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Three Designers Return with New Knives for Böker

April 30, 2019

Böker is keeping up its relentless pace with new releases from three returning designers. Serge Panchenko, Raphaël Durand, and Kansei Matsuno are all back with more for the Solingen, Germany manufacturer.

Serge Panchenko Gust

Serge Panchenko has himself accelerated the pace at which his designs are making their way into production collaborations. He has opened his own production label, Serge Knife Co., and collaborated with Böker before on the popular Lancer model.

The new Gust follows in that knife’s footsteps, and like its predecessor is a smaller knife – smaller than the Lancer, in fact, with a 2.8-inch D2 blade compared to three inch 440C cutting edge on its forebear. We see a slightly wider blade here, but the biggest difference will be the handle: the Gust is a stainless steel frame lock, with an anodized front scale embellished with a seashell-groove machining pattern. The swap in materials and lock does boost the weight on the Gust up to a relatively hefty 5 oz.

Raphaël Durand Frelon and Boxer

We first came across Raphaël Durand’s elegant, modern folder knives when he rolled out the Slack several years ago. Like that knife, both of Durand’s new models, the Frelon and Boxer, require two hands to open and neither feature nail nicks; Durand prefers to keep his blades as clean and stylish as possible. However, both the Frelon and Boxer are locking knives, equipped with the tried and true back lock.

Both knives keep their blade length right around the 3 inch mark. Other than the aesthetic differences, blade steel will be the biggest factor to consider when looking at these two knives: the Frelon comes with VG-10, while the Boxer is sporting N690.

Kansei Matsuno LRF

Matsuno’s first collaboration was the Wasabi, a slim design with Eastern flourishes and a quirky flipper/slipjoint combo construction. Matsuno brings a liner lock to the LRF design, but maintains the same elegant lines that defined his first release with Böker. He has also carried through his penchant for twists on opening mechanisms: here, he has incorporated a symmetrical ‘horned’ front flipper, with small tabs protruding from either side of the pivot. The LRF hits the same near-3-inch blade length as the others, and is made from VG-10 and weighs around 2 oz.

Knife in Featured image: Böker LRF

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