# General > General Knives & Blades >  What's with the Gerber-hate?

## hajta

I have a couple of Gerber folders. I think they are great for the price to be honest. I have never tried batoning one, hammered one into a log and bent it sideways or anything like that. But for tasks suitable for a folding knife, they have all been good. But when I try searching for reviews online they all seem negative (or made by children),
Now, maybe they are worse than what they used to be? I don't know. Tell me, why does everyone seem to hate Gerber?

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## hunter63

> I have a couple of Gerber folders. I think they are great for the price to be honest. I have never tried batoning one, hammered one into a log and bent it sideways or anything like that. But for tasks suitable for a folding knife, they have all been good. But when I try searching for reviews online they all seem negative (or made by children),
> Now, maybe they are worse than what they used to be? I don't know. *Tell me, why does everyone seem to hate Gerber*?


Who is "everyone"?
Any links?

I guess i'll have to take your word for it...as I haven't seen many review good or bad.
Have a Gerber "Touche' belt buckle (actually 2) that isn't made any more, a couple of multi tools, and a little skeleton folder.


They maybe another brand name that was bought up and now made in China?

When I called the about a replacement knife to the belt buckle....was in the USA and the guy tried to locate that part.....
No parts around as they quit making it in 1988.

They were just not high on my list....way too may options out there.

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## hajta

Sorry, this is pretty much the only english speaking forum I'm on, should have thought of that. The asians makes allright knives though? Fällkniven is made in Japan these days, but yeah, just stuck my mind, the last one I tried was crap. If I had payed a Gerber-price for it, I would have shrugged and sharpened it up though. A buckle knife? Awesome, never seen anything like that.

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## madmax

I have a Gerber multi-tool that has lasted years.  Actually 2.  I have a micro with scissors.  They both are in my EDC.

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## Rick

I have a Gerber multi-tool as well and like it as well. I have no problem with Gerber gear.

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## Seniorman

> I have a Gerber multi-tool as well and like it as well. I have no problem with Gerber gear.


I bought a Gerber Multi-tool about 22 years ago.  I've used it multiple times over the years with excellent performance ... except, I have to be careful when using the pliers and I can pinch my palm when it closes.  That is the only design flaw I've found.  I also have an old Gerber fixed blade A475 4¾" blade that is an excellent blade for many chores out in the field.  No complaints on that knife.

My hunting buddy had an older Gerber folder that he's used many times on elk and deer.  He loves it.  I don't recall the model but it is carried in a Gerber supplied leather pouch.

Don't know about new Gerber knives but the old ones, in my opinion, are excellent knives.

My opinion.

S.M.

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## hunter63

> Sorry, this is pretty much the only english speaking forum I'm on, should have thought of that. The asians makes allright knives though? Fällkniven is made in Japan these days, but yeah, just stuck my mind, the last one I tried was crap. If I had payed a Gerber-price for it, I would have shrugged and sharpened it up though. A buckle knife? Awesome, never seen anything like that.


Wore it for many years...but it gets loose with use, in the past I'd just send it back to Gerber, they fixed it, no charge.
This time I lost the knife....called them...couldn't get a replacement.
Bought a replacement off eBay........only to find the knife in the brush a couple of months later....go figure.

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They have been retired

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## JohnLeePettimore

Forgive the second-hand information, but I gather from watching Wranglerstar that Gerber got a bad name because they put out a cheaper line of products that was sold through Walmart, and possibly other stores, and people assumed that they had sold out to a Chinese company and were only putting out cheap stuff.  In many videos (no links, just from memory) Wranglerstar laments how Gerber has "gone downhill".

Apparently, (I'll put a link to a video below), they still make the same high-end stuff, but added a cheaper line, and it resulted in a bit of confusion.  It is mentioned at around 6:00 minutes in:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KgwxvZ-Vqc

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## crashdive123

I have a few Gerber knives.  No hate from me.

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## hayshaker

same here i have a machete, the kukri and 2 BG,survival knives I really like the sheaths on them.

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## kyratshooter

Got a Gerber multi-tool in each vehicle, one on the arm of the sofa.  

Back in '05 and '06 they were requested items in the care packages we were sending my two boys in Iraq.  Actually the first son requested one and we sent one over with the second.  

Been using them in one form or another since they first started the company.

Most of the complaints are from after Fiskars bought the company and started farming work out to China.

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## hunter63

I think maybe the bad rap is coming from the Bear Grylls orange handle stuff....?

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## Alan R McDaniel Jr

I've got a couple of Gerber knives and a Gerber multitool in a tackle box.  I got it at a garage sale. It took me an hour to figure out how to open it.  Then the second time I used it, it took me an hour to remember how to open it.  Since the leatherman is on my belt, the Gerber is just backup.  It's not that I don't like Gerber, I just like other brands better.

Alan

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## Phaedrus

Gerber makes some good stuff and some not so good stuff like most companies.  I think the hate stems from their associate with Grylls.  It's probably been a huge boon to their bottom line but at the expense of their respect and credibility with more serious outdoors-folk.

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## Antonyraison

its likely the BG series of gerbers, in comparison to other brands they not as good as "survival" knives, that and all the knock off knives of them I guess give them a bit of a bad name.

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## hunter63

Actually a hunter blaze orange handle makes more sense that a camo handle.
Lost a few "hunting" knives in the snow and leaves cleaning animals in the woods.

One is still missing.....found the others .....

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## Alan R McDaniel Jr

What's with the Bear Grylls hate?




Just messin with y'all.

Alan

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## hunter63

> What's with the Bear Grylls hate?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Just messin with y'all.
> 
> Alan


No hate it's just that............Ruth is Hot......

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## Antonyraison

> Actually a hunter blaze orange handle makes more sense that a camo handle.
> Lost a few "hunting" knives in the snow and leaves cleaning animals in the woods.
> 
> One is still missing.....found the others .....


I have nothing wrong with the colours of them, just they dont preform as well as other things in same price range.

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## Phaedrus

> Got a Gerber multi-tool in each vehicle, one on the arm of the sofa.  
> 
> Back in '05 and '06 they were requested items in the care packages we were sending my two boys in Iraq.  Actually the first son requested one and we sent one over with the second.


I have an old Gerber multi-tool from the 90's that I still use quite a bit.  Dad gave it to me for my birthday, graduation, something...can't recall.  Very nifty and well made.  It rides in the pocket on the sheath of my RAT7.

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## Wise Old Owl

Gerber Legendary Blades is a maker of consumer knives and multitools headquartered in Tigard, Oregon, United States, within the Portland metropolitan area. Currently Gerber is a sub-division of Fiskars Brands Inc, owned by the Fiskars company of Finland

Reasons I dislike Gerber:
-They don't readily disclose what grades of steel they use in their blades ("high carbon stainless steel" is meaningless)
-The Gerber knives I've encountered had QC issues (vertical and lateral blade play, sharp handle edges)
-None that I've encountered came acceptably sharp out-of-box
-Their designs seem uninspired to me, as if they are "pitching to the middle" of the market (to non-afis) - For multi tool I love Leatherman (the competition) I like Fiskars, so I own the compact mini axe and blade. I think the problem stems from folks wanting something cheap to do the job and clearly you get what you pay for.Honest I think Benchmade and others are better.


FYI - they are made in Oregon.

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## Antonyraison

I have only one big name brand that I am able to really get my hand on the rest is out of my price range..
Kabar is good  :Smile:  
If I could afford it I would buy tops, like a silent hero or such (cause I know why its designed and by whom, certainly made for harsh africa)
And I would certainly consider some cold steel.. like the srk in 3v.. but wow geeze they very pricey..
but BG over here for a whatever steel and poor qc.. I can get hand made custom knives from top makers in Southern africa at the same price point in Rands.. so I would not even buy bg..
A lot of "china mall" knives are even better than BG.. I have a fallkniven Chinese clone out of mov13 and that even beats a bg at a quarter of price.
only Gerbers I would get are likely older rarer ones  :Smile: 
as far as mulitools.. i agree leatherman is the way to go..  i just don't find much use for them in the bush, other than the small saw

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## kyratshooter

I guess Hajua is correct after all, there is some Gerber dislike out there.

Probably the same for any brand one would point toward.

I think I will jut go out to the shop and put a new handle on the Old Forge butcher knife I found in the box last night.  I forgot it was there.

Anyone here ever been to a real family style "hog killing" and seen the knives they use to butcher out 20 or 25 hogs on a cold crisp morning about this time of year?  

Mostly Old Forge, Old Hickory and Chicago Cutlery.

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## Alan R McDaniel Jr

I had two that I used.  One Old Hickory and one Chicago Cutlery.  I never scraped my hogs, I skinned them.  Most in one day was 8, by myself, no family at that time to help.  I helped an old couple with theirs though.  They would just raise one hog a year and it was a monster every year.  They were the type that used everything but the hair.  The old man would lay the hog on a ramp and drape burlap sacks from boiling water over them, pour some boiling water, let it sit while more was boiling and start scraping.  He used a butcher knife about 14 inches long to scrape the hair.  After we got it clean he'd start carving off strips of skin and lard and tossing it in the big rendering pot.  After all the fat was trimmed then he'd start taking out cuts of meat. Finally the head and innards were left.  the head came off and sat on the kitchen counter until the old lady could get to it.  It was shaved of course.  The head and feet were her domain.  We'd pour the cooled lard into clean buckets and seal the lids.  That lard would last the year for making tortillas.  The boiled bones would become tamales gordos and all of the innards were used for something.  Some of it I ate, some of it I didn't.  Even the blood was collected when the hog was killed.  He killed it with a 22 lr at the base of the skull severing the spine.  The hog would go straight down still breathing and heart still pumping.  We would drag the hind end of the hog up the ramp and he would make a small cut with that long knife under the hogs jaw bone and the old lady would stoop over there collecting all the blood in a big tub.  

I should have learned more from him but I would help him with the heavy stuff and go on about my business.  I should have made learning that stuff my business.

I always shot my hogs in the forehead and strung them up under the windmill.  My goal was to finish as soon as I could, get the sausage made and the quarters sold in town.  I sure was in a hurry back then....

Alan

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## Alan R McDaniel Jr

Oh, but, No, I'v never been to a real hog killin.  I wish I had been.  I'll bet it was a lot of fun.  Work, but fun work.

Alan

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## kyratshooter

They can get exciting!

Last one I was at Uncle Wesley climbed up on the side of the pickup to shoot a hog.  He had been nipping at the bottle a little and leaned over with the .22 and yelled back "Which one of these hogs do you want me to shoot?"

Dad looked at me real strange and announced there was only one hog in the truck.  

Uncle Wess shot a hole right through the new floor of the pickup trying to get the one on the left.

It would take us about 36 hours to get everything finished up, all the sausage sacked and the meat chilled and salted.

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## crashdive123

> I always shot my hogs in the forehead and strung them up under the windmill.


I would think that the folks at the miniature golf course would have objected.   :Whistling:

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## JohnLeePettimore

> They can get exciting!
> 
> Last one I was at Uncle Wesley climbed up on the side of the pickup to shoot a hog.  He had been nipping at the bottle a little and leaned over with the .22 and yelled back "Which one of these hogs do you want me to shoot?"
> 
> Dad looked at me real strange and announced there was only one hog in the truck.  
> 
> Uncle Wess shot a hole right through the new floor of the pickup trying to get the one on the left.
> 
> It would take us about 36 hours to get everything finished up, all the sausage sacked and the meat chilled and salted.


You have the best stories.

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## kyratshooter

> You have the best stories.


What can I say?

I am closing in on 68 years and have all the stories saved up from those experiences of camping and woodcraft from the time I was an infant.

I taught school for 35 years and had to deal with 200 teenagers and their parents on a daily basis and the crazy admins for all that time.  That will give you one source of good tails.

Then I was married three times; two good women, which I buried, and one that was bat $h!& crazy.  That is another 50 years of tails due to those experiences and the fact that they were southern girls and had all the family traipsing of the region.  

(Imagine being married to a woman with 5 brothers who took up half the room on the FBI 10 most wanted list and had names like Big Bob, Buster, Curly, Bones, and Poob.  Most of the family could not remember what their real names were.  Their oldest known ancestor had been ordered shot by George Washington, for treason, and their most famous ancestor had his head pop off when he was hung for stealing a pie.)

Then there was my own family, which was unique to say the least, but in a very calm and sedate way.

There are some good stories in there!

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## hunter63

Yeah, bring to mind many stories.....
Most start with:

When I was a kid.....
There we were...
THere was a time....
There he was up on the ridge....
It was a dark and stormy night......
Some day we are gonna laugh....

Some stories are better if you were there...

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## kyratshooter

Yep, some stories are better in the moment.

Telling about your little brother falling into a tank filled with liquid cow crap 60 years after the fact and watching it happen, almost in slow motion, on the spot has no comparison.

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## Alan R McDaniel Jr

> I would think that the folks at the miniature golf course would have objected.


Nah, I'd just let them play through.

Alan

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## Rick

He did it once at the swimming pool. Great idea but boy was that a mess. Clogged the filters. Turned the pool red. Kids covered in blood. Mom's P.O.'d. Yeah, pretty ugly.

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## Wise Old Owl

> He did it once at the swimming pool. Great idea but boy was that a mess. Clogged the filters. Turned the pool red. Kids covered in blood. Mom's P.O.'d. Yeah, pretty ugly.


I heard the same story - but a different version hog urine turned the pool blue... there was this guy in a goalie mask....  nevermind.

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## finallyME

> You have the best stories.


Don't get him started....please!

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## Michael aka Mac

I think Gerber was sold like in 1987 to 88.  The Gerber blade that i owned was prior to that and was very well built.  I heard the same thing as one of the above members, that the companies that had Gerber make cheaper priced knives for them were not of the same quality as earlier models were. I have read in reviews and people I know (for example) that used the Bear Grill's Survivor knife,  that as a Gerber knife goes it is subpar. But seeing some of the Gerber owners replies,  I guess it is just a hit or miss with Gerber, like the Rock group, White Lion. Some seem from these responses i am reading to be great.

Personally I remember the time when someone mentioned a Gerber knife and it was like your drooling over it, they were one of the best. I have no first hand knowledge of them now though, don't own any newer models since they were taken over.

I mostly just use  the Ka-bar BK2 & Becker Necker, the Tops Mil Spie, Condor Rodan, Oerla, and Schrade SCHF knives...

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