As someone who has carried a knife with him since he was a kid, I have always struggled with the limitations of some knives. I recognize that knives are used for cutting and slicing. However, we’ve all got a bit of neanderthal in us, and sometimes you just want to chop and pry with a knife.
Recognizing that we’re all a work in progress, I’ve been trying to overcome these urges by carrying a pry bar with me. However, some instincts beat like a drum in the back of your mind and are hard to ignore.
In the heat of the moment, I still find myself reaching to pry something big and brutish with my knife. So, I have realized that the only effective solution to my conundrum is to carry a knife that really can handle my … proclivities.
The Thicker Clipper by Boker Plus is a blade built off of a single slab of nearly quarter-inch-thick D2 tool steel. With its canvas Micarta handle scales and being both hollow-ground and chisel-ground, this knife appealed to me the minute I saw it.
So, being who I am and doing what I do, I took the Thicker Clipper on a ride-along in my day-to-day life for nearly 2 months. As I enter into month 2, it feels like prime time to share my findings.
Note: At only $60, you might want to go and order yours now so you can have it with you when you read this review. Why prevent the inevitable?
In short: Boker created a robust, compact knife that’s great for utility work and the outdoor life. And the Thicker Clipper also shines doing precision tasks. Whether you find yourself foraging while taking breaks from building shelters in the woods, or just want a beefy knife that can withstand a brutal beating, look no further.
Check out the GearJunkie guides to Best Survival Knives and Best Backpacking Knives.
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0.22” thick Solid D2 steel construction -
Canvas Micarta handle scales -
Hollow grind and chisel grind -
Overall shape and size
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Ultralight folks will scoff at its weight -
I haven’t found any morels yet this year
Boker Plus Thicker Clipper Review
Many people have heard of the Boker knife brand, but not as many may have heard of Boker Plus.
Boker breaks up its brand into four sub-brands: Boker Solingen, Boker Arbolito, Boker Plus, and Boker Magnum. Each sub-brand represents a different approach that the knives in that collection represent.
Boker Plus is the “innovation” sub-brand — “functional and tactical knives for the professional user, created by designers and manufactured in Asia, the USA, and Europe,” according to Boker.
I would have to agree that the Thicker Clipper is an innovative and functional knife. I would even agree that it could be considered tactical.
Design & Features
Again, the Thicker Clipper is made from one piece of nearly quarter-inch-thick D2 tool steel. D2 is about as tough as it gets, and in manufacturing applications, it’s used to shear or cut other steels. It holds a decent edge, and while it isn’t the most corrosion-resistant steel, the black stonewashing here eliminates that issue.
Based on the BaldMan Knife and Tool Thicker Clipper, the Boker Plus version is 6.18 inches in length, which, when considering its thickness, puts it in the robust category.
But this knife isn’t just a bull in a China shop. Its hollow ground edge and chisel ground tip make it a top-tier utility knife, as well as a precision tool for carving and cutting. Additionally, its simple, straight design and forward-leaning tanto tip make it extremely efficient, which is something that tends to be lost on thicker knives.
Choosing brown canvas Micarta scales not only balances off the Thicker Clipper’s unique look, but they also aid in the grip and overall hand-feel of the knife. With an overall thickness of 0.65 inches, most users will find that it fills their palm nicely.
First Impressions
At the very beginning of 2025, knife designer Zac Whitmore, known for his CIVIVI Yonder, shared a video of his favorite upcoming knives — including the Thicker Clipper — I was hoooked. Whitmore has always been a bit of an inspiration when it comes to knives because he’ll happily stray from the norm in sharing his top picks.
When this knife arrived, it felt heavy from the get-go, but was surprisingly balanced. I’ve been enjoying this wave of smaller fixed-blade knives, but wasn’t so sure about the ones that had shorter blades. They look more like a scalpel than an outdoor or utility knife.
That said, at first glance, I figured the blade on the Thicker Clipper could be an inch longer. In my mind, it would perform a lot better.
It turns out I was wrong.
In the Field
Before I even took this knife out into the wild, I needed to add a lanyard to it and drop the pocket clip so it would sit lower on my hip. I can appreciate knives that sit higher and are more concealed under your shirt, but they interfere with hip belts on backpacks. So, a majority of my belt knives have drop clips. If you’re curious, I get mine on Amazon.
I used a simple paracord and a G10 collar bead for the lanyard. The knife needs to be taken apart to add the lanyard, even though there’s a cutout in the Micarta for it. I can attest that there’s a solid slab of D2 under those scales. That said, I get a lot of guff for my love of lanyards, but they make retrieving knives, especially out of Kydex sheaths, much easier.
In testing, the Thicker Clipper has performed beyond compare. Just in the last couple of weeks alone, as the pollen fell and everything turned to spring, I’ve been out in brooks, prying rocks up looking for tadpoles and salamanders. I cut fresh flowers for Easter. This past weekend, I scored our first round of Fiddleheads.
What used to take two or three tools can now be done with one capable knife. Additionally, having both the hollow grind blade edge and the chisel ground tip, which benefits from both a bulge and a taper in the material, has been great. Both edges work well independently or in unison.
That said, there is a hot spot that folks will need to mind when they attempt to resharpen their Thicker Clipper. The edge where the two grinds meet is squared off from the factory. This provides another point to use when puncturing. But this could easily get rolled over unless you take your time sharpening.
This isn’t unique to the Thicker Clipper. It comes with the territory on both Tanto and some multiground blades.
Conclusion
No one will regret laying down $60 for this knife.
The Thicker Clipper is today’s take on “old reliable.” It’s a compact fixed-blade knife that punches above its class. The only thing you will ever need to worry about with a knife like this is having to resharpen it.
Otherwise, you could ride into hell and survive with this absolute beast of a blade.
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