Gerber Shortcut

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Sep 19, 2001
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Picked this up in a 2 pack with an aluminum handled lockback knife for 19.99 at Target. It was priced $14.99 alone, and the Leatherman Micra was $17.99. I got it for my dad to use with his planting.

It has black anodized handles 2 1/2" long and 3/8" thick, a 1 3/4" blade 1mm thick which could shave a little out of the pack, keyring, nail file, flat screwdriver/can opener, flat phillips (something I've never really cared for on small multitools), tweezers, small, not-quite-eyeglass-size, flat screwdriver. Held together with torx screws, the heads don't sit flush with the scales, but they didn't snag anything. It has a strong snap open/close, and decent spring to the scissors. 1" edge on the scissors, with a rather wide spread on the handles-3 3/4" between centers is where the spring keeps them at. The scissors pivot is just pinned, so you cannot disassemble them, not that I generally expect to be able to with small scissors. The nail file and blade are marked on respective handles, I guess since they look the same closed. The black ano was chipping on the handle corners early on, though I don't know where they were impacting on anything. The tools had soft edges, so you can tell they were stamped instead of machined out. The nail file definitely won't file down anything harder then your nails.

The knife has a 3 1/2" handle, 2 3/8" edge of 2.5mm stock (excuse the mixing of units), 6 1/8" oal. Good snap from the spring, solid lockup with no play vertically or horizontally. The anodizing was even and clean matte black, torx screws again not flush, but they are rounded pan heads. Allen head on the pivot, so have a couple drivers handy to work on it and the scales. Being a cheap Gerber, it has poor blade steel-very soft on sharpening stones, I needed to use very light pressure and fine abrasive to get to barely shaving without flopping over a burr. The blade was not completely centered in the handle but there was no rubbing.

The tools on the Shortcut could probably stand to be a bit thicker, but the handling of the scissors is decent. With a steel worth a darn for knives, the accompanying lockback would have been a really nice companion piece. These should at least be ahead of the two small stainless lockbacks that a friend of my dad got on ebay for about fifty cents each.
 
Nice details.

I got it for my dad to use with his planting.

Gardening?

The nail file definitely won't file down anything harder then your nails.

What is aggravating about most is that they are recessed in a frame and thus even if they are aggressive you can't use them like files because they just skid along the sides.

Being a cheap Gerber, it has poor blade steel-very soft on sharpening stones, I needed to use very light pressure and fine abrasive to get to barely shaving without flopping over a burr.

You could always get it rehardened, it will only cost you several times the price of the tool. I have been thinking about buying a furnace and a liquid nitrogen condensor. Imagine the rush of orders, "Bring me your softened masses of steel, I will show you their true potential with oil and cold." Buy a knife for $10, pay $20 for shipping to and from cannada, $35 for heat treatment (soak+quench + three tempers takes some time) - sounds like a good deal to me, who would not take advantage of that.

I had (have?) a micra, I found it in general to be too heavy for a keychain and too light for any significant work. I tend to prefer a SuperTool or similar. One of the benefits of carrying that it that it is very much a tool and not a knife even though it had a full size knife. Once you are accepted carrying that on your belt, carrying an actual knife tends to not be a problem. People can be silly.

-Cliff
 
I guess it's just gardening, but he has about 50 tomato plants on a hydroponic system (down from near 200), plus his other vegetables in the ground. I didn't want to just call it gardening, which might mean something a bit more leisurely to some, as he has a somewhat involved setup. Planting is pretty nondescript, but I couldn't think of anything else while typing, heh. His use for the tool will be trimming nylon line used to tie up the plants, cutting tie wraps, removing dead sections of the plants, and opening up his packages of fertilizers or chemicals.

I had a micra for a while, it was ok, but really couldn't do much. I carry around a Leatherman Wave, and find it pretty invaluable at times. I definitely use it more than whatever folder I have on me.

The soft steel won't be a problem for my dad, he was impressed by the edge I had put on the knife, which I personally found a bit sub-par. He also got pretty used to filing down his carbon Old Timers. For my dad, a knife is just another tool, and he'll make it work because he needs it to.
 
Yes, it was just easier and faster for him. The blades got beat to hell, spending time on his arkansas stones for an edge that wouldn't last a day didn't make much sense for him.
 
That is kind of interesting, Swaim did a lot of work in the late 90's on rec.knives comparing the performance of filed edges vs factory polished edges. He found a significant increase in cutting ability. Files are traditionally used on machetes and often disregarded as a novice approach but aggressive edges have their place.

-Cliff
 
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