Gerber Knives

Love my gerbers I am really fond of my gerber airman its been a good small folder for over 7 years now and my MKII still rocks after years of abuse

 

Gerber was once a helluva lot better at making knives than they are now. Quality has slipped considerably from what it used to be. (Even on models available now that were available several years ago).

 

I've never had a problem with any Gerber product I've ever owned. I know there are better alternatives out there, but they always come at a price. I know I'll be slammed for this, but quite frankly, I think a lot of the Gerber-hating you see comes from fan-boys of their competition. Maybe somebody got burned once, and once was too much. Who knows? You can go to any brand knife and find problems or things you don't like about it. It just depends on how hard you want to look.

 

I agree. Gerber was my favorite brand back in the 80's but they started to slip in the 90's. I have a medium sized Covert I like and I still have several Blackie Collins designs I bought in the 80's like the Cliplock river knife, Bolt action, and a Parabellum.

 

IMHO, on the whole, Gerber knives suck! Plain and simple. Now there are some 'decent' models and maybe a couple good models, but just about all their stuff is junk with that mystery "surgical stainless steel". Fiskars really did a number on the quality of Gerber knives. Before that, they were really pretty good.

I wouldn't not own a Gerber, it's just that you need to wade though all their crap models to find a decent one. I feel that Gerber knows its customer base and it is not knife enthusiasts. They cater to the regular joe-blow that finds 420, 440 or whatever cheap Chinese steel Gerber uses sufficient for their use.

There, I said it!I feel better. :-X :evilgrin:

 

They definitely used to be better. Old School Gators were just awesome. I have an early model 600 that's still going strong.

Now... they're okay just not high end like they used to be. Some models are actually very decent but overall I too think they kind of suck. I mostly don't like the form factors of most of their designs.

Then again I do like their non knife and multitool products a lot even today. I want one of their entrenching tools. I love my EAB. And my Gerber Sportman's Saw.

 

If you can find an old one, they are not bad. Search ebay for LST and USA and you can find the old production run- pretty good for medium or light duty knife.
Current Big Rock camp knife has good reviews from almost all sources. ( including man vs wild or survivor man not sure which )
And a had 15 years ago an ez-out that worked fine.

Current stuff has, as has already been mentioned, mystery steel, and iffy reviews. Bought at Target used for a day, taken back to Target.

On the other hand customer service is still great. They will replace their stuff over and over again, if you have the time. The fact that I know this is because I had to return a multi to them more than 3 times for not staying together.

 

I have a Gerber paraframe. The skeletized frame has a place on it right where the clip is that snags and I have a hard time using the clip-on. I dont really like mine.

 

I have a mini-Covert that I bought from WalMart a few years ago. It's not crap, per se....but it's not in my carry rotation either.

 

I had one of those for a while. It does look cool but when you actually try to use it, you find the placement of the thumb stud makes it hard to deploy, plus I understand it's a small knife but it's one of the most non-ergonomic designs I've ever tried.

But as far as cutting and getting the job done, yeah it was fine. But I passed it by some time ago.

 

My favourite two Gerber products are ones where they use someone elses blade i.e the Artifact and the EAB

 

[img width=431 height=640]http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f173/oregoncoyote/Gerber-Bolt-Action-Hunter.jpg[/img]
This thread inspired me to take out some of my old Gerber knives like this one. I'm gonna start EDCing it again.

 

I also have one of these. Gerber used to make some cool stuff.

 

I've had a 650 gator for a long while now 15+ years I think. Brilliant knife and easy to maintain. although the coating had some scratches it's sharp and a real beater. Takes anything I throw at it. If it weren't so unfriendly I'd EDC it again, but I stopped doing that years ago with people getting more and more uncomfortable with knives as tools. Thankfully they allow knives on campus, or at least they don't disallow them but I'm not taking a chance.

All in a great beater-knife. Griptillian on the cheap

 

I've got a few and like them for the price. Blades stay pretty sharp - their serrations are crazy sharp. Mini covert in the middle. Always thought it would make a great spear tip...



There are better made knives out there for sure.

 

I have some gerbers,for what you pay there is a better counterpart, consider Gerber knives the mag lights of the knife world. They work and they will get the job done but not as well as others.

 

I currently do not own any of thier knives but I swear by my Needle-nose Gerber multitools. One stays on my gear at work, one stays in my Jeep and I occasionaly have one on me.

 

Back when I didn't know anything about knives I bought a lot of Gerbers and never had a problem with them. I haven't bought one in 5 years or so, though, but I don't mind them really. If they'd use AUS8 or 440c or even 8cr14 I think they could turn themselves into a pretty respected knife company, but with their mystery steel and wal-mart marketing it's a bit iffy these days.