Gerber  StrongArm Serrated Fixed Blade Knife

I grew up in Portland, OR and I'm very happy that Gerber has started making some of their better knives stateside in OR again. It has paid off because these American knives are getting great reviews. The design of the sheath of this knife is wonderful. It is high quality plastic and the knife snaps firmly into place but can be removed with one hand pressing the unlocking mechanism while pulling. It can be configured to wear up, down or sideways on a vest or your belt. The only downside is that the instructions are terrible but there are many youtube videos that will tell you very quickly how to configure your preferred attaching mechanism.

I don't have much to complain about here aside from the fact that the only available version has serrations. Serrations are great for cutting rope and that's about it, the serrated portion of the blade really doesn't preform as well as the straight edge portion, and the serrations are placed right where you get the most control of the blade, so you've lost the ability to make chest lever pulls, reverse lever pulls and the ability to carve with any sort of precision where there are serrations present. Serrations aren't horrible to have, but they do have their place and that place is certainly not on a camping/hiking utility blade like this one.

I bought this and used it on a 3 day hiking trip to Big Bend. The knife snaps into the sheath easily and you don't have to worry about strapping in the handle. You can take it out of the sheath with one hand, using the thumb against the sheath and pulling up on the handle. The knife is a solid weight and well made. It goes into the sheath with the blade facing either direction, easy to access on my hip. The sheath can be attached a few different ways depending on how you're carrying it, I just hang it off my belt. I have no problems with it at all, an all around great knife.

Its always a compromise, but this knife is about as good as it gets for a rugged, well designed outdoors knife. I've used it to process and baton wood, spark fire steel, and scrape magnesium bar fire starter. It will do that and more. I do prefer the serrations for the added versatility, but they are available without it. Sharpens and holds an edge well. It's a keeper.

I bought this knife a few days ago and was deciding between this and the Gerber ultimate knife. I had read reviews saying that the ultimate knife would break especially in cold weather so i went for the sturdier of the two. The full tang design gives it a very nice weight in the hand and the grip worked well and didn’t get slick when my hand got sweaty. It took me about 5 min to cut through a 3 inch diameter tree using a mixture of hacking and sawing and the blade was still in perfect shape. I find that the saw only works well for things that are about and inch around which is the only flaw. Over all it is a great knife/sheath combo for the money.

As mentioned by a few others, this knife doesn't come very sharp. I few passes on my whetstone however and it's like a razor. I haven't used it in the field yet, but it's a solid knife with a good feel. At this price range I'm not sure you can beat it, I have some benchmade knives, and they are superior - however at this price point I won't cry if I lose it and it is fully functional for my needs. The sheath is a little complicated as the directions are confusing - there are three different ways to configure the sheath so you'll need to figure out what works for you.

If you need a good knife for wilderness use, woodcraft, hunting, or preparing a meal and you have some outdoor skills this knife is one of many that will do you proud. I am a knife collector and I assure you I have many, many very high quality knives. This knife is as good as any knife you would want to have and use in the backcountry.

I ordered this knife for backpacking in Oregon. And my boyfriend saw it and played with it for a minute and had to get one, so I ordered him one for Christmas and he absolutely loves it.

Strong blade, good feel, balanced, well made, have used it many times in the woods. Just a great overall bushcraft knife. Sharp 90 degree angle on the blade's spine, this makes it very easy to strike and spark a ferro rod to start a fire. Highly recommend this knife. An added bonus it is make in the USA.

Good knife. Large. The sheath scrapes off the diamond grip pattern after a day or two. The sheath has started to unravel in parts and shows signs of wear after a month. It also scrapes off the black coating from the blade after a day or two. Scrapes your wrist and arm if you wear it accessibly. None of them are major issues of course. Feels solid. Does it's job. Not as sharp as my. Smith & Wesson, which this replaces, by any means. Still would recommend.