What happened to these guys?

marcinek said:
How old is this "higher quality" Gerber of yours? A couple months? A couple years?

I think this is where the "learn(read) more, post less" may be coming from. I think the vast majority do not believe Gerber has depreciated in quality recently. The decline in Gerber quality happened years, if not decades, ago. How, why, and when that happened is certainly a topic that deserves to be discussed once in a while.

Maybe we have misread your statement and this Gerber of yours is older than you. Fill us in.
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Yes, the Gerber i am referring to is older than me. My dad was given it as a gift from Buckmasters when he joined, which was a very long time ago.
Yes, definitely older than me
 
Ignore the flamers. You're right. I'm just old enough to have noticed what happened to Gerber when Fiskars bought them. It wasn't last year or anything but it was recent enough to seem that way. Things like this take time for a lot of people to notice as a broad trend. It took years before I noticed SOG getting a bit flaky with their folders. I just wrote a few bad examples off as lemons. I think that the continued rise of other companies around the same time made it a bit more noticeable. That & the continuing innovation & improvement in the industry. They treaded water & got left behind selling cheap stuff to big box retailers.
 
These are good Gerber knives, made before Fiskers.

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Sithus1966 said:
These are good Gerber knives, made before Fiskers.

Dsc04645.jpg
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Yes. Great stuff there. I had a Mark 2 Wasp & a Paul knife waaay back in the 90's. Half the time you had to get up to change the channel back then. It was another world, I tell ya'! At different times this company had Blackie Collins & Al Mar working for them. Hard to miss with talent like that on tap.
 
I have a an old dagger by gerber that was made in the early 80's I believe and it's very high quality (In my opinion, yours may differ) I would post i pic but i gave the dagger to my sister a while back. It's like the one on the top but with a fully sharpened spine.
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The gerber paul series 2 early 90s was a good knife but they only made 27,000 of them they cost too much to manufacture.
 
My Gerbers: 1982 Mark II :thumbup:, Freeman folder :thumbup:, Metolius fixed blade :thumbup:, Metolius caper :thumbup:. I think that, part of the reason people think that their quality is down, is that the knife market has exploded in recent years with many HD blades for hard use. Production & custom. Gerber used to be the bomb, because it was the best there was. That is certainly no longer true. The internet makes SO many things instantly available that we never knew about before too.
 
I have a few.

All of mine are pre-1984.

Most of them can be seen here:

2007_1208-Knife-07.jpg



I also have a few kitchen knives made in the '70s time period, and a Gerber Silver knight from 1982 or earlier.


The quality is head and shoulders above today's production.

I do have a Harsey Hunter/Fighter, and I'm happy with that one, but the other recent production pieces I have (Mini Paraframe, Suspension, etc.) leave a little something to be desired.

I actually have one folder (a Double Take, just a little two-blade gent's knife) that I've tried to carry a few times, and I simply can't warm to it. I carried the Silver Knight for 20 years. This new one I can't carry for 20 days. There's just an "almost rightness" about it. Primary blade is a little too thick, also just a little too wide, and the grind is "almost right." There's a kind of "design engineer working with crayons" feel to it.

There are several other designs that I've held, examined, and then passed on buying simply because of what I consider to be basic design errors. Consequently I'm not in a position to review them.

I'm mostly happy with my current selection of contemporary Gerbers, but not all. I also own considerably fewer Gerbers than I would have liked, but I can't bring myself to buy a knife that I already know I don't like before it's even out of the package.

It's not like it's that hard to find design talent out there. The industry has no shortage there.

There's also nothing inherently crippling about having your production in Asia, as a number of other manufacturers have demonstrated.

I don't know what it is. There's certainly enough talent, there's certainly available quality fabrication, and gawd knows there's a wealth of quality materials and techniques available.

Why, then, can they not seem to marshal enough consistent aesthetic, adequate QC, and front-line technology to win the hearts and minds of the discerning buyer?

I dunno.

I really hope they can reconnect with their corporate inner child.

I would be very pleased indeed to see Gerber once again pushing the envelope on performance. That would be sweet.

 
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Bladeboss

Don't feel bad man. You have just poked the bear on Gerber. I think a lot of people are kind of sad the Gerber...once a very innovative knife manufacturer, back in the 1970s...has descended. That fact that you can tell quality is a good sign. You just picked a subject that a lot of people have done to death. Not your fault...Gerber's fault actually.

Talk about Spyderco or ESEE or Buck or GEC and the guys on here will love you. Gerber and Cold Steel are sure to get a negative reaction. Just a fact.

Welcome aboard...this is a great forum and you'll be a great addition 'cause it sounds like you a good knife when you see one.

QB
 
Also, don't ask about Mantis until you spend an enrapturing weekend going through all the threads on that fascinating subject so you'll understand how they earned their pariah status. It's a fun read.
 
HoosierQ said:
Bladeboss

Don't feel bad man. You have just poked the bear on Gerber. I think a lot of people are kind of sad the Gerber...once a very innovative knife manufacturer, back in the 1970s...has descended. That fact that you can tell quality is a good sign. You just picked a subject that a lot of people have done to death. Not your fault...Gerber's fault actually.

Talk about Spyderco or ESEE or Buck or GEC and the guys on here will love you. Gerber and Cold Steel are sure to get a negative reaction. Just a fact.

Welcome aboard...this is a great forum and you'll be a great addition 'cause it sounds like you a good knife when you see one.

QB
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What none of you seem to understand is that there are two worlds out there, The world of mass markets (Wal-Mart, etc.), etc.) and the knife world (made up of people like those who populate Blade Forums.)

Gerber was run by Pete Gerber a man who loved knives and knife people, he was also a great business man and he, very early on, saw the World changing and sold his business to Fiscars a company in Finland that was built on making the least expensive, functioning scissors in the World and as far into the mass market as could be. Gerber began to change as Fiscars began to hire Managers who had great records from companies like Rubbermaid and Miller Beer. They knew business, but not knives. They quickly began to retire or lay off the highly paid folks who loved knives and knew how to make or sell fine knives, and to cut what they thought were unnecessary steps that were what made the knives exceptional. Then as the World changed even more and as Wal-Mart, Target, Costco, Lowes, Home Depot trained the American Mass Market (most Americans) to buy cheaper and cheaper products China entered our world. Makers from China called on Gerber, and others and showed them knives that to mass marketers looked as good as what they could make and were remarkably cheap. Not knowing, or caring that knife people would be turned off by these knives they made more and more money and please the folks in Finland and cause you people to whine and cry.

I am sorry, but, the World has changed and will not change back. leave Gerber to to the mass market and focus on the newer companies run by folks who love knives and design and make them the best they can for people like you who also love knives.

sorry for the long rant, just had to do it.

A. G.
 
Thanks for sharing your in depth insight to an ever evolving business model. A G people like you keep us grounded and add tremendous institutional knowledge about knives and knifemaking.
 
CrimsonTideShooter said:
This post made me LOL. Joined this month and you already have 125 posts, and you're telling someone else to RMPL?

There's nothing wrong with posting a lot as long as it's useful info, it just made me chuckle. :p
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Like we used to say in New York City, "Everybody's a tough guy." :D

Read more, post less is good advice up to a point. But for someone new to the forums and enthusiastic about knives, no. Just read what you wrote before you post, think about what you post to be sure you're clear. The rest of us can decide if we're tired of that question for now, and let someone else answer instead of whining we heard it before.
 
I was a huge fan of Gerber back in the '70-80's, I had quite a collection. I have a Muskie that my wife uses everyday in the kitchen. We also have a few Balance Plus kitchen knives and I have a boxed Guardian Set (Mint). When Fiskars took over I lost all interest in their knives. I did sell off several older knives and got very good money for them.

Sad to have seen them change so rapidly.
 
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