Gerber Ultimate fix blade knife

**henri** · 08-20-22, 11:27

Knives are disposable objects, the Mora knives I've used over the years, camping, gardening, outdoor stuff, slicing cake, have been more than functionally adequate and easily and inexpensively replaced if lost, easy to keep a spare in vehicles, range bag, emergency kit etc. Favorite is the mora garberg bushcraft knife, full tang, and only about $100.

**Jellybean** · 08-20-22, 15:23

For the OP, and per a video Will posted, if you MUST have a Gerber, a few years back the Strongarm was the way to go for a retail-brand budget knife that was decent quality.
I'd try one of those before the one you were looking at.

OR....my suggestion would be to raise the budget slightly to around $80-150. If the knife doesn't include a sheath, budget an extra $50-60 for one (kydex), on top of the initial knife price.
Once you hit the $120-150 range, there are a LOT of very good offerings that will outperform and outlast the commonly found mediocre retail brands, often with better steel than crap-tier stainless, or 1095.
Or at least, there used to be; with current prices/inflation, YMMV

I used to get into expensive knives, but not anymore - I've found that over a certain price, I am simply to hesitant to ever use them, and what the hell is the point of that? I'm not buying the thing to be a paperweight/conversation piece. I also stick to the 2-is-1 thing and I'd rather have several "pretty good" knives that I can stash everywhere or include with multiple loadouts, than one Uber-knife that I lost when I slipped and it fell down a hill never to be seen again....

Don't get me wrong... I love 'uber-knives'. I just fail to se the point anymore, when within a certain price point I'm still getting 90% of the functionality.

Per Esee - if you can find an Esee 4 around the $70-80 mark, I don't consider them overpriced. Hard to find a good 1095 knife that comes with a decent sheath out of the box for that kinda money. Of course, there are also better steels than 1095, and if you're doing "wet stuff" on the daily, maybe consider something a little more rust resistant, as 1095 is pretty much a rust bonanza if you don't take real good care of it.

**Adrenaline_6** · 08-20-22, 15:55

Originally Posted by WillBrink

A good write up on Cos Lam steel, and how it compares to some others. As always, trade offs exist, but on the balance of the trade offs, Cos Lam is a top choice for outdoor/survival type knives. One also has to consider of course design, blade geometry, CQ, etc, which the brand is known for. Can one do better on all the things that need to be balanced out for outdoor/survival type knife? Perhaps, but it seems down to splitting hairs at that point to me:

https://knifebasics.com/detailed-lam...-steel-review/

But, I have to say I'm questioning to value for $ on the knife. Speaking of big Tops knives that takes astounding abuse:

Yea...Cos Lam is like a super VG10. I like VG10 in kitchen knives. I have a few of them, one in SG2 (to me not worth the sharpening effort although when sharp is awesome), and a Ikkanshi Tadatsuna Gyoto in Inox steel (It is a laser due to blade geometry).

Like I mentioned before, hard to go wrong with a Fallkniven...but like you mentioned is the juice really worth the squeeze when it comes to price. Bark River makes good stuff too.

**pinzgauer** · 08-20-22, 16:49

I think I paid 60 bucks for my used ESSE3 with the kydex sheath.

I have seen used but like new ESSE4s for $100 and probably could have got them for $90.

I have expensive Norwegian knives that I brought back from Norway that while I have used them I'm reluctant to do so much. Even though they were designed to be used.

The ESSEs are just pickup trucks of knives, nothing fancy, but very high on the utilization factor.

No "soul" and not a thing of beauty. Then again, none of them are likely to be "sting" arming you to battle sauron.

One of my favorite knives I sometimes carry for light usage is remarkably low tech, it's a Grohman Canadian Paratrooper knife. It's the shape in the design that I like, the steel is ok, but nothing like the modern alloys.

If it's intended to be EDC, the odds are that you will lose it or abuse it before you find the limits of the steel. So on that aspect if the Gerber is serviceable and you like the shape, go for it.

I have cold steel and Mora knives in every vehicle just as backups. And fugly ckrt M16s that I bought at Walmart for $5 on close out. I've given them to all my kids and still have extras in my vehicles and packs.

The cold steel sheath knives I also found for $5 close out at walmart, while the moras I get from the local survival store in their annual sales for $9-12.

They are tools, backups as needed. None would be my first choice, but all are better than knives we used 30 years ago.

**WillBrink** · 08-20-22, 16:54

Originally Posted by henri

Knives are disposable objects, the Mora knives I've used over the years, camping, gardening, outdoor stuff, slicing cake, have been more than functionally adequate and easily and inexpensively replaced if lost, easy to keep a spare in vehicles, range bag, emergency kit etc. Favorite is the mora garberg bushcraft knife, full tang, and only about $100.

I don't view them any more less disposable then any other bit of kit per se. Mora is well known hard to beat for $.

**pinzgauer** · 08-20-22, 17:31

I don't really view them as disposable as much as somewhat of a consumable or expendable.

But even that's not entirely accurate anymore as the modern steels you just don't have to sharpen as much as the knives I had in my youth.

I've lost some precious knives that I wish I still had, but a griptilian or similar I can keep for many years. So I try to find that balance. I used to call it the $75 pocket knife rule, anything more than that I often lost (ex: puma in a rental car. And same for a buck pocket knife that I had since high school). But I could keep a less expensive/precious one for ages.

**Adrenaline_6** · 08-20-22, 21:00

I've edc'd a Gen 2 ZT0550 for its gotta be at least 10 years. It wasn't cheap but who cares, I use it like it's supposed to be used and never thought "hmm...this knife isn't cheap, I shouldn't use it". That just doesn't make any logical sense to me (why buy a tool and not use it?), but to each his own.

Who here would buy a SR-15 and just safe queen it while they buy a few cheap AR's to use instead?

**pinzgauer** · 08-21-22, 19:40

I've never had an SR-15 slide out of my pocket in a rental car and get lost under a seat.

Granted, sheath knives are harder to lose as well.

If I'm going hunting or if I had to go into combat I would want the best practical option. Probably meaning tough and functional.

But the knife I EDC ends up cutting wire and doing things that it shouldn't and as such is subject to abuse and potential non-recoverable breakage.

So for EDC I want the best knife I can get but that I wouldn't cry over if it got lost or abused.

But as witnessed by the knife the original poster found, even very inexpensive knives can be quite good and are probably better than what we were using 10 or 15 years ago.

**Adrenaline_6** · 08-21-22, 20:52

Originally Posted by pinzgauer

I've never had an SR-15 slide out of my pocket in a rental car and get lost under a seat.

Granted, sheath knives are harder to lose as well.

If I'm going hunting or if I had to go into combat I would want the best practical option. Probably meaning tough and functional.

But the knife I EDC ends up cutting wire and doing things that it shouldn't and as such is subject to abuse and potential non-recoverable breakage.

So for EDC I want the best knife I can get but that I wouldn't cry over if it got lost or abused.

But as witnessed by the knife the original poster found, even very inexpensive knives can be quite good and are probably better than what we were using 10 or 15 years ago.

I get what your saying, but I never had my ZT slide out of my pocket by accident under a seat in a rental car and lost it either.