Gerbers made in Taiwan

Joined
Mar 13, 2001
Messages
1,157
I saw a post awhile back, someone was commenting that they thought that the Gerber Harsey Air Ranger that is made in Taiwan and has an AUS8A blade holds an edge very well. I guess I got hold of a bad one the other day because I used one that had an excellent edge to cut about a three inch slit in the bottom of the leg of a pair of jeans in order to get them off of a person and when I was looking at the knife later, it actually needed sharpening on the part of the blade I used. I resharpened it and played around with it on some old jeans and it will not hold an edge very well. I have some other higher quality knives in AUS8A that will surpass this one by far.
 
I don't know if your Harsey folder does this, but many Gerbers I've owned have one annoying problem. When you close the blade, the edge makes contact with the inside of the spacer or handle. I've seen this on the Bolt Actions, on the Applegates, and on the Chameleons. If your knife has a fine sharp edge, you end up blunting the edge if you shut the blade closed. Look inside and see if you've created a cut mark on the spacer.
 
Originally posted by el cid
I don't know if your Harsey folder does this, but many Gerbers I've owned have one annoying problem. When you close the blade, the edge makes contact with the inside of the spacer or handle. I've seen this on the Bolt Actions, on the Applegates, and on the Chameleons. If your knife has a fine sharp edge, you end up blunting the edge if you shut the blade closed. Look inside and see if you've created a cut mark on the spacer.
I have seen the problem that you refer to but this one doesn't do that. I think this knife just has a case of QC on the temper process. It sharpens a whole lot quicker and easier than most AUS8 does.
 
The poor edge holding could very well be due to the temper process. I have not had a chance to check out the Harsey folder, but is the steel type indicated on the blade or on the box? Could it be 440A or 425M?
 
I'm not sure what steel is in the Air Ranger,
But in my two SLG's the steel is ats-34.
One of them has a bad temper, I could not get a decent edge on the top half of the blade and you can see a slight line or discoloration.
On my other SLG, the steel is perfect. Same edgeholding as any other ats-34 blade I've used.
 
Originally posted by el cid
The poor edge holding could very well be due to the temper process. I have not had a chance to check out the Harsey folder, but is the steel type indicated on the blade or on the box? Could it be 440A or 425M?
I went to a store that handles this knife to see if their literature said the same as what came with the knife and seems as if this is AUS8A. It is a Gerber Harsey Air Ranger First Production Run made in Taiwan. This will probably be my last post on this as I am leaving tomorrow on vacation for at least 2 wks.
 
Concerning that Gerber from Taiwan - I had one of the old FS I's that
"bottomed out" when closing it - could be that or poor temper - it's still one of those things that is almost individually done.
 
On my Gerber 450 EZ-Out folder I have the opposite problem, the blade is too hard. It holds an edge extremely well, even though it does indeed "bottom out" as mentioned above. Thing is, I've already lost one tooth on the serration. Granted I have had this thing for a few years, but the conditions under which is broke were far far from strenuous... I think I was cuting a piece of twine or something like that. Hardly breaking conditions.
 
Back
Top