Gerber BG Parang - review

panzertroop · Dec 7, 2011

I was surprised with this Gerber Parang from my brother-in-law for an early Christmas present. To be totally upfront I am not a fan of BG or the Gerber line of BG knives. The seem like over hyped crap. That being said when I opened my present and started handling it I became pretty excited!

The weight, feel and overall construction is far from cheap or crap.

Here are the specs:
Overall Length: 19.5
Blade Length: 13.5
Weight (with sheath): 25.4 oz.
Weight (no sheath): 19.4 oz.
High Carbon Steel, Full Tang

The sheath seems to be very well made

Air Rescue signals on the back (kind of hokey)

Handle is very comfy!

Nice grind

Indoor testing with paper and soft wood. Not bad. Needs to be touched up.

Decently thick spine

Stay tuned for field testing! Coming soon.

panzertroop · Dec 7, 2011

Part Deux....

Ok boys and girls. Panzer Grills and his crew went deep into the bush to bring you a review like no other. Filled with spills and chills, living life on the razor edge! In Ohio!

First thing I found to chop was downed Sycamore branch. I think it was the only dry piece of wood today. The area we went to was along the river, everything was wet from rising and receding waters.

The Parang did pretty well chopping hardwood. My arm wore out before the blade did.

No damage to the blade at all. No chips or rolls of the edge. In fact after chopping completely through the limb the blade chopped through living saplings easily.

The curved blade handles pretty well as a draw knife

Osage Orange fruit (hedge apples) gave the parang no issues

Even my camera man got involved with testing.

Overall I very happy with the parang. It holds and edge well, is sturdy with very little flex to the blade. It handles large limbs to pencil size green stuff. I would not use this as my wood processing blade but for clearing brush around camp it will be perfect.

More testing to come. Panzer Grills signing off!

sinjans · Dec 7, 2011

decent blade. good job fella. thanks

Mistwalker · Dec 8, 2011

Nice review thanks. I was looking at those at a local store a while back trying to decide how I felt about the handle/ blade relationship. Typically i like them to angle the other way, like a Kukri or the BK&T Machaxe, because it is more comfortable on my wrist. But it did look pretty heavy duty which is something i do like. It's actually a hidden tang but that in and of itself is not a bad thing on a large blade used for chopping. I'd be curious to the dimensions of the tang.

barrabas74 · Dec 8, 2011

I was looking at picking this parang up as I have grown to love parangs but have been put off by Gerber for some time now. Looks like I'll be buying this one if for no other reason but to give it a try too

JTC · Dec 8, 2011

Nice job Panzer! I have one also and have been impressed with it. Seems like a good buy for $30 or so bucks. Mine didnt come quite as sharp as yours but a quick trip through the worksharp fixed that. It does have a good solid feel to it and the handle shape is very comfotable.

sweetcostarica · Aug 28, 2012

Opps double post (see below).

sweetcostarica · Aug 28, 2012

Important: As of August 16, 2012 Gerber Legendary Blades, in cooperation with the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), is voluntarily recalling Gerber Bear Grylls Parang Machetes.

Hazard: A weakness in the area where the handle meets the blade can cause the handle or the blade to break during use, posing a laceration hazard.

Incidents/Injuries: The firm received 24 reports of breakages, including one report of a laceration injury in Canada, which did not involve stitches.

Action: call CPSC and/or go to: http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml12/12248.html

Murdamook · Aug 28, 2012

Did you really gravedig an old thread just to double post information that most-if not all-of the people on this forum already knew about?

sweetcostarica · Aug 28, 2012

Murdamook said:
Did you really gravedig an old thread just to double post information that most-if not all-of the people on this forum already knew about?

Yep, sure did. I was looking for the review I did and posted recently but found this one instead. Sorry if any offense was made none was intended and hopefully someone who has a B.G. Survival Parang saw the recall/warning for the 1st time (I know I just found out one hour ago).

Cheers