bear grylls stuff fad or functional?

The Bear Grylls name is used to obscure the shody Chinese crap that it sits on. If it wasn't for the name the stuff would be selling exclusively at flea market stalls. There are far better knives out there at far more reasonable prices.

n2s
 
cricketdave said:
The Gerber stuff is mostly extremely mediocre, just the way it is. You can buy many knives, tools etc that perform far better for the same price.

and the piss drinking thing well......
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I haven't laughed that hard in a while, made my night.
 
scramble4a5 said:
I have the Ultimate Survival knife second edition. I am by no means an expert but I have beat the hell out of that thing and it holds up. As a back up when backpacking or camping it is serviceable.

I bought some flat black spray paint and painted the sheath and orange bits on the handle. Now you would never know it is that knife unless you get a close up look. What can I say. I was bored one weekend.
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Orange could come in handy backpacking/camping should you drop your blade in the brush, makes it quicker to fine at the very least.
 
Gotta love when people see Gerber and cringe despite them actually making some decent stuff. Don't judge the whole company over a few crappy knives.
 
Noswad0208 said:
Gotta love when people see Gerber and cringe despite them actually making some decent stuff. Don't judge the whole company over a few crappy knives.
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The vast majority of Gerber products made in the last two decades have been legitimate junk, the exceptions being a few here and there bright spots in the imports and the autos they make in the US with real S30V and not chopped up soda cans like most of their China knives. They only recently started even saying what they steel is in most of their imports, the majority is 7Cr17, which is like 440A. Not horrible, but not good either. For the price, you can get a vastly superior product from Kershaw.

For the record, I own two Gerbers, an Evo (which is total crap) and an 06 (which I had reground to remove the serrations and make it tanto recurve and is fairly decent) so I'm not just a blind hater speaking here.
 
Noswad0208 said:
Gotta love when people see Gerber and cringe despite them actually making some decent stuff. Don't judge the whole company over a few crappy knives.
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They haven't done themselves any favors by letting their standards fall so low on so many products while still marketing them as suitable to trust your life to.

Out of curiosity what are the good products? I'd be happy if they are improving.
On that the quality of the BG pro series is supposedly better.
 
not2sharp said:
The Bear Grylls name is used to obscure the shody Chinese crap that it sits on. If it wasn't for the name the stuff would be selling exclusively at flea market stalls. There are far better knives out there at far more reasonable prices.
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Some people think the Bear Grylls™ brand is not exactly a glowing endorsement of anything. :thumbdn:

"Les Stroud on Survival, Nearly Dying, and Why Bear Grylls is a Fraud":

http://www.outsideonline.com/outdoo...uru/What-Would-Survivorman-Do-Les-Stroud.html
 
beaconterraone said:
Some people think the Bear Grylls™ brand is not exactly a glowing endorsement of anything. :thumbdn:

"Les Stroud on Survival, Nearly Dying, and Why Bear Grylls is a Fraud":

http://www.outsideonline.com/outdoo...uru/What-Would-Survivorman-Do-Les-Stroud.html
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I am a big fan of Les but his knives are not significantly better. If I had to pick between the two I'd go with Les's Camillus knife in an instant, but there is really nothing special or unique about it.

After watching his show through the years I have determined he is not much of a knife guy at all. I highly doubt he brought much if any insight into the design of his knife.
 
EChoil said:
Basically Bear Grylls sold out. For every piece of his Gerber gear there are better pieces for the price. This stuff if for birthday parties, the drive-in movie and backyard family campouts.
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Pretty much the way I see it except for the "selling out" part. If I were Grylls, I'd probably work a deal too with a knife manufacturer. It is up to the consumer to determine if the product is of sufficient quality to merit the price. For most, I suspect the "mediocre" term is applicable. But I also believe that the majority of the Grylls knives seldom get used anyway or used once for that camping trip with the family. Most of the Chinese knives are pretty mediocre. Their factories tend to produce a product with pretty good fit and finish which sells the knife (along with the price of course), but the steel used is very average in the knife world.
 
I think the BG line is a great idea, on paper. Too bad they cant provide better quality stuff and keep the price affordable. How about a line of BG Pro or BG Extreme that really is good stuff and price it whatever it has to be, just to have it available if someone wants it?
 
Noswad0208 said:
Gotta love when people see Gerber and cringe despite them actually making some decent stuff. Don't judge the whole company over a few crappy knives.
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A few crappy knives? Pray tell, which ones are the good ones? Or at the very least. Which are the decent ones.?
 
I agree with a two tiered approach in terms of quality within the BG line. I think that makes a lot of sense. Customers can choose what they prefer and BG is not necessarily supporting the sale of cheap low quality stuff in the process.
 
Noswad0208 said:
Gotta love when people see Gerber and cringe despite them actually making some decent stuff. Don't judge the whole company over a few crappy knives.
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A few crappy knives? Gerber's lineup is pretty much inferior to the types of weapons you find made in prisons.
 
BG stuff is crap. I had a BG Ultimate Survival knife back before I knew anything about knives and it broke within a week. Stay away from that garbage.
 
Charlie_K said:
A few crappy knives? Gerber's lineup is pretty much inferior to the types of weapons you find made in prisons.
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...Really Charlie? I mean Gerber may not be the top tier of the cutlery industry these days but when people say things like this it's time to make a few corrections. Gerbers are inexpensive "ok" knives which although the quality has gone down over the years, they still cut. not amazing, but not quite sharpened toothbrush handle bad.
 
NY Yankee said:
I think the BG line is a great idea, on paper. Too bad they cant provide better quality stuff and keep the price affordable. How about a line of BG Pro or BG Extreme that really is good stuff and price it whatever it has to be, just to have it available if someone wants it?
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That's not where the money is. The BG line probably sells more at Walmart in one day than Stroud's Helle Temagami has sold since it was introduced. Have to remember that BG may have a say, but in all likelihood he doesn't own the licensing of his own products, and may not even have the final say on how they are made. Somebody paid him alot of money and royalties for that licensing, and the market for $150 survival knives is miniscule in comparison to $30 peghook knives at Walmart.
 
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nick21 said:
To be honest I wouldn't go with a Gerber period. The Bear Grylls stuff is especially awful.
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This right here.

Start with a low quality product, and then make it visually unappealing by adding orange and "BG" branding to it.
You might as well get a Duck Dynasty machete.
 
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