{"product_id":"boker-chromium-poultry-shears-forged-and-chrome-plated-with-coil-spring-action-bone-notch-and-sliding-latch-u-s-a-c-1945-1965","title":"Böker Chromium Poultry Shears, Forged and Chrome-Plated with Coil-Spring Action, Bone Notch and Sliding Latch, U.S.A., c. 1945–1965","description":"\u003ch3\u003eThe Piece\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA pair of forged poultry shears in bright chromium plate, built with three mechanisms most kitchen scissors do not have.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe \u003cstrong\u003eblades are asymmetric\u003c\/strong\u003e. The upper is plain and strongly curved, drawn to a point; the lower carries a \u003cstrong\u003efine serrated edge\u003c\/strong\u003e along its whole length to stop skin and tendon sliding away from the cut.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eJust above the pivot, cut into the lower blade, is a \u003cstrong\u003ecrescent notch\u003c\/strong\u003e — a jaw for gripping and cracking a joint rather than shearing it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAt the joint sits a \u003cstrong\u003ecoil spring housed in a barrel\u003c\/strong\u003e, which pushes the shears open again after every cut so the hand only has to close.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe handles are unmatched by design: one is a plain closed \u003cstrong\u003ebow\u003c\/strong\u003e, the other a shaped grip finished in \u003cstrong\u003efine diamond knurling\u003c\/strong\u003e around a blank cartouche panel. At their ends, a \u003cstrong\u003esliding bolt latch\u003c\/strong\u003e hooks over to lock the shears shut.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eStamped beside the domed pivot rivet: \u003cstrong\u003eBOKER — CHROMIUM — U.S.A.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eHistory \u0026amp; Provenance\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe word stamped between the name and the country is the one that dates this.\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003cem\u003eCHROMIUM\u003c\/em\u003e is not decoration; it is a sales claim. These are forged carbon steel under a chromium plate, and the plate is there to keep a wet, acidic, bloody job from rusting the tool. A maker only stamps a material into a blade while that material is still worth advertising — and once stainless steel became ordinary in kitchen cutlery, nobody stamped “chromium” on anything again.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Böker name on an American-made tool carries a genuinely strange history.\u003c\/strong\u003e The family's chestnut-tree mark had been in use since \u003cstrong\u003e1674\u003c\/strong\u003e. Hermann Böker opened \u003cstrong\u003eH. Boker \u0026amp; Co. in New York in 1837\u003c\/strong\u003e — thirty-two years \u003cem\u003ebefore\u003c\/em\u003e his cousin Heinrich founded the Solingen works in \u003cstrong\u003e1869\u003c\/strong\u003e. The American house came first.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThen the war split the company in two.\u003c\/strong\u003e The Solingen factory was firebombed and lost its machines, tools, catalogues and product samples. At the same time the \u003cstrong\u003eUnited States government confiscated Böker's American trademark rights\u003c\/strong\u003e under wartime law. John Böker Jr. bought those rights back independently, in New York, and carried on — which meant that for roughly forty years there were two Bökers: a German one in Solingen and an entirely separate American one, same family name, same tree, different owners.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe rights only returned to Solingen in \u003cstrong\u003e1983\u003c\/strong\u003e, and American manufacture ended at the same time. A tool stamped \u003cstrong\u003eU.S.A.\u003c\/strong\u003e belongs to that severed American branch.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe design is doing three jobs a knife cannot.\u003c\/strong\u003e Serrations on the lower blade only, so the food cannot skate; the notch at the throat to crack a leg joint with leverage instead of force; and the spring, which matters more than it sounds. Jointing a bird is dozens of repetitions in a row, and a hand that has to open the shears each time tires in minutes. Let a spring do the opening and the same work is half as hard. The latch is the necessary companion — a sprung tool will not stay shut in a drawer on its own.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe handles are unmatched because the grip is unmatched.\u003c\/strong\u003e The plain bow takes the fingers, the knurled shaped side sits under the thumb and palm where the force is applied, and the checkering is there because the hand doing this job is usually wet.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDated on the \u003cstrong\u003eCHROMIUM\u003c\/strong\u003e stamp — a plating claim that belongs to the decades before stainless took over kitchen cutlery — together with the U.S.A. mark from the period when the American company was separate from Solingen: \u003cstrong\u003ec. 1945–1965\u003c\/strong\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eProduct Details\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003ctable border=\"1\" cellpadding=\"8\" cellspacing=\"0\" style=\"width:100%; border-collapse:collapse;\"\u003e\n  \u003cthead\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003cth align=\"left\" style=\"text-align:left; vertical-align:top;\"\u003eField\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003cth align=\"left\" style=\"text-align:left; vertical-align:top;\"\u003eDetail\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\u003c\/thead\u003e\n  \u003ctbody\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eObject\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003ePoultry and game shears with spring action and locking latch. Approx. 9½ in long.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eOrigin\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eBöker, United States — the American branch of the firm, separate from Solingen for most of the twentieth century\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eForm\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eCurved plain upper blade against a fully serrated lower blade with a crescent bone notch at the throat; coil spring in a barrel housing at the pivot; one plain bow handle and one shaped handle with diamond knurling and a blank cartouche; sliding bolt latch at the handle ends\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eMaterial\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eForged steel under bright chromium plate, with a domed pivot rivet\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eMarks\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eStamped to the blade beside the pivot: BOKER \/ CHROMIUM \/ U.S.A.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eEra\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003ec. 1945–1965. Dated on the CHROMIUM plating stamp, a selling claim that disappears once stainless steel becomes standard in kitchen cutlery, together with the U.S.A. mark of the separately owned American company.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eCondition\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eVery good working condition. The shears are sound and true, the blades close cleanly along their whole length, the spring is strong and returns the tool fully open, the latch slides and holds, and the pivot is tight with no play. The serrations and the bone notch are complete and undamaged. \u003cstrong\u003eExpect fine surface scratching across both blade faces\u003c\/strong\u003e from honest kitchen use, along with light handling polish to the chrome. No rust, no pitting, no plating loss of consequence, no repairs. Condition Guaranteed.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n    \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eAvailability\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd style=\"vertical-align:top;\"\u003eOne of a Kind — 1 Available\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003c\/tbody\u003e\n\u003c\/table\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eWhy It Belongs in Your Home\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSpatchcock a chicken once with a proper pair of poultry shears and you will not go back to a knife.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThat is the whole argument. Cutting out a backbone with a chef's knife is a fight involving a rocking blade, a slippery bird and a cutting board that moves. With these it is four cuts and about twenty seconds, because the serrations hold the skin, the spring does the opening, and the notch cracks the joint that the blade would otherwise have to saw through.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThey are also the most useful thing in a kitchen drawer for the jobs nobody plans for. Cutting up a whole chicken, trimming fat and silverskin, jointing a rabbit, taking the fins and tails off fish, snipping herbs and bacon straight into a pan, cutting through a lobster shell, and — unglamorously but constantly — opening packaging that has defeated everything else.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOld forged shears are better than most new ones, and the reason is that the working parts are steel rather than plastic. The spring is a real coil in a barrel, the latch is a sliding steel bolt, and the pivot is a solid rivet. Nothing in the mechanism is moulded, so nothing in it will crack.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAnd they look like something. Bright chrome, knurled checkering, a shape that reads immediately as a tool made for one job — hanging on a rail beside a stove or lying in an open drawer of good utensils, these are more interesting than anything currently sold in a kitchen shop.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA note on care, and chromium plate over carbon steel has one clear rule. \u003cstrong\u003eDry them immediately and completely.\u003c\/strong\u003e The plate protects the steel only while it is intact; wherever the chrome has thinned at a wear point, the carbon steel beneath will rust if it is left wet. Wash, dry, and if they are going into storage put a light film of food-safe oil on the blades.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNever put them in a dishwasher.\u003c\/strong\u003e The heat and detergent attack the plating and drive water into the pivot and the spring barrel, which is exactly where you cannot get it out again, and a seized spring is the end of the tool.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePut a drop of food-grade mineral oil on the pivot and into the spring barrel once or twice a year and the action will stay as it is. Keep the latch closed when they are not in use — that is what it is for, and a sprung pair of shears loose in a drawer is a hazard.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSharpen the plain blade only, on the bevel, and leave the serrated blade alone; the serrations are the part that makes these work, and grinding them off cannot be undone.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"La Rue Tool \u0026 Supply Co","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48047030796393,"sku":"VE-0738","price":75.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0651\/0093\/9369\/files\/DF909D4A-4558-444A-B3A4-35CA29F262C3.jpg?v=1789275601","url":"https:\/\/viridianeclection.com\/products\/boker-chromium-poultry-shears-forged-and-chrome-plated-with-coil-spring-action-bone-notch-and-sliding-latch-u-s-a-c-1945-1965","provider":"Viridian Eclection","version":"1.0","type":"link"}