Gerber Flamborge Chef Knife

[kwackster]

These days they are almost forgotten, but a few decades back Gerber produced a few series of high quality kitchen knives.
This model Flamborge Chef knife possibly dating back to the sixties or seventies has the same construction as their hunting blades from the same period: a blade made from hard chromed M2 high speed steel and a cast-on aluminum handle with a grippy Armorhide coating.
Now you could dislike the overall design of the blade or the strange greenish color of the handle, but the build quality as well as it's usefulness is actually very good.
These pictures show the knife before sharpening:

The edge of the knife is originally almost completely straight, except for the curve towards the point, and the thin blade itself measures 0.32 mm just behind the edge.
This Flamborge is badly in need of a good sharpening because the edge is not only very blunt, it also doesn't touch the cutting board anymore over the complete length of it's edge (it's a bit hollowed out)

In the years that these knives were sold on the American market many users experienced difficulties in sharpening them because of the hard steel.
Diamond stones were not readily available to anyone yet and most people relied on natural Arkansas stones anyway.

Steve Bottorf, the author of the book "Sharpening made easy" was one of them:

"The most difficult knives I ever tried to sharpen was an old set of Gerber kitchen knives.
They were so hard that natural stones hardly touched them.
Diamonds would grind them, but I don't have a diamond stone fine enough for a shaving edge.
Paper wheels is the only system that has ever brought these knives to a razor edge."

Specs:

Overall length: 15.2 inch (38,7 cm)
Blade length: 10.1 inch (25,6 cm)
Maximum blade thickness: 2,24 mm
Thickness behind the edge: 0,32 mm
Steel: Hard chromed M2 High Speed Steel
Handle material: Cast-on aluminum with green Armorhide coating

 

[kwackster]

This is the knife after sharpening.
Straightening the edge and reprofiling was done freehand on my Tormek T7 wetgrinder (the blade literally screamed), while refining and polishing with 6 micron diamond compound was done freehand on my Paper Wheels.
Because of the amount of metal that had to be removed the thickness behind the edge increased to 0.48-0.50 mm.

Although the edge looks to be mirror finished to the eye, a jewellers loupe reveals the fine and very even scratchpattern that i think gives harder chef knives (between 60-65 HRC) a good combination of sharpness & bite.

As you can see in the pics i had to remove a portion of the aluminum handle on both sides to be able to sharpen the edge all the way up to the heel.
(still have to sand those parts a bit more)
The new edge angle on the straight part of the blade measures 25 degrees inclusive while the curved portion measures 30 degrees inclusive.
(measured with my Tormek Angle Guide)

 

[pwet]

good looking knife, and good work re straightening that edge.

it looks more like a butcher's knife than a chef knife but still nice.

 

[ChapmanPreferred]

Nice knife and nice edge.

 

[uyotg]

Cool bit of trivia and history thanks for sharing!

 

[FortyTwoBlades]

I have the butcher's steel from the Legendary Blades series--"Gungnir" Its funny, because that's what my license plate says.

Personally I wouldn't have removed material from the handle, but instead would have ground down or cut out the section of edge that runs into the handle, as it's useless there anyway.

 

[kwackster]

Personally I wouldn't have removed material from the handle, but instead would have ground down or cut out the section of edge that runs into the handle, as it's useless there anyway.

I thought about that too, but that portion of edge is there for a reason: support.
Removing that piece of edge would lead to the point of the knife coming off the board when for instance chopping herbs or garlic.

 

[Phydeaux]

I have an two Gerber Balance Plus knives. Can't remember when I got them, but they are probably about 25+ years old. One is the 10" chef's knife and the other is a 4" paring knife both made in the USA. I haven't used them for a while because I have been using a couple of knives that I made from 01 tool steel and an Ontario field knife (1095) that I reground. I will have to get them out and touch up the edge and use them again.

My mother in law has one of the ham slicer ones with the aluminum handle. It's the best knife she has. She can't figure out why I always like to use that one. All of her other ones are the serrated, never need sharpening, put in the dish washer ones. I will say that they have held up well for her, 10+years and still work ok for serrated knives.

Thanks for inspiring me to get out my old Gerbers and give them a work out in the kitchen.

Ric

 

[Ishrub]

That Gerber 'Kitchen Proof' knife is quite different in blade profile to the normal Gerber Legendary Knives 'Flamborge' french chefs pattern.

Any comments from the informed?

Seems there are 2 blade profiles for the whole range of Flamborge, French, and Curtana, kitchen knives.

This 'Flamborge' pattern is similar to yours but in std chromed aluminum handle with Gerber sword stamp.

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/40035433...wmg=&rt=nc&_trksid=p4340.l2557&orig_cvip=true

This is the other typical French cook knife style with an uncoloured Cat's Tongue Steel Grip.

GERBER LEGENDARY BLADES Steel Grip 15" Handmade Knife FLAMBORGE Mint Circa 1960
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/20084593...wmg=&rt=nc&_trksid=p4340.l2557&orig_cvip=true

I have a GERBER 'Curtana' 6" blade in the French blade profile.

 

[Blades-N-Glory]

Hello Gerber enthusiasts!

Ishrub, I'm delighted to see one of my eBay listings displayed as an example.
I'm one of the largest sellers of Vtg Gerber knives online.

There are 4 different handle materials for these kind of knives including:
Plain Unplated High-Carbon
Chrome Plated
Cat's Tongue (The One Shown Above)
and Finally Sterling Silver Plated for the really fancy sets

This is a beautiful Kitchen Proof! Most of the knives from that line are destroyed from aging in the kitchen.

Best regards,
-Mitchell

 

[kwackster]

@Blades-N-Glory: the handle on the Flamborge knife is coated with Armorhide, not Cat's Tongue.

Cat's Tongue was originally called "Steel Grip", and consisted of sprayed stainless steel droplets that solidified on the aluminium handle, forming a tough and wear resistant surface providing lots of grip.
Armorhide is sprayed Teflon, and although it offers some extra traction compared to bright chrome, it's not very wear resistant.

My Flamborge knife is still in use today, and next to that knife i also acquired 2 Balmung carving knives and 1 Durendal boning knife.
One of the Balmungs has a bright chrome plated handle, while the other Balmung and the Durendal have matt chrome plated handles.
Will take some pics later,

 

[kwackster]

My current group of vintage Gerber kitchen knives from the '60's.
A now modified Flamborge Chef knife, a Balmung carving knife, and a Durendal boning knife.
Blade steel in all three is hard chromed M2 high speed steel, and they have cast-on aluminum handles.
The Flamborge handle has a green Armorhide coating and the 2 slicers have handles with a chrome coating.