What's Wrong With Gerber?

sabre cat

sabre cat

Joined
Jul 4, 2014
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As a novice, I am learning much by reading all the comments by you folks. One of the things that I have noted is that Gerber knives don't seem to be a highly regarded brand by many of the forum members. I know that the Gerber family sold the bussines a few years back. Has the quality droppped off ?

I like the old Balence Plus kitchen knives that I own. They strike me as a good line of budget kitchen knives. Has Gerber gone down hill or do I just have that much to learn?
 
sabre cat said:
As a novice, I am learning much by reading all the comments by you folks. One of the things that I have noted is that Gerber knives don't seem to be a highly regarded brand by many of the forum members. I know that the Gerber family sold the bussines a few years back. Has the quality droppped off ?

I like the old Balence Plus kitchen knives that I own. They strike me as a good line of budget kitchen knives. Has Gerber gone down hill or do I just have that much to learn?
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Just search "Gerber fail" on the internets and you'll see why everyone dislikes Gerber.
 
Gerber Evo was actually the first brand of knife i bought. At first if thought i was a steal, then the liner lock gave out on me. Then after about a week it developed crazy blade play. I would have to tighten the pivot to the point where the flipper was useless and the thumb studs are too close the the handles to open that way. Ended up tossing it after the pocket clip got stretched out. I have no idea what kind of steel the blade was, wasn't marked on the blade and wasn't in the little pamphlet that came with the knife. But it dulled after a couple cardboard boxes, good thing it had a combo edge. After that knife I started buying spyderco and the rest is history.
 
Gerber and SOG are both brands that had good reputations that got ruined over the years because of making shoddy products. SOG is especially guilty because they made shoddy products at premium prices.

10 years ago they were both pretty respectable brands. Now-a-days spending Gerber money on a Kershaw or CRKT or SOG money on a Benchmade will get you a pretty nice product.
 
This thread is going to turn into some game of territorial pissings really quick. There is a lot of Gerber hate on the forum and so far I have fount four reasons for it;

1: %90 of the time Gerber doesn't advertise they're steel, for all we know its something like AUS-4. In a forum of steel snobs (I'm one of them) this isn't an attractive quality in a brand

2: Speaking of quality brands Gerber isn't one. They have okay at best designs but often rely on aggressive marketing and gimmicks to sell their knives as opposed to quality tools. With that, they carry a non-existent warranty.

3: Over-seas manufacturing, cheap Chinese labor making cheap Chinese tools. The fact that they aren't made right here in 'murica bothers some people

4; Bear Grylls (sp?). Gerber has chosen one of the most bogus survivalists to be their poster boy. He's not much of a survivor, just a showman looking for an excuse to drink his own piss on camera, that says something for the brands integrity
 
Gerber hasn't so much gone downhill as it has jumped off a cliff. The materials are cheaper than what you find in cheap Chinese-branded knives like Ganzo, Enlan, and Sanrenmu, and the quality of construction is nowhere near as high. Plus, they still charge as much as companies like Kershaw and Cold Steel. They essentially have no redeeming features, though they recently started making some USA-produced knives again so we'll se how that pans out. They may still make a comeback.
 
Gerber tries to sell products of inferior quality to the uninformed based on their reputation from the 1970's and 1980's. I speak from experiance, as I fell for these sales techniques before I "knew better". If they were more open with the public, I would place them on a slightly lower level than CRKT.

This being said, Gerber still makes a better knife than the new rebranded "Camillius" and "Shrade" companies do.
 
amg137 said:
Gerber hasn't so much gone downhill as it has jumped off a cliff. The materials are cheaper than what you find in cheap Chinese-branded knives like Ganzo, Enlan, and Sanrenmu, and the quality of construction is nowhere near as high. Plus, they still charge as much as companies like Kershaw and Cold Steel. They essentially have no redeeming features, though they recently started making some USA-produced knives again so we'll se how that pans out. They may still make a comeback.
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I hope they do make a comeback, because they used to make decent stuff. I have an Applegate-Fairborn folder from about 10 years back and it's actually very nice, and I always had a soft spot for my LMFII-ASEK. And their multitools have always been decent. I think that's the part that makes me so angry about Gerber, that they were good and as you said, just went and jumped off a cliff for no real apparent reason. I don't know how Kershaw can make a folder in China that has incredible fit and finish for it's price level, yet the same money in a Gerber buys a piece of junk. Makes you wonder where all that money is going.
 
amg137 said:
They essentially have no redeeming features, though they recently started making some USA-produced knives again so we'll se how that pans out.
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They've never stopped making knives and tools in the US. It's just that they're mostly, if not entirely, designed for the military and the military gets first dibs on stock so it's harder to obtain these products if you're a civilian.
 
Lost Cosmonaut said:
I think that's the part that makes me so angry about Gerber, that they were good and as you said, just went and jumped off a cliff for no real apparent reason.
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As a previous poster mentioned, the purchase of Gerber by Fiskars seems to be the singular event that divided the good ol' days from now. Fiskars decided to transform Gerber into an international brand with wide availability. I recall at least two posters here, one from Eastern Europe and another from the Philippines, remark that the only branded knives they could easily get were Gerbers. And when was the last time manufacturing shortfalls affected the availability of any Fiskars product? This, of course, came at the cost of quality. To be fair, the quality is probably sufficient for the vast majority of the intended users, but people who read and post on a message board dedicated to knives are the outliers.
 
Even a lot of other brands' Chinese or Taiwanese offerings are better. I'd carry a Chinese budget Kershaw before a USA Gerber in most cases.

The ONE + to Gerber in my opinion is their line of Gator knives. It;s been several years since I bought my Gerber Gator II folding knife but it is a really good product and I hope they still are that way. Somehow, for some odd reason, when most else is crap, those Gators seem good for the money. Not sure why.
 
Unfortunately, when you go to stores that even sell knives anymore, the majority of the offerings are cheap Gerbers. Gerber was never my favorite knife company, but I do remember when they made some good knives, as recently for me as the late '90s. I remember a Japanese-made "Silver Knight(?)" stainless steel lockback that was excellent.

Jim
 
Hiro-kun said:
They've never stopped making knives and tools in the US. It's just that they're mostly, if not entirely, designed for the military and the military gets first dibs on stock so it's harder to obtain these products if you're a civilian.
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I'm glad you mentioned that....
I picked this one up a few years ago for around $110 - $120 and it's as good as anything else in that price range.
It was the last one so I bought it even with the serrations.

They still make some of the Applegate folders in the US too ( not the imports) for around $100 and also a few autos.

 
One could say they decided to appeal to a different demographic.

It's working great for them (and them demographic), just not for us knife junkies. We are no longer their demographic.
 
JPD1998 said:
I'm glad you mentioned that....
I picked this one up a few years ago for around $110 - $120 and it's as good as anything else in that price range.
It was the last one so I bought it even with the serrations.

They still make some of the Applegate folders in the US too ( not the imports) for around $100 and also a few autos.

Click to expand...

That is a nice knife. I've been eyeing the fine edge version of it but it seems to be nearly impossible to get. Gerber only sells that one directly to law enforcement or military.
 
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