Very Old Gerber Find and Question

[Kyui Su Kim]

I was browsing through the local ads and found this old Gerber. From what I can find, it looks like the Folding Hunter but is labeled 97223. Only thing is, that is the model number for what appears to be a completely different knife? The blade measures about 3.5 in and the handle appears to be made of wood instead of plastic. Of course, there is all sorts of issues with this knife, most of which being that it is missing it's lockbar. I have contacted Gerber about possibly recitfying the issue, but we shall see if they can in lieu of the age of the knife.

Is this knife the Folding Hunter and are these the original handles?

 

[Yalius]

Well, 97223 is the zip code where Gerber is located.

 

[Timber Man]

I have one of those in very good shape. Interesting knife, one of my first Gerbers.

Regards,

Timber Man

 

[The Mastiff]

That should be M2 HSS right? And Walnut grips. Looks like most of the chrome plating Gerber put on the M2 is gone. One of those in LNIB condition can bring pretty good money. There is Chinese knockoffs of the old Gerbers ( that isn't one), and one very good Japanese knife maker makes a modern "tribute" model which is very nice, but costs less than a collector grade new model.

I have no clue if Gerber would even fix that folder as it's for all purposes a different company than the one that made that knife. If you could get it fixed up it would be a fun endeavor but it would probably not sell for the costs needed for a real restore job. As far as users go they were ahead of their time but that time was long ago. We are well ahead of there now in performance and comfort of grips, strength, cutting ability, etc. Still, I would like to have an original in good condition. I'm a sucker for knives made of High speed steels, and nice wood grips.

Cool knife.

 

[Kyui Su Kim]

That should be M2 HSS right? And Walnut grips. Looks like most of the chrome plating Gerber put on the M2 is gone. One of those in LNIB condition can bring pretty good money. There is Chinese knockoffs of the old Gerbers ( that isn't one), and one very good Japanese knife maker makes a modern "tribute" model which is very nice, but costs less than a collector grade new model.

I have no clue if Gerber would even fix that folder as it's for all purposes a different company than the one that made that knife. If you could get it fixed up it would be a fun endeavor but it would probably not sell for the costs needed for a real restore job. As far as users go they were ahead of their time but that time was long ago. We are well ahead of there now in performance and comfort of grips, strength, cutting ability, etc. Still, I would like to have an original in good condition. I'm a sucker for knives made of High speed steels, and nice wood grips.

Cool knife.

Thank you for the information. I was unaware that there may have been a chrome finish on it. The knife is nice and I really hope that I can get it at least put back to some sort of functional condition. The fella I got it from said that his father had gotten it awhile back but stopped using it after it literally fell apart.

 

[The Mastiff]

It would be nice to get the cutlers at Gerber to fix it even at a decent price. Some knife companies like Buck still do this. It would be cheaper than getting a knife maker to actually repair it. They are pretty cool knives though, and were considered kind of top of the line way back when. If you do end up sending it back try to have them save the blade, buff it out and resharpen it as that M2 steel is better cutlery steel than the 400 something stainless they use now.

There are Gerber collector forums around. You can probably get better info on one of them.

Good luck. If you get it fixed please let us know. It would be pretty cool.

Joe

 

[Kyui Su Kim]

It would be nice to get the cutlers at Gerber to fix it even at a decent price. Some knife companies like Buck still do this. It would be cheaper than getting a knife maker to actually repair it. They are pretty cool knives though, and were considered kind of top of the line way back when. If you do end up sending it back try to have them save the blade, buff it out and resharpen it as that M2 steel is better cutlery steel than the 400 something stainless they use now.

There are Gerber collector forums around. You can probably get better info on one of them.

Good luck. If you get it fixed please let us know. It would be pretty cool.

Joe

Awesome, thank you so much for the info. I contacted Gerber but have to wait on the reply till after the holiday weekend. Looking at the pieces, it looks like the rivets actually came apart, aside from that and the lockbar needing to be replaced, the knife should work.