- Joined
- Feb 5, 2005
- Messages
- 857
The main Bladeforums discussion board has had a number of posts in the last couple of years from members who lament the decline in quality of Gerber knives. I wonder if any of the folks who frequent this board have had any recent experience with Gerber multitools?
My own memories of Gerber products used to be favorable. I grew up in rural Texas, which to this day is friendly towards folding knives carried on a belt sheath. As a youngster and teenager, I EDCed a Buck 422 Bucklite on a sheath.
However, after leaving home to go to the 'big city' (Austin) to attend college, I found my belt sheath would often draw unwanted attention, so I switched to a pocket-clipped EDC - the now-classic Gerber AR 3.00. I beat that knife to hell and it never failed me. Subsequently, I owned a Gerber 600 mulititool and was also favorably impressed.
However, over time, as I graduated college, went to work, and was able to afford to experiment with different knife/tool makes and models, I drifted away from Gerber. Then, last year, I purchased a Paraframe folder and thought the fit and finish was poor and the blade steel suspect. After doing some searching on Bladeforums, I found many others who had found recent Gerber products wanting (many trace the decline to Fiskars' acquisition of Gerber).
And yet, despite the apparent consensus among at least a large minority of knife fans here on the forums that Gerber's quality is lacking, the company seems to continue to succeed commercially, at least as measured by the huge addition to their catalogue in just the last 12-18 months.
So, my question is - has anyone been able to trace a decline in Gerber multitools similar to the perceived decline in Gerber knives?
My own memories of Gerber products used to be favorable. I grew up in rural Texas, which to this day is friendly towards folding knives carried on a belt sheath. As a youngster and teenager, I EDCed a Buck 422 Bucklite on a sheath.
However, after leaving home to go to the 'big city' (Austin) to attend college, I found my belt sheath would often draw unwanted attention, so I switched to a pocket-clipped EDC - the now-classic Gerber AR 3.00. I beat that knife to hell and it never failed me. Subsequently, I owned a Gerber 600 mulititool and was also favorably impressed.
However, over time, as I graduated college, went to work, and was able to afford to experiment with different knife/tool makes and models, I drifted away from Gerber. Then, last year, I purchased a Paraframe folder and thought the fit and finish was poor and the blade steel suspect. After doing some searching on Bladeforums, I found many others who had found recent Gerber products wanting (many trace the decline to Fiskars' acquisition of Gerber).
And yet, despite the apparent consensus among at least a large minority of knife fans here on the forums that Gerber's quality is lacking, the company seems to continue to succeed commercially, at least as measured by the huge addition to their catalogue in just the last 12-18 months.
So, my question is - has anyone been able to trace a decline in Gerber multitools similar to the perceived decline in Gerber knives?