Gerber , GWOT, and missed opportunities

E

edison

Joined
Jun 20, 2004
Messages
174
Would anyone else like to see the return of the Gerber MK I and II models??? You would think after 4 years of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, there'd be a ready market for them!!

Why were they discontinued in the first place? :confused:
 
Probably the same reason other knives are discontinued: sales fall off, the manufacturer can make more money with some new design.

Collectors have no real interest in seeing the design resurrected, which will damage the value of their original versions.
 
Double edged daggers are in ill repute in many jurisdictions. People are into using knives as daily carry - check the local knife case at a chinamart. Which leaves little incentive to produce a limited appeal knife.

Our troops are better served with tactical folders in a war of IED's and MRE's. There's just so much room on a vest, much less the 45 pounds of gear worn on duty. Big knives aren't wanted.

Now, Kershaw did bring back their integral forged boot knife. It's single edged, and maybe the collector market selling them for twice the price caught their attention. So if Gerber can get them made cheaply enough they could be back. And as well made as it could be, though, "Made in China" won't help sales.

It would be a travesty. I remember them in their great years.
 
Being new to this forum, please let me know why Gerber has such a tainted reputation here. I have a Gerber LMF, it's maybe 10 years old and I like it. It's a decent knife imo. Are Gerber not making good knives anymore or what? When did they start to be bad?

//Jay
 
Gerber still makes some decent knives, but their overall reliability deteriorated after they were bought out by Fiskars.
 
Is it that Gerber discontinued most of their good quality models and switched to mostly using 440a steel, or is it that Gerber has a lot of cheap pocketknives for sale, and the 'good' models are just as expensive as any other knife maker?

Don't get me wrong, there's a HUGE difference in quality between the Benchmade Mini Griptilian you can find on eBay for about 40.00, and a Gerber Trendy for about the same price.
 
There are some double edged knives making a comeback. I love my CRKT Sting
and it seems to be very popular. Once the bad guys start wearing body armour
(I figure 4 or 5 years) I would bet we see a resurgence of daggers and 308's.
I like the symetrical dagger shape but with a single edge like the Fallkniven
german army knife.
 
Esav Benyamin said:
Gerber still makes some decent knives, but their overall reliability deteriorated after they were bought out by Fiskars.
Click to expand...

This is news to me.

Being Swedish I can tell you that the Fiskars brand here is very strong, mostly in gardening tools and to some extent scissors, cooking knifes and some other knives. They are at the very top pricewise and they are percieved as a leading brand, so it surprises me that Gerber, under Fiskars ownership would deteriorate their overall quality level.

//Jay
 
At this time I own 4 knives from Gerber. Two of them are gators, one with a gut hook, a mini magnum ( I think), and a old Guardian . I love all of them, and think they are great for the price I paid for them. The gator w/o the gut hook is 154cm and hold an edge pretty good as do the other two. All three have the slightest vertical play when hevey pressue is applied to cutting (this used to bother me, but not any more. I have seen the same thing form other high brand knives that are lockbacks, and they have served me well). I used the gator to cut up some ham at my Grandmother-in-law's house over thanks giving and it worked great. Pretty much what I am saying is if you like it and it works for you, dont pay attention to what others say about something.



John
 
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