What Happened to Gerber?

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FullerH

Joined
Nov 25, 1998
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I seem to have missed something because I remember when Gerber knives were considered good value for the money spent to acquire them. They were at least the equal of the Buck products. So, now I keep reading how they have gone to Hell in a handcart. What happened and in what way have they gone so bad?
 
They got bought by Fiskers, and now most of there knives are Chinese made crap. And they steal designs from other companies. Most notably the Gerber Evo is a 100% ripoff of the CRKT M16.
 
It's not really that bad. The Gerber Evo is only a 98% ripoff of the CRKT M16. Actually, since we don't know if the quality is still there, it may only be a 96% ripoff. :D
 
I suppose they did change the shape of the holes in the handles, so saying 100% might be exagerating a little.
 
Well, at least they didn't copy the CRKT logos. :D

As for Gerber, I had bought a Gerber Silver Knight several years ago, really liked the knife, perfect for a back pocket carry. Looked through a Blue Ridge dealer catalog, and saw the steel specified as just stainless. Contacted Gerber, they didn't know what type of steel it was. I think I sold that about a year ago. Beautiful little knife, should of kept it.
 
When Fiskars bought it - what, about 10 years ago? - Gerber was still making a lot of its stuff in the USA, in Oregon. Then, pretty quickly, Fiskars started producing stuff in Taiwan with the Gerber name, stuff that was not that bad, but not very good either.

Then a couple of years ago they just lost it entirely: started producing low quality stuff in China; rapidly introduced and discontined
lots of meaningless models, just trading on what's left of Gerber's once good name.

But...

I think they are still producing a few models in Oregon which are still high quality knives -
the larger Applegate Fairbairn folder, the Guardian backup - a nasty little beauty designed by Bob Loveless - and maybe a one or two others.
 
It is too bad that Fiskars dropped the ball with Gerber.
My memory is bad today , yesterday was one of those dreaded 18 hour workdays so bear with me , I used to have one of the Gerber folders that had a softish rubber handle , it was a lockback and pretty handfilling , cant recall the name. That was a good knife. The Gerber MT I got from my Brother as a "Grooms party" gift when he got married , I still use that MT in spite of the fact that the file was crap , the phillips head was junk and the blade on it was made of the same stuff they make rain gutters out of... The pliers work just fine :)
I bought one of those little Gerbers that looks like a K.I.S.S. http://www.crkt.com/kiss.html that Gerber says Aus8 on it , and it does sharpen up pretty decent.

I wont buy anymore Gerbers though , too many bad stories about them and why bother when you can buy a quality CRKT for the same price.
 
rebeltf said:
I used to have one of the Gerber folders that had a softish rubber handle , it was a lockback and pretty handfilling , cant recall the name. That was a good knife.
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You mean one of the Gators? They are still OK.
 
I have a very old Gerber Folding Hunter with brass framed wooden scales and I don't know what steel in the blade, but it holds an edge like mad and is hard as Hell to sharpen. I also have an old Gerber bolt action folder, a really very nice little knife, that has a steel in the blade that is a bit easier to work. Finally, I have a Gerber San Francisco Bowie from the late 1980s, a very nice piece but for the rubber hilt on it. I may have one or two others, but that is about it, IIRC. I had a Parabellum that I sold for $150 a couple of years back. That was the knife that was once described as the first megafolder.
 
rebeltf said:
It is too bad that Fiskars dropped the ball with Gerber.
My memory is bad today , yesterday was one of those dreaded 18 hour workdays so bear with me , I used to have one of the Gerber folders that had a softish rubber handle , it was a lockback and pretty handfilling , cant recall the name. That was a good knife. The Gerber MT I got from my Brother as a "Grooms party" gift when he got married , I still use that MT in spite of the fact that the file was crap , the phillips head was junk and the blade on it was made of the same stuff they make rain gutters out of... The pliers work just fine :)
I bought one of those little Gerbers that looks like a K.I.S.S. http://www.crkt.com/kiss.html that Gerber says Aus8 on it , and it does sharpen up pretty decent.

I wont buy anymore Gerbers though , too many bad stories about them and why bother when you can buy a quality CRKT for the same price.
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Gerber is making knives in Oregon for all kinds of OEM customers - Browning, Harley Davidson, CRKT to name a few. Their cheap Chinese knives are outselling anything they made in the past by leaps and bounds. We sell perhaps 10 times more Gerber than we did prior to the Fiskars purchase.

The best seller of the Oregon-made knives is the LMF II which is a decent product. Gerber is alive and well.
 
Knife Outlet said:
Their cheap Chinese knives are outselling anything they made in the past by leaps and bounds. We sell perhaps 10 times more Gerber than we did prior to the Fiskars purchase.
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Very interesting. I'm learning not to be surprised at this kind of info...

For example, I've heard that the Taylor Schrade Chinese-made knives are also selling very well.
 
At this point, perhaps the John Ruskin quote that Bo Randall used to use inhis catalogues is apprpriate.
There is hardly anything in the world that someone can't make a little worse and sell a little cheaper - and people who consider price alone are this man's lawful prey"
John Ruskin 1819 - 1900
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rifon2 said:
Very interesting. I'm learning not to be surprised at this kind of info...

For example, I've heard that the Taylor Schrade Chinese-made knives are also selling very well.
Click to expand...

I'm afraid so. The difference is really dramatic. I would estimate from the top of my head that we sell 30 Chinese Schrades for every U.S. Schrade we used to sell.

We sell a good number of U.S. made Gerbers but the Chinese import Gerbers blow them away in both unit and dollar sales. I think the Gerber Chinese assisted opener is currently outselling all the other assisted openers except for the Kershaw and SOG models which really drive that business. That's not a database analysis. It is just from the top of my head. It may be because we featured it in a recent private sale.

Some of the Chinese knives are actually getting to be pretty decent, not just in terms of sales but in terms of fit and finish as well. One that jumps to mind is the new Boker Wagner folder. It is pretty nicely made and has a fairly heavy price tag for a Chinese folder but is selling well and hasn't resulted in returns.

Some of these knives are ordered right along with Spydercos or Kershaws or other higher end lines so it isn't just the customers with a low preference that are buying them. I can think of one high end knife customer who has bought 10's of thousands of dollars worth of knives from us that has bought several Chinese imports lately and come back for me.

I'm not thrilled about these developments but they represent a good part of the future of the knife industry so we all need to deal them.
 
FullerH said:
At this point, perhaps the John Ruskin quote that Bo Randall used to use inhis catalogues is apprpriate.
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Indeed. However the growing reality is that more and more people opt for cheaper products. Just look at the success Walmart has had. Personally, I can't stand the concept of a Red Chinese made knife and don't own any personally. But I'm in a really smalll minority, I'm afraid.
 
Knife Outlet said:
Some of the Chinese knives are actually getting to be pretty decent, not just in terms of sales but in terms of fit and finish as well.
Click to expand...

No doubt that they're getting better and will continue to improve.
They're certainly making high quality cell phones, iPods, computers...
Pretty soon I would guess they're going to learn to make high quality knives, too.
 
We live in such a unified global economy that it is damned near impossible to avoid buying ChiCom made goods. But I agree about their knives as I have yet to see one that compares on equal terms with a Spyderco or a Benchmade. let alone a Buck or a Case. The exception is Paul Chen's Hanwei Forge, which is run by him and not by some arm of the government.
 
I agree with that. For now, other than Paul Chen, I've not seen a Chinese made knife that I'd have ANY interest in owning.
 
Knife Outlet said:
Gerber is making knives in Oregon for all kinds of OEM customers - Browning, Harley Davidson, CRKT to name a few. Their cheap Chinese knives are outselling anything they made in the past by leaps and bounds. We sell perhaps 10 times more Gerber than we did prior to the Fiskars purchase.

The best seller of the Oregon-made knives is the LMF II which is a decent product. Gerber is alive and well.
Click to expand...

So the LMF II is a good choice for an all around bush knife? I've been debating over this knive and the Knives of Alaska bush knife. Any opinions?
 
FullerH said:
I seem to have missed something because I remember when Gerber knives were considered good value for the money spent to acquire them. They were at least the equal of the Buck products. So, now I keep reading how they have gone to Hell in a handcart. What happened and in what way have they gone so bad?
Click to expand...

My experiences with Gerber also started out when they were a going concern. I have several Gerbers that date from 70's and 80's. Excellent fit and finish. OK steel. I have an EZ-Out that dates from just after the Fiskars buyout. Pretty fair fit and finish and the edge holding is not great, but is OK. I also have an EZ-Out from about a year ago. the design is still good. It locks up great. But the edge from the factory was terrible. It had really bad grind marks and once I re-sharpened it to get rid of the grind marks, the edge holding is much worse than the earlier EZ-out. They changed either the steel or the heat treat.

I will hold on to my old Gerbers. I'll not buy more.
Too bad. I really liked he EZ-out design. Wish I had picked one up in ATS-34 when they were still made.

The bottom line is that this appears to be another corporate buyout in which the buying company has no respect for what they have bought. Another corporation run by bean counters who have no concept of a quality product.
 
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