Böker
Encyclopedia
Böker or Tree Brand is a commercial manufacturer and distributor of knives, based in Solingen
Solingen
Solingen is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located on the northern edge of the region called Bergisches Land, south of the Ruhr area, and with a 2009 population of 161,366 is the second largest city in the Bergisches Land...

, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

. Böker primarily makes folding and outdoor knives. Böker has long had production facilities outside of Germany.

Böker was one of the first companies to offer ceramic knives
Ceramic knife
A ceramic knife is a knife made out of very hard and tough ceramic, often zirconium dioxide . These knives are usually produced by dry pressing zirconia powder and firing them through solid-state sintering. The resultant blade is sharpened by grinding the edges with a diamond-dust-coated grinding...

 as a featured product line.

History

Böker traces its origin to the 17th century as a tool maker in Germany graduating to swords and blades by the 1800s. The company claims it was producing 2000 sabre
Sabre
The sabre or saber is a kind of backsword that usually has a curved, single-edged blade and a rather large hand guard, covering the knuckles of the hand as well as the thumb and forefinger...

s a week by 1839 for use in various wars. By the 1860s the company had fractured with a branch of the family emigrating to North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

 and setting up plants in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

, and Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

. The German and North American factories produced similar knives and used the "Tree Brand" trademark. This continued until World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

when the Solingen factory was destroyed and "Boker USA" took control of the trademark until the German factory was rebuilt in the 1950s. In the 60's and 70's the company changed hands several times, with the New York facility (Hermann Boker & Co)shutting down in 1983. In 1986, Boker USA, was started in Denver, Colorado for US production.

External links

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