Gerber Bear Grylls Ultimate Knife

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It was tough and go, but my Bear Grylls Ultimate Survival folder passed it's first test. :)

BearvCake-2.jpg
 
The lack of steel liners means it's anything but survival ready IMO

If it was a small edc fine loose the liners but not in a "survival" knife
 
SilentJohn said:
The lack of steel liners means it's anything but survival ready IMO
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I tend to agree with you, at least if he (or Gerber) even remotely advertises it as a "hard use/extreme" type of knife.

A general camp chore knife, or the smaller folders in the line as EDC's, but after carrying this thing around a few days, I can't see it taking a real hard knock without the handle breaking.
 
when i look at it i get the idea that in hand it may feel like a toy.

to us it seems shi**y since we know a lot about knives but to some 9 year old scout its the coolest thing ever when i would rather the kid have a decent blade like a blind horse bushbaby
 
To those of us who have handled and used more knives than we can remember, and have countless hours of bush time under our belts, I am sure this line of knives is going to leave some things to be desired. However, if used as a tool to get a young fan out from in front of the television, and into the outdoors, then the value of these tools will be far greater than meets the eye. I'd say few of us here started out with knives that we would still consider to be great ones today, I know I didn't. But I do like where the path led me. I mean, exactly how long is the life is the life expectancy of a young man's first knife anyway? Is it the knife itself is the important part, or the activities inspired, skills and knowledge and learned, and habits formed?
 
I got one and it was the newer one that they say that the pommel issue has been solved, but when I pulled it out of the box, it had a small crack in the orange plastic were the pommel and handle come together. I took it back for a refund. I've also had a problem with a Gerber suspension that had a crack in the pliers joint right out of the box. Their US made knives are great, but I'll never buy another Gerber that is made in China.


 
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I put the folder in the same slot as the Gator. Should be cheaper but since it is a celebrity endorsed tool it won't be. I have new and old Gators and they are my favorite Gerber's. No real reason other than the aesthetics of them. And they don't require me to sharpen them very often. If this one had the half notch detent it would be great. The blade on mine is a bit floppy and it did bite me once before I removed the stud. It was hard to start, had a loose portion in the middle of it's arc and had a tendency to bounce back on me. Now that I removed the stud I don't try to flip it out so that's gone.

So far it has held up to cardboard consumption and some tree branch whittling. It is a folder and I wouldn't expect it or my Buck 110's or any other folder to hold up to a batoning or anything I would use a heavy fixed blade on. When my tax check comes I will test this on a ZT 30x though.

And I can't take my Gators to work as I fear one or more of my coworkers want to steal them. :D The hideous orange color insures It won't get lifted.

Haven't done any testing of the fixed blade yet.
 
mistwalker said:
To those of us who have handled and used more knives than we can remember, and have countless hours of bush time under our belts, I am sure this line of knives is going to leave some things to be desired. However, if used as a tool to get a young fan out from in front of the television, and into the outdoors, then the value of these tools will be far greater than meets the eye. I'd say few of us here started out with knives that we would still consider to be great ones today, I know I didn't. But I do like where the path led me. I mean, exactly how long is the life is the life expectancy of a young man's first knife anyway? Is it the knife itself is the important part, or the activities inspired, skills and knowledge and learned, and habits formed?
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Hmm. Maybe we are a little jaded. Never thought about it that way. But then I started out with WW II leftover kabars and such.
 
Horn Dog said:
Hmm. Maybe we are a little jaded. Never thought about it that way. But then I started out with WW II leftover kabars and such.
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I think the one thing about it that really does bother me is the name "Ultimate Knife".

Being a Marine, my father bought me a Ka-Bar when I was 12, but before that I had to learn on thin bladed Western hunting knives. They didn't handle my learning days all that well, but were made of decent steel and still much MUCH better than the first hollow handled knife I ever bought. The Ka-Bar was sort of a "coming of age", "right of passage" sort of gift when I started seriously exploring the swamps on the Hillsborough river. That old Ka-Bar was lost in a house fire four years later, but I spent so much time with it I had to have another. I keep buying them and gifting them and I still have one to this day. I don't carry it much anymore, but I would never feel under-knifed in the woods with my Ka-Bar.
 
mistwalker said:
However, if used as a tool to get a young fan out from in front of the television, and into the outdoors, then the value of these tools will be far greater than meets the eye. I'd say few of us here started out with knives that we would still consider to be great ones today, I know I didn't.
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Good point. I picked the BG Scout up on a whim. Its not bad, I actually like it. I have been EDC'ing it for two weeks using it for everything and its a pretty good 'intro' folder. No play in the joints, really comfortable handle, 'can't-lose-me ' orange. Actually rides low in the pocket and is hard to dislodge accidentally. For a kid or newcomer to the bush I could see this being an old favorite along the lines of those early gerber EZ outs, or hollow handle survival knives you used as a kid.

If you are a guy/girl who has never done outdoor/bushcraft stuff before it would be an ok place to start. Are there better? Yes, but you will discover them as you grow in skill and use of the tool. If you know your fireboard from your fuzzstick then you can see what you will and won't like about this for your skills set and choose a better knife accordingly.

He should do a episode or two where his equipment is not his 'ultimate knife Fixed Blade' but one of the folders. If it breaks, well then its time to do a segment on how to improvise with a broken knife.:)


Also, does anyones equipment survive a real survival situation completely intact? I saw the actual BHK Pathfinder knife that Canterbury used on Dual Survivor and it looked functional, with plenty of personalizing 'character' as it were. I would be interested to see how the BG knives wear in the future.

If you don't care for it how would you design Brear Grylls ultimate knife to be what you think would pass muster? There are a few innovations in the designs of the line, where would you go from there?
 
Jeff Venture said:
If you don't care for it how would you design Brear Grylls ultimate knife to be what you think would pass muster? There are a few innovations in the designs of the line, where would you go from there?
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I would use a softer plastic that would give a little without breaking, or use the LMF II style handle material (which seems much more reliable) and make sure that the QC is in place to catch faulty products before they leave the factory. As you can see from my earlier post, I had two Gerber "China" products that were faulty "out of box". Good QC practices should have caught them.
 
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Raise your hand if you think it would have been easier and better, for Gerber just to have made the LMF in a new color and packaged it with all of the Bear goodies that came with this knife. The LMF isn't the ultimate bush knife, but it's a lot tougher than this knife must have been.

SP
 
I would make it full solid tang

I agree on giving it the lmf handle with a 1/2 inch lanyard hole . On the sheath I would make it kydex with the lmf sharpener but also a small steel bow drill pivot
 
Horn Dog said:
Yes. Whether or not I had weakened the pommel by smashing a little acorn earler, I can't say. I have yet to find the pommel as it sailed off into heavy undergrowth.
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Didn't you read the instructions? The pommel flying off is a designed feature. It will KO a snipe-who are notorious for popping out of heavy underbrush and sneaking up unsuspecting survivalists while they are banoning.

:p
 
EasternCherokee said:
I got one and it was the newer one that they say that the pommel issue has been solved, but when I pulled it out of the box, it had a small crack in the orange plastic were the pommel and handle come together. I took it back for a refund. I've also had a problem with a Gerber suspension that had a crack in the pliers joint right out of the box. Their US made knives are great, but I'll never buy another Gerber that is made in China.


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I have a Gerber Suspension. I found out from a reviewer on Amazon that some of the Suspensions are made in China, and some are made in Taiwan. The MIT ones tend to be better. So I Cherry picked at Wally World, and had to check 3 before I got the MIT one.
 
SilentJohn said:
The lack of steel liners means it's anything but survival ready IMO

If it was a small edc fine loose the liners but not in a "survival" knife
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I remember bringing this same query up about somehigher end knives that had only one side-steel liners (ZT Hinderer) or even some of the new TriadLock CS knives that have NO steel liners, and it seemed pretty unanimous that, as long as the handle and lock are strong enough, the lack of steel liners means little-to-nothing in the knife's overall strength and quality.

So, I ask, could it be that we're nitpicking over these folders because they're Gerber and Bear Grylls? Is there a bit of a double standard?
 
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