been pretty dark. The scales could also be a touch larger, as the steel frame protrudes from the scale on the finder side of the handle. The blue tempered steel frame had pretty sharp edges as well, that made operating the frame lock uncomfortable, as well as the gimping on the blade, especially at the back to the blade were the gimping curls around that slight radius at the base of the blade. Additionally the folder shipped with a loosely fastened pocket clip. Luckily this is all easily fixed! I fastened the pocket clip down, and so far it hasn't loosened over a month's use. I deburred the frame edges lightly, removing the sharp feeling all together. The gimping was more troublesome to correct as the blade steel is rather hard & tended to wear away the sharpening stone I was using to smooth them down. I'll probably have to break out the grinder to fix this one. The wood darkened after a day of use, once the residual sawdust was removed. The feel of the knife is a little weird. With the majority of weight of this is in the blade & with a thinner steel frame & wood scales there is not much in the handle to counter-act the weight-forward balance. This isn't a make-or-break issue for me, the knife just feels & handles slightly differently than what I am used to. On the plus side, the blade is nicely shaped, quite sharp & operates very smoothly! The operation takes a bit of getting use to, but once you get a hang of it, its pretty easy. I use a thumb & just rotate it over the top of the handle to flick the blade open, but you can "throw" it open by thrusting your arm out in a straight line. Normally this will open the knife & lock it in place 50% of the time, but if you flip the knife upside down you can get this open & locked 100% of the time! When closed, the frame lock fits into a small detent on the blade, keeping the knife together in-pocket. The knife styling & materials are pretty nice. The blued steel frame liners & pocket clip look quite nice against the dark bog oak scales. And this is a relatively cheap way to get your hands on a premium handle material! With some extra attention to fit-and-finish in the factory, the Boker Exskelimoor could be an excellent knife, but as it stand now it is only OK.
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