Bear Grylls Ultimate Survival Knife!
- Thread starter Horn Dog
- Start date
Yes he used it on Cape Wrath from season 6, did not do any of the tasks he normally would with his other knives. If I remember correctly he cut rope, a net, skinned a seal and last but not least some grass!
I find it shocking that despite his significant experience he similes to the camera during the advert for his knife and says something to the tune of "I have tried a lot of the knives of the years and we have developed what I believe to be the ultimate knife" - Uh hu!
The thing is it will probably be more than enough knife for those who actually buy it, since it will be used for opening boxes, cutting rope and a host of other around the house chores. I would estimate that probably 30% + will never even see the outdoors.
The Gerber prodigy is a lot of knife for the price, and what they should have done is spent more money marketing the fact that Bear uses Gerber products because at the end of the day there are a lot of Bear groupies who would pay whatever to brag about the fact that they have his knife, socks, shoes, lanyard etc.
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excellent quality =). important - is the brand, and can sell any junk
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Well the handle looks improved now.
Still, when you you duct tape a cheapo Magnum Knives Camp Bowie to every fire extinguisher and first aid kit on an entire ship for £20 a go I wonder at the point.
Still, when you you duct tape a cheapo Magnum Knives Camp Bowie to every fire extinguisher and first aid kit on an entire ship for £20 a go I wonder at the point.
That actually looks pretty good to me, plenty of tang with a smooth transition to the blade. And a non-hollow handle.Well the handle looks improved now.
Still, when you you duct tape a cheapo Magnum Knives Camp Bowie to every fire extinguisher and first aid kit on an entire ship for £20 a go I wonder at the point.
They seem to have fixed the problem with the handle issues very well.
Any thoughts on this new instead of the old one ?
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Still mystery steel. Still serrated in the area where serration interferes with wood work the most. Still Gerber quality - whatever that is.
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"Gerber quality" - well, yeah, that's a tough one. It can be anywhere from sublime to ridiculous, depending on what knife you're talking about. And what day of the week it is. And the conjunction of the planets in the constellations. In other words, you pays your money, you takes your chances.
Today's mail brought the July Blade, which features the BG Parang on its cover. I haven't read the article yet, but knowing them, I'm sure they gave it a glowing review. After all, you can't say bad things about an advertiser's knife, now, can you?
Today's mail brought the July Blade, which features the BG Parang on its cover. I haven't read the article yet, but knowing them, I'm sure they gave it a glowing review. After all, you can't say bad things about an advertiser's knife, now, can you?
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If the butt was intended to hammer stuff or to be batonned, I don't know why they couldn't have just extended the tang another 1/2" to the end. This knife really could have been a decent woods blade if they charged about $5 more and put a little more work into it.
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Hawkings, hola
Not having handled one it's difficult to tell, but there are some design aspects I'll never find appealing, or personally would find extremely limiting no matter what it was made from or by whom.
To get where I'm coming from with that you'd need to know that to my mind the thing that makes a survival knife a survival knife as opposed to a utility knife or a field knife is that it is something to be cracked open in case of emergency only. I believe that holds whether it be the much talked about pilot's survival knives, something for cutting rigging or rafting, or in a box next to your flares in a dinghy. I read many people giving out the old circular a survival knife is the one you have with you thing and I think that's bollox. It's as meaningless now after all the mindless hackneyed regurgitation of that as it was when the first person said it. It's as daft as saying a Cold Steel SRK is a 'butcher knife' just because you used the one you had with you to cut a camel into edible portions. That's a path to Humpty Dumpty brain - When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, 'it means just what I choose it to mean neither more nor less..
On that, I have to judge it in two ways; both as a survival knife and as a utility field knife. I the case of the former I stand by what I said when they were first released, as it is now in the state I believed it was then looks like a handy thing to stow away in places for emergencies for use by the kinds of people that are totally indifferent to knives and just need something that cuts. Its an easy grip thing in a modest steel, in a loud safety colour, with a serrated bit that whilst not ideal on your utility knife will keep on cutting after treatment that'd spasticate a plain edge. So, as a survival knife just peachy. Someone can grab one in an emergency focusing on the emergency not the knife, just like people do with fire extinguishers, car jacks, flares, life jackets, and so on. Looks great for that and I think for the most part anything much better would stick you in a pearls before swine situation.
To my mind the problems start to kick in when it is pitched as a crossover into adventure knives and the utility one you have on you thing. Marketed like that the price is triple what I believe it aught to be here and has excellence at nothing. At £70 that's nearly *3 of the Magnum Camp Bowies that strike me as down / up to a similar kind of materials standard but in a more useful shape. It's nearly double the price of the Doziers made under licence for Boker Plus, and the Gent's Scalpel from them although a bit smaller is frankly exquisite compared to it for less than half the cost. Not only that but it is also only £15 less than an Enzo Badger, a really nice one you have on you if ever there was one. And to round off the pillory it's £20 less than a Linder Super Edge, one of my favourite all time one you have on you knives ever. [I believe they used to do the early runs for Fällkniven before they looked to Japan correct me if I'm wrong, anyone].
In short, I think the design is inferior to many other knives of a comparable quality when it comes to adventure or utility use, yet it costs a hell of a lot more. And in the greed it placed itself up for comparison against some giant killer utility users, and its way out of it's depth there both in terms of design and materials. If they had stuck with it as a volume sale cheapo survival knife for use as I described above I could have respected that. Done like this, the crossover with that design into other areas and the price makes it laughable.
Well that's my 2cents from here. If you can grab 'em somewhere over there for a few bux then great, stow 'em everywhere like I do Victorinox kitchen knives and people do with Moras. Beyond that....grrrr.
Not having handled one it's difficult to tell, but there are some design aspects I'll never find appealing, or personally would find extremely limiting no matter what it was made from or by whom.
To get where I'm coming from with that you'd need to know that to my mind the thing that makes a survival knife a survival knife as opposed to a utility knife or a field knife is that it is something to be cracked open in case of emergency only. I believe that holds whether it be the much talked about pilot's survival knives, something for cutting rigging or rafting, or in a box next to your flares in a dinghy. I read many people giving out the old circular a survival knife is the one you have with you thing and I think that's bollox. It's as meaningless now after all the mindless hackneyed regurgitation of that as it was when the first person said it. It's as daft as saying a Cold Steel SRK is a 'butcher knife' just because you used the one you had with you to cut a camel into edible portions. That's a path to Humpty Dumpty brain - When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, 'it means just what I choose it to mean neither more nor less..
On that, I have to judge it in two ways; both as a survival knife and as a utility field knife. I the case of the former I stand by what I said when they were first released, as it is now in the state I believed it was then looks like a handy thing to stow away in places for emergencies for use by the kinds of people that are totally indifferent to knives and just need something that cuts. Its an easy grip thing in a modest steel, in a loud safety colour, with a serrated bit that whilst not ideal on your utility knife will keep on cutting after treatment that'd spasticate a plain edge. So, as a survival knife just peachy. Someone can grab one in an emergency focusing on the emergency not the knife, just like people do with fire extinguishers, car jacks, flares, life jackets, and so on. Looks great for that and I think for the most part anything much better would stick you in a pearls before swine situation.
To my mind the problems start to kick in when it is pitched as a crossover into adventure knives and the utility one you have on you thing. Marketed like that the price is triple what I believe it aught to be here and has excellence at nothing. At £70 that's nearly *3 of the Magnum Camp Bowies that strike me as down / up to a similar kind of materials standard but in a more useful shape. It's nearly double the price of the Doziers made under licence for Boker Plus, and the Gent's Scalpel from them although a bit smaller is frankly exquisite compared to it for less than half the cost. Not only that but it is also only £15 less than an Enzo Badger, a really nice one you have on you if ever there was one. And to round off the pillory it's £20 less than a Linder Super Edge, one of my favourite all time one you have on you knives ever. [I believe they used to do the early runs for Fällkniven before they looked to Japan correct me if I'm wrong, anyone].
In short, I think the design is inferior to many other knives of a comparable quality when it comes to adventure or utility use, yet it costs a hell of a lot more. And in the greed it placed itself up for comparison against some giant killer utility users, and its way out of it's depth there both in terms of design and materials. If they had stuck with it as a volume sale cheapo survival knife for use as I described above I could have respected that. Done like this, the crossover with that design into other areas and the price makes it laughable.
Well that's my 2cents from here. If you can grab 'em somewhere over there for a few bux then great, stow 'em everywhere like I do Victorinox kitchen knives and people do with Moras. Beyond that....grrrr.
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Yes. All the children are above average.
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I actually own and have reviewed the "Bear Gryll's Survivor" Pants made by Craghoppers and found them comfortable and exceptionally well made. Craghoppers is a serious company.
Which serves to illustrate an important point, that companies/manufacturers are the real culprits here. Sure, Gryllls is cashing in on endorsements, however, Gerber is not only cashing in on Bear's fame and media exposure, but also betraying the long standing consumer trust on the quality of their tools by prostituting their brand, and utilizing their market reach to rip-off undiscerning consumers/neophytes.
At the end of the day fellas, the highest bidder gets to put the "BG" stamp on it.
JW360
PS: I still don't like Bear.
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That's a fair point. Craghoppers have been around a long time and it's only relatively recently their gear has received an elevation in status. Back in the 70's they'd be associate with the nasty orange nylon cagoule or cag and that's about it. Mostly their stuff wasn't seen outside of The Scout Shop or Millets. Nothing high technology going on there. It would be the kind of place where kiddies got those clip together knife, fork and spoon things and caravan folk could grab the white enamel mugs and a deck chair. The Craghoppers brand was kinda synonymous with there rather like how the Regatta brand is. If you wanted a pair of strides you'd look to companies like Rohan with the legendary Rohan Bags. Given that history of Craghoppers and Grylls position in the Scout movement the association they have now is hardly surprising.
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But there is no Gerber ad in that issue so I guess Blade got screwed but not kissed for all their effort.
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That was an excellent post. Bravo!
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That looks like the LMF II tang design. There's supposed to be a reason for it.
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It used to be i heard good things about gerber, but put off ever getting one, now, i think with them putting their name on something like that, im glad i didn't go with a gerber. Ill stick with my OKC or my CRKT for my woodsly adventuring.