Shop Böker Magnum Gear & Outdoors
This is a two item shelf. The Böker Magnum gear and outdoors category holds the Equalizer at $43.16 and the Fleet Street Razor at $32.36, and that is the whole list.
We would rather say that up front than pad a page and let you find out after scrolling. The deeper Magnum range is on the knives shelf, which holds 27 SKUs. What follows is what these two actually are, and, since one of them is a straight razor and those come with a real learning curve, how to look after it without hurting yourself.
The Equalizer is a folding knife that the catalog files under gear rather than knives. It is 4.13 inches closed with a 3.13 inch 440A stainless blade in a black finish, a black G10 handle, a thumb stud and a pocket clip.
440A is the most corrosion resistant member of the 440 family and the softest, running around 55 to 58 HRC. In plain terms that means it will not rust on you and it takes a fresh edge quickly on a basic stone, but it will not hold that edge as long as a D2 or a modern powder steel. For a knife at this price living in a pack or a truck, that is a sensible place to land.
If you want this style of folder with more blade or a different lock, the knives shelf has the Brachyptera at $80.96 and the Iguanodon at $61.16 in similar shapes.
The Fleet Street is a straight razor: 7.38 inches open along its length, with a 4.63 inch stainless blade and a silver 440 stainless handle rather than the wood or horn scales you often see on traditional razors.
A straight razor is not a knife with a thin blade. The geometry is different, the edge angle is far shallower, and the whole tool assumes a maintenance routine that pocket knives do not need. It is also the least forgiving shaving implement there is, which is the honest reason it is worth reading a little before you use one.
Note that a straight razor of this construction is different from a shavette, which takes disposable blades. This one has a fixed blade that you maintain yourself.
The single most useful thing to understand about a straight razor is that stropping and honing are two different jobs, and confusing them is how people ruin an edge.
Stropping realigns an edge that is already sharp. The very fine edge of a razor rolls over microscopically in use, and drawing it along leather straightens it back. You do this before every shave, not after. The critical detail: you strop spine first, with the edge trailing. Leading with the edge cuts the strop and rolls the edge over.
Honing removes metal and creates a new edge, on a stone, and a razor needs it only occasionally. It is a genuinely skilled job on a razor because the spine sets the angle and any rocking ruins the bevel.
Keep the blade flat against the leather through the whole stroke, use no downward pressure worth mentioning, and let the weight of the razor do it. Twenty to thirty passes each way is a normal pre-shave routine.
Take this slowly. The learning curve is real and the consequence of rushing is a cut, so the safe order matters more than the technique does.
Rinse and dry the blade completely afterwards. A wet razor put away closed is a rusty razor a week later, and that applies even to a stainless blade.
We do not currently stock strops or razor hones on this shelf. The Case sharpeners, Kershaw sharpeners and Buck sharpeners shelves cover knife sharpening equipment, which is a different job from razor honing and should not be substituted for it. A pull-through knife sharpener will destroy a razor edge.
For blade oil, the Böker gear shelf stocks the Böker Oil Pen 2.0 at $22.46, which has a fine dosing tip and is the right tool for putting a controlled film on a razor or a pivot without soaking anything.
Both items are in the building in Woodlawn, Virginia, and both are covered by Böker's limited lifetime warranty on material and workmanship to the original owner. That covers manufacturing defects. It does not cover an edge you damaged learning to hone it.
Neither of these clears the $149 free shipping threshold on its own, and together they do not either. The Magnum hub and the knives shelf are the natural places to build the rest of an order.
Stropping keeps a good edge good. It cannot rescue an edge that has actually gone. Knowing which situation you are in saves a lot of frustrating shaves.
The usual signs that stropping is no longer enough: the razor tugs at hair rather than cutting it cleanly, you find yourself pressing harder to get the same result, or the edge fails the basic tests shavers use, such as failing to catch and part a hanging hair. A visible nick or a rolled section along the edge is another, and no amount of leather will fix either.
How often depends entirely on the steel, the beard and the technique, so the honest answer is that you will learn your own interval rather than follow a number from a page like this one. Some people go many months. Somebody who strops carelessly, or who wipes the edge on a towel, will get there much faster.
If you have never honed a razor, having it done by someone who has is a reasonable first move. Razor honing is genuinely different from knife sharpening: the spine rides on the stone and sets the angle for you, the stones are far finer than knife stones, and rocking the blade even slightly rounds the bevel. Learning on a razor you already like is an expensive way to learn.
Whatever you do, do not take it to a rotary or belt sharpener. The heat alone can ruin the temper along a razor's very thin edge.