Gerber Profile, crap or what?

S

Slowstarter

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Mar 21, 2006
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Just picked up this cheap but large folder Gerber Profile. It´s big and the rubber handles are actually realy comfortable. Anyone tried ths one? Is it crap or is it a user?
Link to Gerber-info
 
Slowstarter said:
Just picked up this cheap but large folder Gerber Profile. It´s big and the rubber handles are actually realy comfortable. Anyone tried ths one? Is it crap or is it a user?
Link to Gerber-info
Click to expand...

my son has the fixed blade, decent knife not my first choice but ya could do worse, i didnt care for the grippy handle, thats just me though. My big gripe is the sheath its crap, we made a leather one for my sons.
:)Try yours out and then post a review, alot of people love to take shots at gerber just because of their name. :mad:
all the best
ivan
 
I had one, and then gave it to one of my buddies. Its decently sized and comfy, but it kinda sucks in other aspects. The primary edge grind lines are way off, and its very difficult to sharpen, the coating scratches off easily, looks to be a paint, the sheath I wouldnt trust to keep the blade, especially in a survival situation.

All of these gripes, however can be fixed pretty easily with a new sheath, and a regrind. I do not know, however, what kind of steel they use for it, and that bothers me. If anyone knows from a credible source, let me know. I would love to see a review of someone putting one of these through the paces, batoning wood and such, just to see how she holds up. Especially for the price.

-Kirk
 
the one i had was a total failure, edge rolls, and everything else that was mentioned, a pizza for the money is well better spent.
 
I've had one for awhile, it's a decent beater, but I agree with the sharpening comments above. It's hard to keep a decent edge on it.
 
I have one of the first ones with a gold finish thats actually held up well. I used it for food prep on a couple camping trips and it was ok but it really needs a better sheath.
 
Hey if it cuts and you like it, that's all that matters. However, be aware that Gerber has a reputation of making a lot of low-end knives using a lot of 440A steel, which isn't the best at edge retention. I looked at the specs on this knife and I couldn't find out WHAT kind of steel is used, even on Gerber's website. If they don't want to tell you what the blade's made of, that's a bad sign. It's most likely 440A or lower grade stuff.

A knife doesn't have to be very good to just "work". It's a cutting tool, that's it. But would you buy a car that's ugly and cheap even though it gets you from point A to point B? Would you marry a homely girl with a bad personality just to have someone to come home to? Maybe, but most people want more, so that's why Gerber is not real popular in some circles.
 
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oobligah said:
because it is named "gerber" like the baby food company. lol :jerkit:
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Well, I suppose it could be worse. It could be some dweeb with two posts making fun of a well-respected company that's been around for a very long time.

Yeah, Gerber's made a lot of junk lately. They still make good stuff, but be warned, if it's not American-made, it's mystery steel, and you probably don't want to know where it was made.
 
I thought it was due to them being bought out by Fiskars and then being made to compete with companies like Frost cutlery more than someone like Emerson or Spyderco.
 
I recently bought a Gerber Torch and after reading how "bad" the edge retention is on the 440A, I figured I do a quick check. I got the knife yesterday and brought it to a hair whittling sharpness. It could pretty easily shave without touching the skin. With that level of sharpness, I decided to cut up a pizza box into shreds:

SSPX0301.jpg


Here's a closer pic of the knife:

SSPX0302.jpg


Afterward, the areas of the blade that got the most use no longer were able to shave without touching the skin, but they still shaved rather easily. Interestingly enough, the areas that didn't take as much of the work were still able to shave without touching the skin. I sliced this newspaper, which was about as thin as the yellow pages and it went through very smoothly:

SSPX0303.jpg


The knife went through the entire box without any noticeable difference in effort on my part to continue cutting the cardboard. For $17 shipped, I'd say it's a fine knife. I don't cut that much everyday. This blade could easily take care of a reasonable amount of random cutting. To be honest, I don't see a need for anything more than this unless your daily cutting chores are very heavy duty. 440A sharpens easily enough. These go for about $23-$30 shipped on eBay. It's really difficult for me to say that this blade is crap given that it seems to be able to do what a small, cheap folder was made to do.
 
I'm very happy with my older Gerbers, Guardian and Cliplock. I used to love the EZ-out - the only one of my knives that was stolen from me! But that was a blessing in disguise, because after losing that EZout I got a Delica, and the rest is history. :thumbup:

I got a Torch because it felt nice and filled a need. Unfortunately the shop only had tanto with combo edge. If I can find one with plain edge and clip point I'll get it, nevermind the steel (440 something, I believe). It'll cut long and well enough, and it's cheap.

Back to the topic, I picked up a Profile folder because it was dirty cheap. After handling it for five minutes (it came in a blister package) I condemned the Profile to lifetime service as the dirty & wet job car trunk knife. Why? Because the rubbery handle is big and good for wet and dirty. The blade being mystery steel and the liner lock dodgy (no lock up if opened slowly, too deep lockup if snapped open) that's all the use for the Profile I can think of. Scraping off roadkills and drunken throwing practice.

Was I disappointed? Not really. I'm surprised that Gerber now manufactures these gas station checkout counter discount grade knives. You can have quality knives made in China (Tenacious, anyone) so why let a brand go down the shitter like this?
 
jorski3000 said:
You can have quality knives made in China (Tenacious, anyone) so why let a brand go down the shitter like this?
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They were bought out and they want to offer knives at various price points and quite a few of them are very affordable price points:cool:
I dont think all of there models are crap, hell ya could get the Freeman in S30v still made in portland! (cabellas) dunno all i can say is i have first hand experience with a handful of their offerings and have nothing horrible to say about them, and a few of them i can rave about...:)
I like my freeman folder (taiwan) and my hinderer rescue knife, both lock up fine and the freeman holds a decent edge, loved my mini fast draw too, beat the hell outta that thing:thumbup: Not all of gerbers lineup is garbage dont get me wrong they make some awful (paraframe) knives but i do think they have a few that are more than serviceable. Like i said i like the FB profile, nice size and shape, sheath is about as bad as can be designed, but for a 20 dollar knife i'd say its fine... actually thought of putting some different scales on my sons
all the best
ivan
 
Kaizen1 said:
I recently bought a Gerber Torch and after reading how "bad" the edge retention is on the 440A, I figured I do a quick check. I got the knife yesterday and brought it to a hair whittling sharpness. It could pretty easily shave without touching the skin. With that level of sharpness, I decided to cut up a pizza box into shreds:

SSPX0301.jpg


Here's a closer pic of the knife:

SSPX0302.jpg


Afterward, the areas of the blade that got the most use no longer were able to shave without touching the skin, but they still shaved rather easily. Interestingly enough, the areas that didn't take as much of the work were still able to shave without touching the skin. I sliced this newspaper, which was about as thin as the yellow pages and it went through very smoothly:

SSPX0303.jpg


The knife went through the entire box without any noticeable difference in effort on my part to continue cutting the cardboard. For $17 shipped, I'd say it's a fine knife. I don't cut that much everyday. This blade could easily take care of a reasonable amount of random cutting. To be honest, I don't see a need for anything more than this unless your daily cutting chores are very heavy duty. 440A sharpens easily enough. These go for about $23-$30 shipped on eBay. It's really difficult for me to say that this blade is crap given that it seems to be able to do what a small, cheap folder was made to do.
Click to expand...

Where's the pizza?
 
"The knife went through the entire box without any noticeable difference in effort on my part to continue cutting the cardboard. For $17 shipped, I'd say it's a fine knife. I don't cut that much everyday. This blade could easily take care of a reasonable amount of random cutting. To be honest, I don't see a need for anything more than this unless your daily cutting chores are very heavy duty. 440A sharpens easily enough. These go for about $23-$30 shipped on eBay. It's really difficult for me to say that this blade is crap given that it seems to be able to do what a small, cheap folder was made to do. "

Kaizen, you've found the knife equivalent of the girl next door. She's low-maintenance, performs well, and is a cheap date.

It's hard to overcome a bad reputation, what hurts Gerber is the low-end stuff they put out. You found something you like with their name on it, more power to you!
 
Amaranth said:
Kaizen, you've found the knife equivalent of the girl next door. She's low-maintenance, performs well, and is a cheap date.

It's hard to overcome a bad reputation, what hurts Gerber is the low-end stuff they put out. You found something you like with their name on it, more power to you!
Click to expand...

Thanks Amaranth. I really got it because I thought it would be cool to have the production folder that was influenced by my normal edc, and for $17 shipped I couldn't say no to it. My EDC:

1226778937.jpg

SSPX0302.jpg
 
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