Review Gerber Strongarm VS Gerber Strongarm (?)

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old4570

Banned By Request
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US made Strongarm VS Chinese made Strongarm :

Sharpening :

US made : Edge was Fubar & poorly ground , took a fair amount of effort to regrind 80 grit on the wet stone grinder .
Chinese made : Even more Fubar & even more poorly ground ! Took 3 times the effort compared to the US Gerber .
Conclusion : Both knives were ground by trained chimps ? The US chimps seem to be better trained than the Chinese chimps ? .. Though it's nothing to crow about !
( I heard there was a shortage of people in the US knife industry ) Anyone looking for a job ?

Anyways , been wanting to do a compare'o for a long time now ! Head to head so to speak .
Some people rave about the Strongarm and yet others poo poo it something fierce . ( Which knife is raved about and which knife poo poo'ed ? )
Only the US knife had a factory edge and it was rubbish . The Chinese knife lost it's factory edge a long time ago .
So both knifes got a fresh regrind . Actually I ground a few knives while I was at it , one way to kill time on a Friday afternoon since the humidity was high .
But those Gerbers really took a lot of effort . ( Geez )

So , anyway ! As soon as time permits and the humidity drops bellow 50% I will slice rope .
Now I wont mix up the knives cos .. The US knife is brown and the Chinese knife is black .. So no mixing them up .
 
didn't know Gerber had a China made strongarm? ya gonna compare a fake to a real one? thanks.
 
Yeah , there is one big tell as to which is which ..
A little while ago , pre Covid BS .... Both were being sold on the Oz market as the Strongarm .
So , those that bought the Chinese made one were being defrauded ..
And some of those fakes were going for the same money as the real deal .. ( greedy bee hives )
No longer can you buy the fakes on Feebay , but you can still buy unbranded copies from China under another name ( I don't remember )
But I have one of each currently in my possession and .................... Hmmm , a head to head seemed in order !
Just out of curiosity . I am not promoting either knife since the Gerber name is &^%&$()(8 in this house .
Did I own a decent Gerber ? ............ Maybe my old Silver knight ? Which was the first Gerber I ever got in the 80's .. I should fish it out and maybe ..................

Anyways , humidity is around 80% right now ... Needs to come down a lot to use paper as a test medium .
 
Ok , so the first test is null and void !
Yes , some one stuffed up ..
I ground the Gerber first and the Chinese second ... Thinking I could simply place the clamp at the same place and replicate the first grind ( Wrong ) ..
The two knives are ground with enough variance to induce a rather large error ...
3 Degrees actually ..
Gerber was 17 degrees ( 250 )
Chinese was 14 degrees .. ( 350 )
I picked up on it only after I started slicing with the Chinese made knife .. Edge roll went to the Chinese knife by 100 slices . But the test is invalid ..

HRC ..
USA 65/60 .. Butt & it's a huge butt ! The Gerber actually seems to have some sort of coating on it ( hard ) .. Not sure the file ever bit the steel .
Chinese 60/55 .. This knife seems to be ????? Painted ? The coating is uber thin and the HRC file bites the steel without issue .
Bites / Skates ....

So ... Where are we ? I just did a guided knife sharpener edge on both knives at 17 Degrees ( per side ) . I should have done this first ( I guess with 20/20 hindsight )
17 degrees being what the Gerber had Factory .
So both knives now have samo samo edges . And I will do this from the beginning .. And after testing the guided edges , do another 80 grit grind ..
Oh well ! Sometimes life is FUBAR .
 

Ok !!!
17 degree edges done on the guided knife sharpener ..
Gerber rolled out another 250 Roll .. Matching the first test almost exactly the same ..

Chinese rolled out a 150 Roll with a 17 degree edge , that's some 200 slices less than with the 14 degree edge ..

Both knives have been on the wet stone grinder , this time with the 60 grit wheel ( cos it was on there ) .
And ground as near 17 degrees as I can .. So till next time ...
 
Enzo’s Woodshop said:
65HRC??? You sure??
Click to expand...

Yes , Im sure the 65HRC file bit the coating .. Scratched it good .. ( My brother will like that )
And the 60HRC file skated ( USA Gerber ) How hard is the steel underneath ?

On the Chinese knife the 60HRC file bit and the 55HRC file skated ...

Anyways , Gerber has rolled out 250 two times now .. Here in Oz the Strong arm is almost a $120 knife .. That's so far not good value for a $100+ knife ..
120 divided by 250 gives us 48c a slice .. ( So far )
Maybe the 60 grit grind will improve that ?
 

Alright :
Gerber StrongArm = 250 / 250 and 300 with a 60 grit grind ( wet stone grinder ) .. So we saw a slight increase with the 60 grit wheel .

Chinese StrongArm = 350 / 150 and 350 with a 60 grit grind ( wet stone grinder ) .. Hmmm , looks like the Chinese StrongArm likes the ground edges . This time around both edges are as near Gerber Factory angle as I can do .

Conclusion ? Is there a conclusion ?

I'm no Gerber fan boy ..... So if I was to draw a conclusion , it would be to spend money some where else ..

Here in Oz @ 120 Bananas or there about .. The Gerber is not great value ( if that matters ? ) . If you have to have one , your buying a average knife for a fair amount of money .
It's up to the individual I guess .. Now as for those people that got defrauded ? Well , it looks like they didn't get ripped a new one from a performance perspective .
With a ground edge ( wet stone grinder ) the Chinese StrongArm is able to hold it's own . But on a guided edge the Gerber has a strong lead in regards to edge retention .
Apples and Oranges ! I think most people out there will be happy simply not knowing .. ( Ignorance is bliss )
 
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