Gerber that bad? Why?

S

southbeachlaw

Joined
May 28, 2007
Messages
78
New to knives and I've seen alot of negative posts about Gerber as a company, quality of workmanship, etc.

As a starter knife (my first one) I bought a Gerber mini fastdraw before I found this forum and read this. I'm not at all married to the company and am very open minded about finding nice knives to collect.

The little Gerber seems pretty nice to others I've seen within that price range. In fact for $20.00 I couldn't find anything better and it's an assisted opener to boot. It has 440A grade steel like the AO Kershaws I've been told and seen online and the workmanship is pretty tight. The fast draw feature is nice too. Good spring. I find myself opening and closing it as I drive around! It's got a safety and keeps a good edge.

Just wondering what is so bad about these Gerber knives so that I should avoid them and spend anymore money on Gerber? Am I missing something drastic here about the actual product itself? I am dying to learn more about what main points should I be looking at when buying knives? Any advice is appreciated.

Nick
 
I had a mini LST close on me after it was securely locked open and I was only cutting cardboard. That's pretty bad for a lockback knife to fail and I will never, ever buy another Gerber because of it.
 
Short answer: many Gerber knives are cheaply made out of poor quality materials.

Longer answer: Gerber is owned by Fiskars, a very large company (which may be owned by an even larger company; not sure.)
Gerber was once a great American knife company; after being sold to Fiskars all bets were off.
Knives with the Gerber imprint are now made all over the world. The quality ranges all over the place.

For example, there are lousy Gerber knives being made in the Far East out of substandard materials (such as "surgical stainless" steel :rolleyes:)

Then there are a few Gerber models of good quality being produced in the USA.
But they're not in the price range you mentioned.

And I believe that some are produced in the Scandinavian countries, Finland in particular. (I have a few Gerber fillet knives made in Finland which are superb.)
 
Im not a huge fan of gerber but I have had positive esperience with the us models,the lst's gators etc.To me their still decent knives for the money,I carried a lst for years and recently bought another as a back up.The first one has cut miles of paper plastic and cardboard,and always held a decent edge doing it,when I used it I sharpened it every 3-4 weeks on average.All in all a good solid knife for the $18 it cost me.
 
southbeachlaw said:
New to knives and I've seen alot of negative posts about Gerber as a company, quality of workmanship, etc.

As a starter knife (my first one) I bought a Gerber mini fastdraw before I found this forum and read this. I'm not at all married to the company and am very open minded about finding nice knives to collect.

The little Gerber seems pretty nice to others I've seen within that price range. In fact for $20.00 I couldn't find anything better and it's an assisted opener to boot. It has 440A grade steel like the AO Kershaws I've been told and seen online and the workmanship is pretty tight. The fast draw feature is nice too. Good spring. I find myself opening and closing it as I drive around! It's got a safety and keeps a good edge.

Just wondering what is so bad about these Gerber knives so that I should avoid them and spend anymore money on Gerber? Am I missing something drastic here about the actual product itself? I am dying to learn more about what main points should I be looking at when buying knives? Any advice is appreciated. Nick
Click to expand...

Howdy Nick,
I think the latin term "caveat emptor", let the buyer beware, applies here. There are some good Gerbers. Lots of bad ones. Many of us have noticed a drop in Gerber quality in the past few years

I EDC'd an an EZ-out for a spell in the 90's Picked up another EZ-Out in ~ 2001 and found a much poorer product. Poorer edge retension, poorer workmanship. A lot of us remember when Gerber did really good inventive stuff. When the LST's came out in the late 70's (Could have been '80's), they were new and inventive. This makes it harder to adapt to the drop in quality and makes us less willing to accept it, because we remember when Gerber was consistently pretty good stuff.

These days, for the same amount of money as most Gerbers, you can usually get better steel and better, more consistent quality from somebody else.
 
I have a few (well... several) Gerbers. I had a couple of Paraframes in different sizes that were so dull (new) they would have been considered defective. Some of the blade locks aren't good either. They are also pretty heavy compared to Benchmade or Spyderco knives. I will say that I have a few Gerbers that were probably old stock, made in USA, that are pretty nice knives.

David
 
The shame of it is, it doesn't have to be that way. Benchmade and Spyderco and Kershaw, for example, have lines made overseas, but they maintain their accustomed quality on them.

Cold Steel and S&W are like Gerber in that the quality varies so much from model to model that you can't be sure what you're getting unless you try it out first.
 
I have an older gerber gator that my dad bought in '92 and gave to me a few years back, it's been a great knife and I use it 3-4 times a day.
 
You know, their not horrible, (well some are) but considering they get dul after a days work, not too my liking. I hat a gator model, and I was sharping that thing every day, maybe if I forked out $100 I could get one that was more usful, but no thanks. PS. IM DOING THIS ON MY PS3!!!
 
I still have my old EZ-out (ATS-34). It has/was/is a great knife. Yet,
the new ones are not the same.
I hate when companies get bought out and start changing things that worked. :mad:
I still have some Coverts that are very nice. Although I've never
carried them since they are FPR's.
When did Fiskars buy them out? 2000? 2001? Anyone...

mike
 
It has been quite a few years. Can't rember when. At one time, when Pete Gerber ran things, they were at the top of the food chain for factory knives. A real shame. I have a few made back in the 70's, and they are by far the best factory knives I have ever used. Wioth the Old Pumas a close second. Mike
 
It's not all bad. $10 - $20 knife is just that.

Gerber has talented people making designs for them. Harsey and Hinderer come to mind. Many others I'm sure. Steel choice is always up for debate and thats the thing I personally wish they'd improve on.

And I have a feeling from their current catalog that they're slowly increasing their quality product range. I'm hoping.
 
I own about ten Gerbers mostly older USA ones , but I have a AO from them, and they are FAR below the quailty that you would get for the same money from Kershaw, Buck or Camillius....
 
I think the reason Gerber get bashed so often is because they USED to make such a high quality product when they were all made in Oregon, USA. Many of their knives were once considered among the best on the market. They still manage to make some decent knife designs and if you consider how cheap most of their knives are now they offer a decent knife for a low price (even though quality control is inconsistent). But they are no longer the great product they used to be. Kinda like when your grandpa tells you that Case knives now aren't what they used to be (I used to think he was just running his mouth) and then I got my hands on some Cases made in the 50s-70s and yeah HE's RIGHT!!!!!! I think the same thing is going on with Gerber, they just ain't what they used to be.
 
Spydiefan04 said:
I think the reason Gerber get bashed so often is because they USED to make such a high quality product when they were all made in Oregon, USA. Many of their knives were once considered among the best on the market. They still manage to make some decent knife designs and if you consider how cheap most of their knives are now they offer a decent knife for a low price (even though quality control is inconsistent). But they are no longer the great product they used to be. Kinda like when your grandpa tells you that Case knives now aren't what they used to be (I used to think he was just running his mouth) and then I got my hands on some Cases made in the 50s-70s and yeah HE's RIGHT!!!!!! I think the same thing is going on with Gerber, they just ain't what they used to be.
Click to expand...

Plenty of truth in this post; very good points. :thumbup:

BTW, I recently bought a Gerber Covert in 154CM, made in Portland Oregon, and it's a real nice knife.
I was pleasantly surprised at the fit, finish, and great lockup. It's one of the few Gerber models still made in the USA.
 
the only experiences ive have had with gerber first hand have been using a multi toll for about 5 years and using a "superknife" utility knife for about a year. both are decent items, the multi tool i have has had one problem though, one of the flat head screwdriver bits has twisted from abuse but thats my fault. only failure ive seen of one was a friend broke a blade in his multi tool but he is the type of person that u give things to for destruction testing.

other than that i wouldnt really get gerber stuff and even just look at my multi tool's blade to my SOG twitch 2's blade i can tell a huge difference in just how sharp it came and just the feel over all (and the twitch 2's are not the highest thing on a lot of people lists from what i have heard just in comments, no where near the lowest either but some have some issues here and there).

one of the big things comes to how much use you need out of a knife, a few times a month a gerber is fine, a few times a week, meh you might get by with a gerber but you might be disappointed, a few times a day get something better.

-matt
 
i have the old multipliers and dread sending them in to get replaced. the new ones might not pinch the crap out of you like the ones i have but at least the steel is good. i havent had an opportunity to sharpen any new gerber knives but i have sharpened a lot of the old gators from the 90's which were made out of the good steel. i used to sharpen knives at a fundraiser and this same guy always stopped by to get his gator resharpened. he said i was the only person he would ever let sharpen it. the only thing it needed was a slight touchup with the cardboard buffing wheel and some white rouge.
 
I'm another old fogey who remembers Gerber from the 70's, when they were a premium knife company. I still have a few of those old Gerbers, and I haven't seen anything from them in many years that could compare. From what I have seen, they have really gone to the dogs.
 
The Gators are great knives, especially for the money as are the (old) AR series. I can't speak for the new knives that have the AR name, but the old ones were good.
 
southbeachlaw said:
New to knives and I've seen alot of negative posts about Gerber as a company, quality of workmanship, etc.

As a starter knife (my first one) I bought a Gerber mini fastdraw before I found this forum and read this. I'm not at all married to the company and am very open minded about finding nice knives to collect.

The little Gerber seems pretty nice to others I've seen within that price range. In fact for $20.00 I couldn't find anything better and it's an assisted opener to boot. It has 440A grade steel like the AO Kershaws I've been told and seen online and the workmanship is pretty tight. The fast draw feature is nice too. Good spring. I find myself opening and closing it as I drive around! It's got a safety and keeps a good edge.

Just wondering what is so bad about these Gerber knives so that I should avoid them and spend anymore money on Gerber? Am I missing something drastic here about the actual product itself? I am dying to learn more about what main points should I be looking at when buying knives? Any advice is appreciated.

Nick
Click to expand...


I dont want to sound rude or condecending....but the reason you think they are so good is because you dont know what a good knife is yet. Sorry if that sounds harsh. BUT if you stick around here you will learn, and with patience and a keen eye you will find much better knives for the same price point, or a few dollars more. ;)
 
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