Gerber is owned by Fiskars?

Its been a while, i have an old fiskers hatchet that is identical to the gerber hatchet. had it at least 5 years.
 
Yup, its been at least 5. I think maybe longer, since I have a gerber and a fiskars folding saw from 2004ish
 
Fiskars bought Gerber in '87, moved the majority of production out of Portland to China in '90+. Been crashing ever since (quality wise)
 
In the last few years I've seen a bunch of product recalls from Gerber. Big blades with puny tangs or hollow plastic handles. What are they thinking?

I wish those Wal Mart shoppers would quit supporting Gerber. Then maybe Fiskars would have to sell the Gerber brand to someone else. Imagine if KAI bought out Gerber. How much ass would that kick?
 
Yup, old news, happened in '87, but the big down turn in quality happened when most of production was moved to china.
 
all 41 + 14 all said:
In the last few years I've seen a bunch of product recalls from Gerber. Big blades with puny tangs or hollow plastic handles. What are they thinking?

I wish those Wal Mart shoppers would quit supporting Gerber. Then maybe Fiskars would have to sell the Gerber brand to someone else. Imagine if KAI bought out Gerber. How much ass would that kick?
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Agreed on not supporting the Gerber brand. As long as the product is selling, the company will never know there's something's wrong. It's also funny you mention Walmart... Walmart sells the "Fiskars" X7 for nearly half of what Bass Pro sells the "Gerber" Sport Axe II... identical products with different colors and names. People(not me) are buying the brand name and not getting the same attention to detail as they would get from other manufacturers.
 
The company knows what's going on. It is just their decision to turn out cheap products in mass quantities because they think that is a better business model than focusing on quality. That makes them, in my mind, a rather shady company tuned to profit instead of the idea of supplying a product that both makes money and pleases customers. Customers spend less on Gerber knives, and so think less of it when their money goes down the drain, especially if they've never owned a knife to be proud of. However, that money is still gone, and it adds up to a profit, so they continue with this type of business unhindered.
 
Almost every knife that says Gerber is now made in China and they have become a sub brand of Fiskars which still produces most of it's cutting tools in Finland although some production is done in Taiwan.

The Chinese and Taiwanese can make high quality products if the contractor specifies but in this case, Gerber has become a second tier brand that is selling to meet a certain price point and it would seem their sales are very strong with their line of Bear Grylls survival gear... I understand that the Ultimate survival knife is one of the best selling knives in the world while my ultimate knife says "Fallkniven".

Gerber is still head quartered in Tigard Oregon which is not far from my Portland home... outsourcing production has not made them any friends in this area.

Leatherman is headquartered in Portland and aside from a short period where they outsourced to meet production demands, they continue to manufacture their tools in Portland.
 
Sixty Fiver said:
Leatherman is headquartered in Portland and aside from a short period where they outsourced to meet production demands, they continue to manufacture their tools in Portland.
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Which really begs the question, why can't Gerber produce quality stuff for cheap in China when Leatherman keeps doing it in America where labor is more expensive? They literally have to try to make crap at their price point, because making decent stuff wouldn't take much effort.
 
Gerber used to be a great company. Good quality knives, innovative designs, friendly customer service. I treasure the Gerber knives I have from the old days, and morn the ones I lost.

Gerber started going downhill right after the Fiskars buy out.
 
co556guy said:
This.

Today Gerber is almost on par with junk like puma, frost, etc (IMHO)
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And it's just as sad that Puma is part of that list. All of the classic models that were still made in Germany that I've seen had depressingly poor fit and finish.
 
FortyTwoBlades said:
And it's just as sad that Puma is part of that list. All of the classic models that were still made in Germany that I've seen had depressingly poor fit and finish.
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This. I was gonna say Puma was once a respected name long ago. Ethan Becker said one of his favorite knives was the old Puma Hunter's Friend.
 
Maybe now he should clarify: "the German Made" old Puma Hunters Friend ! I have a few Gerbers: a MK II Survival Knive circa 1981/2, a Freeman Folder that i love, a Metolius fixed blade that i love & 2 skeletonized folders that SUCK & won't hold an edge.
 
TwinStick said:
Maybe now he should clarify: "the German Made" old Puma Hunters Friend ! I have a few Gerbers: a MK II Survival Knive circa 1981/2, a Freeman Folder that i love, a Metolius fixed blade that i love & 2 skeletonized folders that SUCK & won't hold an edge.
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The old Puma knives were German made by definition. Puma didn’t export manufacture of their knives until they were well down the slippery slope.

I had an old-school Hunter’s Friend when I was a kid. German made and all.

Until my older brother talked me into a trade.

Sigh.

:(
 
Gerber still has a higher tier product line and they're still made in the US. I bought a Combat Folder a few months ago and the materials , F&F is as good as the other popular brands
But unfortunately the number of domestic models offered is dwindling each year.
 
They still definitely have a few keepers in their lines but not many.
 
I have a few Gerbers from the seventies and early eighties that are very fine knives folders are FH11 I think and a Gerber armorhide sheath knife which my son uses hunting now that the old man can't get around like he use to. Also, I have a couple of Gerber/Fiskars hatchets my son has one and they are excellent. Gerbers and Puma were the best until Almar came around. sad to see good companies go in that direction and the hell of it is the people buying current Gerbers and Puma think they are getting a good deal.

RKH
 
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