Well my lesson is learned. I bought a Gerber profile and i dont know what has happend to Gerber but to me that knife was not a good knife. I dont know what kind of metal it was made of but it was dull dull dull and i could not sharpen it no matter how hard i tried. So i got smart and returned it and got me a Buck 119. Now im happy.
Buck over Gerber
- Thread starter segaman22
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Gerber still carries some good knives, the Gator for example. It sounds like you got yours from a wal-mart. That's the only place I know of that carries both the knives you describe. I bought a profile as well. It does suck. But, I also bought a 119 from wal-mart and looked at a 119 from Bass Pro. The one at Bass Pro was heavier, had a better edge and the blood groove was smoothly bored and came with a leather sheath. After doing more research I found that Wal-mart carries cheap versions of Buck and Gerber knives. I have had some bad experiences with both Buck, Gerber and Case too. More with Gerber. Like I said, Gerber still has some good knives on the market. The new Steadfast is good, the Gator, the Freeman Hunters (the fixed blade Freeman, the folders suck), the now discontinued Harsey Hunter, the LMF II. I have used all these knives and feild tested them, but would still take Buck over Gerber any day out in the field. As a matter of fact I currently use the Buck Alpha Hunter. Great knife.
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Picked up a NIP Gerber Ripstop1 at the flea market for $5.00. Neat little framelock, sharp as heck out of the package using their "fine edge" technology, stayed sharp long enough to complete the job at hand. Takes a scary edge on the white stones of the sharpmaker, not a bad little backup blade, cigar cutter, apple peeler and envelope opener. Lock up is still tight, no blade play as yet. I'd surely pay $10.00 for it. 
Oh yeah, gotta love the low ride pocket clip. Rides almost invisible!
Matador-
Oh yeah, gotta love the low ride pocket clip. Rides almost invisible!Matador-
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You're lucky you were able to return it. Gerber has been turning to junk metal for their blades and your experience exactly matches my own. I bought a computer product with a heavy plastic shell, and the Gerber blade on my knife (a Paraframe) wouldn't cut it. It just scratched it and even when force was exerted, it slipped and slid right over it. I finally got one of my other knives, a Cold Steel Night Force, and it tore through the plastic with ease. I've had similar problems with others. And you're right. All the sharpening in the world doesn't help.
Gerber is mainly trash, but it's very difficult to find anyone with anything bad to say about a Buck. When cgusek111 (above) notes that the Gerber Gator is still a good knife, it may be true, but unless someone gives me one, I'll never have the chance to find out. All of their knives are presently overpriced.
Gerber is mainly trash, but it's very difficult to find anyone with anything bad to say about a Buck. When cgusek111 (above) notes that the Gerber Gator is still a good knife, it may be true, but unless someone gives me one, I'll never have the chance to find out. All of their knives are presently overpriced.
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We had the Grand Opening of a Dick's Sporting Goods here Friday, I got to handle about 10 different Gerber knives and I just was not impressed by them much. The Freeman folding hunter was OK, but the blade steel just seemed really soft.
cgusek111, what is the difference in a buck119 at walmart than a buck119 at brass pro shops? Is the metal the same? Is the thickness of the blade different? Now im worried, haha. Seriously it does bother me a bit. I know on the package it says lifetime unconditional warranty and it says it is made in the USA. I like the knife but i was hoping to get a leather sheath.....If you have anymore info. it would be appreciated.
I wish I could show you a pic, but that still wouldn't capture the details. After going to three different walmarts around the area I started noticing differences in weight. The first thing that caught my eye was the blood groove. There were all roughly bored out and off set. I don't know for sure about the steel. Think about it. The price range can tell you something. $35 at walmart and $55-$65 in the high end sporting goods stores. Walmart most likely sells more and Buck has to make them faster and in higher quantities and there are a lot walmarts out there. You could be getting cheaper steel. Who knows when there is big money involved. You can also order leather sheaths for the 119. The cheapest place I found was knivesplus.com.
Cool, thanks. I just orderd a sheath for my Buck. I have checked on the knives and both bucks (One at walmart and at Bass pro ) are made from 420HC steel. So ill just be happy with what i got. I also went to the Buck website and they only show the Buck 119 special......So i dont know.....Oh well in my eyes now, the worst Buck is better than the best Gerber, And that is sad to me cause i really used to love a good Gerber knife. I have some from the early 90s and they were and are really good knives, all made in the U.S.....So its sad that another great company has been sold to over seas cheep labor.
Blue Sky
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You could tell it was soft just by handling it??
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I have tested a lot of Gerber's and there multi tools and I have only found one of their knives acceptable for use. They make overpriced gas station knives.
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Yes, and by trying to flex the blade back and forth.
Try it with a well heat treated blade of ATS34 and a cheap piece of 420J2.
Ain't real scientific, but handle enough of them and you just can feel the difference.
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I don't have any recently made Gerbers or Bucks. But I've had quite a few of both in the past. From my experience, the Gerber stands head and shoulders above anything made by Buck. However, I still consider Gerber fairly low quality, just not as low as Buck.
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Do you have any idea what your talking about? How are gerbers better than bucks? Not to be a prick but do you even know what your saying? Are you really serious that you think that some overseas made knife is better than something made right here in the USA? I mean really. Compare the steel, the edge holding ability, anything and the Buck will whoop gerbers ass in quality.
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Heck, I'll go one better than that, even CHINESE made Bucks seem heads above anything Gerber.
What people call good Gerber knives are those that were made in the late 80's and 90's. What people don't realize is that most of those early Gerbers were made with 440 steel (The BMF and LMF 440A, The Mark II 440C, just two examples). I read all over this forum people praising early Gerber blades and at the same time praising the higher quality steels while bashing 440. This seems a little hypocritical to me. Then Gerber must be all around shit when compared to the higher quality steels of today.
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Many of us remember when the steels Gerber used seemed pretty good. Even if they were 440A, there weren't a lot of knives with better edge retaining steels commonly available at that time, so 440A seemed not bad. Now we have better edge retaining steels commonly available at prices that are not that much higher than those of current Gerbers. Our baseline of comparison has shifted in the steel dept.
We also remember when the fit and finish of Gerbers was really good on every knife. I have a couple from the 70's and 80's that have excellent fit and finish. The ones today are sometimes OK sometimes not. (In my own experience, usually not.)
We're not hypocritical, it's just that our standards have risen and Gerber's have declined. Bad combination.
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