Gerber Knives?

M

meshmdz

Joined
Apr 29, 2006
Messages
417
hey fellas, i am new here. i am the founder of a firearms forum and have always loved blades, but never got around to signing up with a blade forum. well i finally did it and i look to get some great information here on this forum. this one looked like the best when i did a search for them and here i am..:D now, my question is twofold. is there a gerber forum? if not, how come? and secondly, are gerber knives really good? i have like 4 of them and just bought a new one... here is a picture of the one i just bought...
springbreak2006062.jpg

i have always heard tha gerbers are some of the best knives in the world, well as far as being tough and reliable, goes.. is this factual?

thanks fellas.


-mesh
 
welcome to the forum. you will be amazed what you will learn here about all aspects of knives from blade steel to customer support. you might want to try the search function to find out the many varied opinions about gerber. it seems that lately gerber is not too well thought of. several models are now made offshore and they have been accused of stealing other companies designs. most of my experience was with gerber before they were bought by fiskars. at that time i was very pleased with the quality of their product. I'm sure you'll get a lot posts to this thread as people here tend to have pretty strong opinions.once again welcome to the forum, later, ahgar
 
Gerbers are great starter knives, and are fairly, and economicaly priced.

As far as the BEST in the world? Well....The LMF and Silver Tritent are prety good knives! But the strait-skinny is that they just dont hold up to other companies like Spyderco and Bench Made.

Don't sweat it though. The blade you have in your picture is a verry durrable knife, even if the edge retentions isnt quite as good as some other knives. :)
 
Don't own one, but I was set to buy one (can't remember which) of the auto openers until I actually played with it a bit, and decided against it. The action was lame, IMO, compared to that of Buck or Kershaw. The knife itself looked well enough made, but only time and use tells that one.

The one you picture looks nice. If it can hold and edge, it ought to get the job done.
 
Gerber started off well, then went mass market and lowered some standards as well as prices. I think, and please remember that these are only my opinions, that Gerber makes good knives, but never, to my knowledge, the best or even close to the best in a given category. Except maybe price category, which is why I don't bash them. I'd rather the guy next to me have a Gerber than tell me he's got toenail clippers and he's saving up for a Strider.

Another factor is the difference between combat and tactical knives. Except for the older high quality stuff and the exceptional new stuff, gerbers make better tactical (less likely to use it at all, more likely to use it on a person) knives than combat (more likely to use it on everything, less likely to use it on a person) knives. The SOG Seal and Seal pup are good examples of good (but not superior) tacticals in that they have well thought out lethal designs, but relitively lower edge retention and lateral strength. The knife you have there is a nice tactical, but a remote substitute for a Fehrman Peacemaker, Strider MFS or SA, or Busse Meaner Street. But those knives probably cost 3-5 times as much.

Gerber makes great products for the people who can afford them, but inferior products for people who can afford better, IMO. Additionally, I think that Gerber has some great designs that they should produce with higher quality materials, even if only in limited quantity runs.
 
And Welcome to the forum!!! I just noticed that was your first post.
I hope you get good feedback. This issue can get polarized, so weigh everything you hear in the balance of your own experience.
 
now that i think about it why isnt there a gun forum here. we have the gear n crap but a dedicated section would b better........o ya n welcome :D
 
spyder10 said:
now that i think about it why isnt there a gun forum here. we have the gear n crap but a dedicated section would b better........o ya n welcome :D
Click to expand...


I'm gonna say 'cause the name of the site is bladeforums.com? There must be plenty of gun sites out there with forums (fora?) to visit.
 
Count yourself lucky that you signed up before buying too many.

Gerber is a strange duck. It appeared to be a good up-and-coming knife company at one point, but the prices of its knives vice quality soon began to take a toll on the company.

Y'see, any time a company decides to lower its steel quality without really telling anyone, it's bound to have a negative impact. Gerber used to make a nice little EZ-Out and they made it with ATS-34 steel, which it proudly stamped on the blade. Now it's merely advertised as 400-series steel, which means it can be any junk steel that happens to be on sale in any given week.

One of the most important things, according to most people here (and I'm no great authority on it), is to know what you're getting in the blade steel. "Surgical stainless" means nothing since all surgical stainless blades used in operating rooms are only used once, then discarded and destroyed.

Opinions vary greatly on what constitutes good steel. Most quality knives begin at around 440A, 440C, AUS 6, or AUS 8 -- not necessarily in that order. Higher grade steels would be ATS-34, 154CM, VG-10, etc. See http://www.ragweedforge.com/kniv.html for some basic info, as well as Wikipedia's entry on "knife."

I've had very good luck with AUS 8, but many prefer higher grades. Even so, many swear by Buck's 110 folder, the blade of which is made of 420 (not a generally well made steel). Buck uses a consistently fine hardening process from what I've heard and you won't hear many complaints, though many people choke at 420 grades, which is cheaper, hardware store-type stainless.

Columbia River (CRKT) also has cheapened some of its knives, but has a very good line of AUS 8-bladed knives.

You'll find a diverse knife culture here and few opinions will go unchallenged. But that's what makes it fun.

--Confed

GER0006.jpg


Gerber's pleasing little EZ-Out is still a favorite with
people due to its light weight. Who knows what the
blade steel is, though? I still carry one a lot.
 
Welcome.

I've got a few older Gerbers (EZ out, EZ out jr., Ridge, Paraframe) and think they make a great starter knife. Since I've found this site, I've improved my purchases up to Kershaws and Spydercos. I also intend on dipping into the Benchmade brand sometime soon.

Again, welcome aboard.
 
thanks fellas. the help has been good....


i just thought that from their site and all that they had good knives.. :confused: oh well.. plus, since i am a gun buff, i just always thought it was crazy to pay lots of cash for a knife... but thats just me.. but i guess you do get what you pay for. this knife will be a good asset to my CCW rig. if i run out of ammo then i always can fall back to my gerber... :thumbup: just a quick question... what is my knife that i have pictured up above REALLY made for.. someone said tactical.. is that true? is it for like killing people...:eek: is that what tactical means? sorry if i sound stupid but i am a gun buff and a newbie when it comes to knives.. but in time i hope i can know alot about kinves too.
 
That knife is made for selling to people first, and for being used an an implement second (said somewhat facetiously).
I'm full of definitions that are useful to me, but not necessarily definitive for others, so use your own judgement when taking my advice.
You have a good backup knife/concealment knife there. The 1/3 height primary grind and significant full stock thickness add to it's lateral and overall strength, while the top grind adds to it's penetration capability and weight distribution. The plasticy grips add far more to usability than they take away from concealability. The design works very well, it is only the execution that is in question. And it is indeed in question. If you will only be using it to remove flex-cuffs from arrestees, or sticking it into someone's hand as they grab at your holstered gun then it's a great knife. But if you suddenly find that it is the only thing you have to cut the barbed wire at the top of a large fence so you and your team can proceed with an o'dark-thirty methlab raid then you've got a mediocre tool there.

Let me compare that Gerber to a beretta .22 auto when you could be carrying a HK p7 or Kahr 9mm. You're just not going to get battle rifle results, nor should you expect them, from a small and inferior package, but there are much better implements in the same dimensional category. Still, no matter how superior the competition, you have a working weapon/tool. If you don't expect to exceed its capabilities, then all of our experience and theory amounts to little more than reading material.
 
yea my only purpose for this knife will be self defense should that horribly ever come upon me.. i hope i never EVER have to use it but i think that it is a good reliable knife for just that... and when i deer hunt and for field dressing game, etc...


so gerbers must not be that bad after all.. haha
 
Let me build on the gun anallogy a little bit, since thats what your more familiar with.

I would say that Gerber Vs. say, Benchmade, is like CCW'ing Full metal Jackets Vs. Speer Gold Dot hollow points. The Gerber will cut anything a similar benchmade will; just like how the FMJ will poke a hole in anything the hollow point will. The difference is the Benchmade will hold its edge WAY longer and have much better fit and finish of parts; Just like how the hollow points will make a MUCH more destructive wound channel then the FMJ.

The Gerber can do the job fine...It just wont do it for nearly as long as a higher end knife.

Hope that helps?

*EDIT*

If your looking for a Back up for your gun, look at something like the Boker Applegate Boot knife, or a similarly constructed knife. IMHO, thats the style of knife you should keep around for Self defence use. The Boker Runs about $95.
 
damn though, i dont have that kind of budget.. LOL. so gerbers wont hold up as long as the others will.. i had heard that gerbers and bucks held an edge for a pretty good while.. but i am glad that i have this blade forum to come to so then that way i can get the truth from some real knifers. thanks again fellas... i enjoy reading this thread..
 
meshmdz said:
damn though, i dont have that kind of budget.. LOL. so gerbers wont hold up as long as the others will.. i had heard that gerbers and bucks held an edge for a pretty good while.. but i am glad that i have this blade forum to come to so then that way i can get the truth from some real knifers. thanks again fellas... i enjoy reading this thread..
Click to expand...


Well, They DO hold and edge a long time compared to the no-name manufacturors that 90% of the population carry. Also, most Bucks are still better than most Gerbers. :D

As far as your budget, give it time. When I first joined Blade forums, I thought my $30 S&W Homeland security was one spendy, hi-quality piece of steel. Now I got no problem droping a bill on a knife. :D
 
Confederate said:
Even so, many swear by Buck's 110 folder, the blade of which is made of 420 (not a generally well made steel). Buck uses a consistently fine hardening process from what I've heard and you won't hear many complaints, though many people choke at 420 grades, which is cheaper, hardware store-type stainless.
Click to expand...
Buck uses 420HC (high carbon) which is not bad steel for knives, not the 420J2 that's better suited for handle material than for blades.
 
They make the best pliertool in my opinion, though they have gotten weird with the auto pliers though. I dont know if they still make the model i have, a wrist snap and the whole thing would slide out.

I had an ezout from oh... 7 years ago, i think thats when they were new. They went through different steel options and new designs with those large spaces in the blades.
I think gerber is a good knife for the money. They have some that are too cheap and id be weary of actually getting but others with good metal and fair prices.
If you wanted to get another id say first off, check the steel. If the steel is decent then id say go with the feel. How it feels in your hand is very important. If both of these check out id say dont worry about getting a bad knife.

Oh, i hear they make good camp axes too.
 
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