As the sole licensee worldwide of the Kalashnikov name for knives, the Böker factory has been producing knives under the name of General Mikhail Timofeyevich Kalashnikov since 2003. The partnership was established and formalized in 2001 through visits by Managing Director Carsten Felix-Dalichow to the family in Moscow and directly to Mikhail T. Kalashnikov in Izhevsk.
The following year, a return visit and a comprehensive tour of the Solingen factory, including a press conference, took place. Here, Mikhail Kalashnikov was able to see for himself that the manufacturing met his high quality standards. Subsequently, the new product line was jointly presented to the world at the Blade Show in Atlanta. Despite his global fame, military honors, and social standing, Mikhail Kalashnikov remained a modest and pleasant person throughout his life. He always saw and referred to himself as an engineer, not as a general or genius. His experiences in a Russian military hospital during World War II instilled in him the desire to provide his comrades with a functioning weapon for their own defense and the defense of their country. Thus, in 1947, the famous Kalashnikov assault rifle was born.
When designing the knife series, Kalashnikov's central requirement was that the knives meet his professional maxim: "Simple in construction, robust, and reliable in use." The first model, the Böker Kalashnikov Black, incorporates design elements from the AK assault rifle. The bridge between the handle inserts is shaped like the cooling slots in the handguard of the AK-47. The clip-point blade with its serration is borrowed from the Kalashnikov AK-47/59 bayonet. The Böker factory takes great care to ensure that all subsequent models also meet the high functional and quality standards set by General Mikhail Kalashnikov, who passed away in 2013.