Bear Grylls Gerber Scout and Compact Scout

Thumb studs are a dead giveaway. The real licensed one looks like the one on their website. Don't fret though the Chinese one will do you just fine...assuming you got them cheap I wouldn't worry about it. Excellent choice of survival knives. One for kindling and the other for skinning.
 
Return em' and get a mora. Better quality same price. I have nothing buy disdain for gerber knives. I've tried a couple of them and couldn't stand them.
 
Get the Gerber LMF II Knife made in Portland. The china made Bear Grylls is just a poor copy of the large fixed knife.
 
Hans17 said:
Thumb studs are a dead giveaway. The real licensed one looks like the one on their website. Don't fret though the Chinese one will do you just fine...assuming you got them cheap I wouldn't worry about it. Excellent choice of survival knives. One for kindling and the other for skinning.
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With all the reports of failures then what happen if both the real and the counterfeit are made with the same quality?
The worst is when the counterfeit is of better quality than the real one!
The safest way is just to avoid both :D

mohd
 
Ummm... I have a Scout like yours and after reading this thread I begin to believe it could be a fake (because of the thumbstuds which are rather cylindrical instead of the conical ones which are supposed to feature at the original product). BTW, cylindrical thumbstuds work better IMHO.
I am surprised because the knife is actualy very good, it looks and it feels like the real deal. Fit and finish is excellent, lockup is solid, no bladeplay and shaving sharp out of the box. If it wasn't for the thumbstuds issue, I might have sworn it's genuine. In fact, I still accept the possibility that minor changes like this may occur even to the original product.
Now I don't want to be misunderstood, when I say it's a good knife, I mean good for its price range. It's an adequate light - medium use knife.
 
S-Hoch said:
...Yesterday I bought two Bear Grylls Gerber knives at a local store. The scout, and the compact scout ones. The problem is I'm having second thoughts concerning their authenticity, and I was hoping you could help me out.

Here are pics of the knives I bought:
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Though they seem and feel authentic, I've spotted some differences with the ones displayed in the Gerber website:

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Some little details seem to differ, as well as the font type in the first one. Also, it seems that the original ones come in a blister pack, not in a box, but there could be another explanation to that... Maybe now they come in a box, or it depends where they were manufactured, etc.

I hope you can help me with this! If they're replicas I'll return them, but I'm hoping they're not, cause they really look and feel great, but I want to make sure they're reliable.
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The knives that you bought are not "counterfeit" by any outward appearance. The images pulled from the website are cartoons, i.e. artistic renditions of a prototype for the knife. What you purchased are finished product, which often includes differences from prototypes. A quick check of retailers and online videos will help elucidate this. That packaging is supplied to retailers for bulk purchases, and in-bulk these knives are much cheaper than retail. How much a seller wants to mark up from that? That's their dollar.

The knives are available in bulk lots from Chinese dealers because they are MADE in China, similar to many Buck, Kershaw, Spyderco, Boker, CRKT, etc. If it is not an obvious counterfeit, don't assume that it is without talking to the company directly. Does that really need to be stated? Why come to an internet forum and ask random people about something they are likely completely ignorant of?

Don't be concerned about your knives. If you break one, send it to Gerber for a replacement. If GERBER says it is counterfeit, demand that they elucidate this (i.e. what indicates on the knife) and share that with the rest of us. If they cannot, then demand that they warranty the knife or face legal action. If someone at Gerber's factory is selling these without their permission, they should know about it, give them one more reason to shape up on their operation.
 
A couple posters have written words to the effect of the fakes may be better than the real things. Having a half interest in a knife shop, I agree. I've had people ask about them, and I usually reply that I don't stock them, as I don't consider them real knives.

I've seen fakes of different brands from some very minor league, rather suspect wholesalers. The biggest wholesaler, Blue Ridge Knives, get their stuff direct from the manufacturers I'd say zero chance of getting a fake from them. However, online retailers and ebay seem to be the homes of such stuff. And again, the quality may be better, or at least the same.

Packaging: May vary, depending on the sales outlet. In a knife shop, one of the reasons people come is so they can handle and examine the knife and a box makes that possible. A big box discount store get's thier knives in clamshells, to keep the knives from getting slipped into a pocket, or having customers play with them and hurting themselves.

(Yes, having a knife shop is a wonderful thing. But very dangerous, as I have to keep myself from taking advantage of my wholesale cost and overdoing it in buying for myself.)
 
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The Gerber Bear gfrylls knives are cheap knives to dispoable use. Real to Grey market. Not really knockoffs. I'm willing ot bet they are either the real thing or made inthe same place by the same people and sold on the side (grey market) this happens routinely with CHinese made product at all price points. And is why you can buy these at cheap online chinese retailers. The quality will be exactly the same as the "real ones" that is low quality.

If you want such knives then these will do as well as the rela ones, if you want better knives then look at something by Kershaw.
 
^Bingo. Reputable dealers buying from reputable distributors are going to have the real thing, and packaging will depend on the venue. But either way you're talking about a budget knife manufactured with big-box stores in mind and manufactured with a goal of hitting a price point with certain margins.
 
I just bought a Bear Grylls Scout folder on a site just like ebay but here in Sweden (think it's a branch to ebay actually, called Tradera). Anyway, I thought that the knives where a bit cheap and wondered if the sellers made any money of them. I don't know why really, but I just compared prices on ebay, and they sell for even less! Most of them where from China and Hong Kong. And then a second thought hit me! Are the knives fakes or not?! Both the ones on Tradera and the ones on ebay, I assume that the sellers on Tradera are buying them from ebay and resells them...
So I did a little searching and found this thread, I was also concerned about the packaging, clam shell vs box if that had anything to to with the knives being real or not.

But then I found Cutlerylovers youtube review of the scout knife, he has the clamshell pack and his knife have the cylindrical thumbstud! So I guess that there is a chance that the conical thumbstud from Gerbers page is as said just a prototype picture and not what the knife actually looks like. It eases my mind anyway to see this! :)

Edit: I forgot the link to Cutlerylovers video! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24S3SpIl7RY

In the video his knife looks exactly like the one "S-Hoch" has! I have to ask Jeff if he have a fake too! :P
 
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the real thing to check is the edges of the knives, the edges on fakes are always different, like the rounding and corners on the handles. But judging from the different screws, all of them are different even the pin in the middle of the scout and all of the torx screws are different shaped id have to say they aren't real.
 
mkjellgren said:
Either way, fakes or not, return them and get yourself some good knives. Gerber has gone WAY down hill in the past couple decades and most of the Bear Grylls stuff is absolute crap (even the authentic ones).
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I was just about to say how the counterfeits are probably better built than the real thing anyway.
 
Ok I have new info about this! I had to email Gerber to see if they could give me an answer about this!

I can't copy exactly what they answered me, but they acknowledged that there is fraudulent products on the market, and the best indicator that it is a fraudulent product is if it’s a “boxed” product, then it's a fraudulent product as the boxed products is only sold via Wal-Mart, and they do not sell outside of their franchise...

So that concludes that for me anyway, I have a fraudulent knife coming to me now...what a bummer! I where really looking forward to use the crap out of that knife so I could see just how sturdy a "Bear Grylls survival knife" really is.... ;)
 
Fake or not, I have one from the box,i`m sure it is a replica and I knew it before I both it for a 5$ and it dose just fine.It came razor sharp clean and after a week of cutting paper,ropes,boxes,wires,thick rubber, it was still razor sharp (not as clean as in the beginning but still taking the hair hair off) and it sharpens very easy to the same edge with a few touches on a cheap pocket diamond sharpening rod.The blade is stiff and no blade play still.They are made in the same China country and all know the fact that gerber dose not use super hiQ steels,just your regular decent steel.It`s not like they make them in the US like my favorite SP2 Ontario that i proudly own:p:cool:.It`s a great knife (the compact scout) and it`s my favorite edc since the day I both it.Very light and functional.I would like it to have a bigger lanyard hole for a paracord still :rolleyes: .All the best.Keep your knives sharp at every time :thumbup: .If it dose the job well it`s the real deal :p That`s my opinion on this thread :thumbup:. Take care.:)
 
I have one of the Gerber Bear Gryll Folding Sheath Knives I bought off Amazon and it came in the plastic that is near impossible to open. I picked it up for close to $20. It has the same look of the picture the OP put here with the same screw at the pivot. It is not a sturdy knife, but I will still use it for as long as it will hold up. The sheath isn't too bad though. I have owned a Gerber Paraframe that I bought several years ago that has held up fine and I can't complain about.
 
dialex said:
In fact, I still accept the possibility that minor changes like this may occur even to the original product.
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Yes it is a possibility.And i say this because in the manufacturing of Ontario knives the blades differ from run to run.Even if they are stamped the same or different 95/XX ,the saw on the SP2 of Ontario can be found in many ranges with more or less teeth on them and they are the real thing.Depends on the run you got.And as a notice off the topic,the XX stamped ones that are newer,have better tempering than the 95 stamped blades.
 
Real or fake GB, they are POS either way.
Man, Gerber has gone down hill.
I used to be a huge fan and have/have owned several folders, MKIs and MKIIs and a Gerber Bowie (quite like the LMF too), but since the Paraframe and all the other crud, they have churned out, I've completely lost any desire to buy a Gerber knife.
 
BladeScout said:
Real or fake GB, they are POS either way.
Man, Gerber has gone down hill.
I used to be a huge fan and have/have owned several folders, MKIs and MKIIs and a Gerber Bowie (quite like the LMF too), but since the Paraframe and all the other crud, they have churned out, I've completely lost any desire to buy a Gerber knife.
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Hell, I'm willing to buy crappy knives, as long as they're cheap and have at least something that interests me. I own a few S&W knives which aren't the world's finest blades by any means, and even with THAT caveat I have no desire to buy what Gerber is doing these days...
 
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