What are BFs Thoughts On GERBER Knives? Good, Average or Trash

I have a gerber powerframe, and even though the opening is as stiff as all get-out the blade takes a fine edge easily and holds it relatively well. It is also a very slim, lightweight knife and the lock up is very secure. You can get one for around the $20 dollar mark, and even though there are a lot of other good blades that can be had in that are I would consider buying another one.
 
They were a great company till they got sold to fishark's every two years or so they come out with a knife I actully would buy but they arent so good now. But they are good "wallmart" knives and knives for people on a budget. I rank them a little bit below average.
 
They're basically just like any other major knife company these days; at a certain price point you go from made in China to made in the U.S.A., and usually with a variety of steels, again, depending on price.

I've been carrying and using a Paraframe II in 420HC and titanium coating extensively for about 6 or 7 years, from camping and hiking trips to some rough warehouse jobs where it's gotten ample abuse.

In all that time, it's still as tight as it was brand new, with no play side-to-side or back-to-front (my $100 Benchmade has more play); the coating still hasn't rubbed off except on the blade a little (of course); it came razor sharp, and I've only had to resharpen it twice. Maybe the newer ones aren't as reliable; but mine has done everything it's supposed to do and that's been asked of it.

That's indicative of virtually all my experience with Gerber knives; I can't screw 'em up unless that's my goal. Of course, I also don't use my folding knives as hammers, screwdrivers, axes, prybars, throwers, butterflies, or toys... nor do I test their "durability" with vices, anvils, hammers, bricks, cement blocks, rocks, or automobile tires attached to 2-ton vehicles.

That last part would just be some opportune knife forum humor if I hadn't actually seen countless posts and vids doing those very things, with the inevitable conclusion that the knife is "no good". :rolleyes:
 
Ive got a Gerber multitool that ive abused for 20 years now...I had a fixed blade about 20? years ago too that was IMO a real good knife...I handled a new one a cupla years back (gutting a deer) and it was a piece of $%IT!!.........FES
 
We'll soon find out. I just started carrying a Gerber Remix with the large finger hole and liner lock. It takes a tree topping edge off the Sharpmaker standard white stones at 15 degrees. I used it for some pretty rough work, cutting fireproofing off steel beams, and it sharpened back up with about a dozen strokes on the fine stones again, except the tip, which got scraped around on the steel beams.
 
My old BMF was a great knife ...tough as hell. I have always loved Gerber blades.... my Freeman's and lmf II have been great. The multi tool...the Gator in 154c.... good stuff. They have got...or even earned a poor Rep as of late. And that's too bad...but I wont buy any more since they farmed most of their stuff over seas. Plenty of great USA made knives these days...

I use to love em... now they are just ok with me.
 
I've got a Geber bolt action that is at least 24 years old, and a Gator that is at least 16 years old. Both knives are made in USA. Both kinves are great. I have not looked at Gerber since they moved over seas. The Geber bolt action I used to take with me to summer camp when I was in the USAR, great knife.

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The Gerbers I have bought relatively recently (last 2 years) are still made in the U.S.A.. I got 2 Gator folders still made here, a Mark II still made here, and an LHR still made here... so they haven't exactly farmed out ALL their stuff. But, once the internet ball gets rolling, no need to let facts get in the way of a good bashing.

If I restricted my knife purchases only to companies who didn't send any of their work overseas, I'd be missing out on some pretty good blades. Let's see, I'd have to eliminate Benchmade, Buck, Kershaw, and Spyderco, right off the top of my head... the list is pretty long these days.
 
G8R8U2 said:
The Gerbers I have bought relatively recently (last 2 years) are still made in the U.S.A.. I got 2 Gator folders still made here, a Mark II still made here, and an LHR still made here... so they haven't exactly farmed out ALL their stuff. But, once the internet ball gets rolling, no need to let facts get in the way of a good bashing.

If I restricted my knife purchases only to companies who didn't send any of their work overseas, I'd be missing out on some pretty good blades. Let's see, I'd have to eliminate Benchmade, Buck, Kershaw, and Spyderco, right off the top of my head... the list is pretty long these days.
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There's a difference between sending production offshore and sending it offshore but making sure the knives that come back are still good quality. Kershaw, Benchmade, Spyderco and Buck have all shown that it can be done without a big drop in quality. Gerber, not so much.
 
I consider them ok. I have never had any intrested in buying any of them as their style, lenght, and choice of metal has never really appealed to me. Their also not the cheapest blades out there either.
 
Gerber produced good knives.... Years ago, that is. They produced some interesting and iconic models like the Bolt Action, the Paul knife as well as affordable mainstream stuff like the Gators, EZ-Outs and Multi-Pliers. It all started going downhill when they started to import the bulk of their knives from China, which are in my opinion, junk. Seriously, the quality of their current imports range from mediocre to downright shameful and I've made the mistake of actually purchasing a number of them. Never again. These days, I won't even give Gerber knives a second glance. In my opinion, Gerber went from a respectable knife manufacturer to a cheap discount store brand.
 
I just ordered this one today....

When I get it , I'll post a review.

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like em sharp said:
There's a difference between sending production offshore and sending it offshore but making sure the knives that come back are still good quality. Kershaw, Benchmade, Spyderco and Buck have all shown that it can be done without a big drop in quality. Gerber, not so much.
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According to who? I've got knives from all of the above makers manufactured in both places, including Gerber, and there's little or no difference in quality in my experience. In fact, some of the knives from China actually exceed the quality of the ones made in the U.S. in some cases, I'm sad to say. Benchmade, Gerber, and Buck are 3 examples.

Of my Benchmades, my Griptilian has a small amount of play and the blade wasn't ground/sharpened evenly on both sides; but my Pika is literally perfect. My Chinese made Bucks are tighter than some of my U.S. models. And 1 of my U.S. Gerbers has the same uneven grind/sharpening like the Benchmade above, but I've never gotten a China model with the same problem.

The OP asked for opinions about Gerber, and everybody is entitled to theirs; but as one reads this thread (and countless others just like it), it's clear some opinions aren't based in fact but in misconceptions, misperceptions, assumptions, and outright false information. Just repeating what's been said before, without any current experience with a product doesn't really do the person asking for "honest" opinions much good.

Most folks just took up the flag-waving crusade against Gerber when it was one of the first to send work for their cheaper lines overseas, and have never relented... even as all the other makers, that they used to use as examples of American companies doing it right and keeping production home, started doing the same thing as Gerber. I don't think that's true in ALL cases, and I'm sure people have gotten some bad examples of Gerbers; but I also read about some pretty terrible examples of U.S. made (much more expensive) knives in here and in other forums as well... and rather than hold those companies to the same standard as Gerber, and realizing that all companies' QC let a few bad ones get through once in awhile, they simply say something like, call so-and-so and they'll take care of you. Well, so will Gerber if you get a lemon.

It's kind of like me saying Fords are latrine nuggets, but basing my opinion on the vehicles they produced back in the '80's, '90's, and early '00's... but I haven't owned or driven one since the '90's. That's not really an honest opinion; that's my opinion based on the various models that repeatedly left me stranded on the side of the road 20 or 30 years ago. There's a lot of that when it comes to Gerber... folks admit they haven't used their products recently (sometimes decades), but then give advice as if they have.

No big deal; my practical, recent experience just hasn't been the same as much of what I read.
 
G8R8U2 said:
According to who? I've got knives from all of the above makers manufactured in both places, including Gerber, and there's little or no difference in quality in my experience. In fact, some of the knives from China actually exceed the quality of the ones made in the U.S. in some cases, I'm sad to say. Benchmade, Gerber, and Buck are 3 examples.

Of my Benchmades, my Griptilian has a small amount of play and the blade wasn't ground/sharpened evenly on both sides; but my Pika is literally perfect. My Chinese made Bucks are tighter than some of my U.S. models. And 1 of my U.S. Gerbers has the same uneven grind/sharpening like the Benchmade above, but I've never gotten a China model with the same problem.

The OP asked for opinions about Gerber, and everybody is entitled to theirs; but as one reads this thread (and countless others just like it), it's clear some opinions aren't based in fact but in misconceptions, misperceptions, assumptions, and outright false information. Just repeating what's been said before, without any current experience with a product doesn't really do the person asking for "honest" opinions much good.

Most folks just took up the flag-waving crusade against Gerber when it was one of the first to send work for their cheaper lines overseas, and have never relented... even as all the other makers, that they used to use as examples of American companies doing it right and keeping production home, started doing the same thing as Gerber. I don't think that's true in ALL cases, and I'm sure people have gotten some bad examples of Gerbers; but I also read about some pretty terrible examples of U.S. made (much more expensive) knives in here and in other forums as well... and rather than hold those companies to the same standard as Gerber, and realizing that all companies' QC let a few bad ones get through once in awhile, they simply say something like, call so-and-so and they'll take care of you. Well, so will Gerber if you get a lemon.

It's kind of like me saying Fords are latrine nuggets, but basing my opinion on the vehicles they produced back in the '80's, '90's, and early '00's... but I haven't owned or driven one since the '90's. That's not really an honest opinion; that's my opinion based on the various models that repeatedly left me stranded on the side of the road 20 or 30 years ago. There's a lot of that when it comes to Gerber... folks admit they haven't used their products recently (sometimes decades), but then give advice as if they have.

No big deal; my practical, recent experience just hasn't been the same as much of what I read.
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I think he was saying that Gerber's off- sure products were inferior to the other big company's off - sure products.
 
Bought a Gerber folder last year, and it was amazingly sticky to open (nearly impossible to open one handed, although it was supposed to be one-hand opening), uncomfortable, liner lock was poorly ground and had a sharp edge that left me bleeding the first time I tried to disengage the lock, was poorly heat treated (couldn't take an edge sharp enough to cut paper without immediately rolling when I tried to sharpen a pencil with it) and F&F sucked. I couldn't really assess the grind lines without stripping the finish off. Also the pocket clip broke within 3 days. As far as Gerber customer service being great, that's the first I've heard of it. They told me that it sounded like it was "within specs." They're off my buy list. I could care less about where it's produced. Many examples of Spyderco's best work are done overseas too. But I've NEVER heard of a reputable knife company with the quantity or type of issues that I encountered with a Gerber. And that was one of their special limited edition knives that came in a tin with extra paraphenalia and such. You'd think that they would at least get one of those right.
 
JPD1998 said:
I think he was saying that Gerber's off- sure products were inferior to the other big company's off - sure products.
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Right, and I said that hasn't been my experience... I've gotten "poor" or "lesser" examples of knives from both the U.S. and China from all of the makers mentioned, and I've read about QC problems from them all as well, in various threads in this forum and on other similar sites. I've never had a Gerber fail or require replacement... never returned one myself, although I know some folks who have, even when it was their irresponsible use that damaged it in the first place.

So, judging from the comments in threads mentioning Gerber, it's almost like I'm lucky enough to be the sole guy who gets a quality knife from them... every time. Essentially, to hear some tell it, Gerber has made a dozen decent knives in the last decade, and apparently I got them all. Seems awfully far-fetched; it's just hard to believe, with all the purported shortcomings, that I've never gotten stuck with one... even harder to believe that a company like that is still viable and not in bankruptcy court.

It appears, to me at least, that what happened over the last 20 years is that Gerber started sending out a lot of manufacturing work to China; and lost a lot of customers in the process for any number of reasons, from patriotism to poor quality (which typically happens in the early stages of a switch like that before the foreign company understands what is expected of them).

Then more makers started doing the same thing, often with the same QC problems early on; and it started to look like a trend was developing. Consumers began to see that virtually every one of their favorite knife makers was either already sending or was going to be sending work on "discount" or entry-level lines of knives overseas. As it became customary and common practice, consumers seemed to resign themselves to the fact that it was a trend that would continue for the foreseeable future; and they started giving those knives a look, and tried to judge them objectively... but they seem to have never forgiven Gerber for the perceived affront. If they ever got a lousy one, particularly from the early years of Chinese manufacturing, they abandoned the brand forever. I also think there's no shortage of embellishment or exaggeration when it comes to critiquing Gerbers... sometimes you can read a post, and you know almost immediately that no such event or incident actually took place; it defies belief.

But, as long as everyone is pleased or happy with their own choices, that's all that matters... until I experience a problem that can't be resolved, I'll keep purchasing and enjoying the myriad offerings of as many makers as is possible.
 
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