Shop Böker Magnum
Twenty-nine Böker Magnum SKUs are in stock in Woodlawn, Virginia, from $22.46 to $121.46. This is the entry point to the Böker family and the least expensive of the three Böker lines we carry.
Magnum is Böker's value-tier collector and outdoor line, produced outside Germany by Heinr. Böker & Co. of Solingen, the company founded there in 1869. What you are buying is a knife built to a price by a parent company that has been making cutlery for over 150 years, and covered by the same warranty program as the knives that cost five times more.
Böker runs three lines through this warehouse and they sit in a clear order. The core Böker line includes the German-made Manufaktur knives and the traditional D2 patterns. Böker Plus is the modern internationally produced line where the premium stainless steels live. Magnum is the entry tier, produced internationally, aimed at collectors and outdoor buyers who want the pattern and the name without the Solingen price.
That is a real distinction and it is worth stating plainly: a Magnum is not a German-made knife. The parent company is German. The knife is not. Every product page on this site lists the origin on its spec line, and on this shelf that line reads China.
What does carry across all three lines is the warranty, which is the reason the tier exists rather than the company simply selling unbranded budget knives.
Six of the 27 Magnum knives are Damascus lockbacks, and they are the most distinctive thing on this shelf. They run $68.36 to $121.46: the Damascus Lockback at $121.46, the Caveman at $110.66, the Lord at $109.76, the Mistress at $75.56, the Lady at $70.16 and the Duke at $68.36.
One clarification that matters, because a lot of knife listings blur it. Damascus is a construction, not an alloy. It describes layers of steel forge-welded together and etched so the pattern shows. It tells you what the blade looks like and how it was built. It does not tell you the hardness, the edge retention or the corrosion resistance, because those depend on which steels went into the billet, and a Damascus label alone does not say.
So buy these for what they demonstrably are: patterned blades with bone handles, Damascus bolsters and gift tins, at prices where a patterned blade is normally out of reach. The top one, at $121.46, is 3.88 inches closed with a 2.77 inch clip point blade and a white smooth bone handle.
Most of the rest of the shelf runs on the 440 stainless family. Ten knives carry a catalog tag of plain 440 with no sub-grade named, and five specify 440A.
Those two things mean different amounts. 440A is a known quantity: it runs 55 to 58 HRC, its edge retention is fair and it is the weakest edge holder of the 440 family, but its corrosion resistance is excellent, the best of the three. It is easy to sharpen and it does not mind being wet.
Plain 440 with no letter is a family label, not a specification. The sub-grades run from 440A at the bottom of the hardness range to 440C at the top, and performance varies materially across them. We list it the way the feed lists it rather than guessing at a letter, because guessing would be inventing a spec.
Neither of these is a premium steel and this page is not going to pretend otherwise. They are appropriate steels for the price, they sharpen easily on basic equipment, and they will not rust on you.
Knives, 27 SKUs, $22.46 to $121.46. The whole range apart from two items. Linerlocks, lockbacks, an axis lock pair, a button lock, one fixed blade and the Damascus group.
Gear and outdoors, 2 SKUs, $32.36 to $43.16. A short shelf: the Equalizer folder at $43.16 and the Fleet Street straight razor at $32.36.
One knife on this shelf is currently flagged as a closeout, the Deep Blue Linerlock at $32.99. Closeout stock here is real stock, but it does not come back once it sells through, which is why our buying guides never build a recommendation around it.
The honest case for this line is the bottom of the range rather than the top. At $22.46 for the Jewel Lockback, $26.06 for the Shadow Linerlock and $26.96 for the Lil Friend Micro, these are the least expensive knives in the Böker family by a wide margin, and they carry the same warranty as the rest of it.
Above about $80 the calculation changes, because at that price you can reach the 440A Brachyptera here at $80.96 or step across to steels like 14C28N, Nitro-V and D2 from other brands we stock. Our under $100 pocket knife guide lays those side by side, and the under $50 guide does the same at the budget end.
Where Magnum makes its strongest case is the Damascus group, which starts at $68.36 and puts a patterned blade and a gift tin in your hand for less than most people expect to pay for either.
Böker Magnum is covered by Böker's limited lifetime warranty on material and workmanship to the original owner, the same warranty program that covers Böker and Böker Plus. It covers manufacturing defects. It does not cover a dull edge, ordinary wear, or damage from misuse.
All 29 are stocked here in Virginia and shipped from here, never dropshipped. All of this shelf sits under the $149 free shipping threshold, so it is worth building an order rather than placing several small ones.
It is worth setting expectations honestly, because the gap between a $25 knife and a $150 knife is real and it is not only the steel.
Fit and finish varies more. Blade centring, how evenly the grind runs from heel to tip, and how smoothly the pivot turns are the first things a manufacturer economizes on. A blade that sits a little off center when closed is normal in this tier and does not affect cutting.
Edges arrive inconsistent. Factory edges at this price are applied quickly. Some arrive genuinely sharp and some arrive merely adequate. Ten minutes on a stone fixes it permanently, and these steels sharpen easily, which is the compensation.
Action loosens or stiffens. Backsprings on the lockbacks can be stiff out of the box and ease with use. Linerlocks may engage far across the tang at first and settle.
What you should not accept, at any price: a lock that fails to engage, blade play side to side when locked open, or a blade that touches a liner as it closes. Those are defects rather than characteristics, and they are what the warranty is for.
Judged as what it is, this shelf does its job. A Magnum is a knife you can carry, use and not agonize over losing.