gerber gear

Gerber Edict folding knife (Green)

Gerber has released the evolution to their successful Edict knife, which featured a tanto blade and black ceramic coating to minimize reflective surfaces. The Edict was marketed for soldiers and first responders. The new Edict is designed for the role of everyday carry, and it fills that role nicely.

This version of the Edict is different from its predecessor in a few different ways, the first being the blade style. The Edict-Green uses a fully fine edge, drop point blade that is made of 154CM steel. This steel type gives the knife one of the best edge retentions available with minimal reflection and a glass bead finish, while still being easy to sharpen for the end user. It is guaranteed to hold its edge for a long time, which is a plus in my book for the EDC category.

The blade includes dual thumb studs to assist in easy and quick openings with one hand. The lock back mechanism keeps the knife open in the most heavy duty uses. I appreciated the feel of the mechanism and you can tell that it’s ready for abuse from the moment you open it. The audible click is sharp and does a good job in letting you know it’s secure.

The handle is made of glass-filled nylon with rubber overmold and features a large palm swell to give you a solid grip on the knife during any work applications. The finger guard is fairly deep and I felt confident working with it in the outdoors. There is also a nice groove cut into the spine of the blade which is very useful for your thumb to rest in.

The green rubber overmold has a diamond texture pattern that is perfect for EDC use as it lets you keep a firm grip on the handle. The blade length is 3.6”, which gives an open length of 8.5” and closed at 4.9”. The Edict – Green weighs 3.6 oz. and is just the perfect weight for a working knife that will find its way into your EDC rotation. Best of all, the knife is made in Portland, Oregon.

While it is a great EDC knife, I plan on using this one at work since it will let me use it to its full potential. You can pick yours up from Gerber for $80.

Author – Rodney Pointer is a former Army Infantryman. After graduating from Airborne School, he was ruthlessly assigned to Fort Polk, Louisiana to live out his days as a dirty leg. He served with the 2nd BN, 30th Infantry of the 4th Brigade, 10th Mountain Division. Following his deployment to Afghanistan, he received a Bachelor’s degree in Intelligence Operations. He currently works as a nuclear security contractor.

Gerber Prodigy Fixed Blade Knife

The criteria for gear that goes into your loadout seems to be constantly changing. In recent years there has been a call to provide the equipment that has the same capabilities and similar characteristics as existing gear only smaller and lighter. Based on the larger Gerber LMF II that I carried on my kit for a number of years is the Gerber Prodigy.

The Gerber Prodigy is a perfectly sized fixed blade that offers all the essentials in a nice 9.75” fixed blade knife. The blade itself is designed out of a beefy 420HC stainless steel and is about 5mm thick, so it has some weight behind it. With a heavy blade that is ceramic coated and a rubber molded grip this knife is very capable of a variety of tasks like taking down brush or fighting techniques without losing your grip. Protruding from the handle is a small pommel type area that can be used for glass breaking or soft tissue muscle gouging techniques.

With a partially serrated blade the Gerber Prodigy gives more versatility with what it can cut through, but the most versatile part of the Gerber Prodigy is the Sheath. It can be mounted on MOLLE, on a belt with a leg strap or even zip tied to any surface you deem fit. The only downfall is that you can fully remove the nylon portion from the friction sheath like you could with the LMF II.

From the Gerber Gear website:

Design cues for the new Prodigy were inspired by the award-winning LMF II, another knife engineered by Gerber’s Jeff Freeman. The Prodigy is much smaller (9.75″ overall length), but it certainly packs as much punch as its predecessor. The full tang, U.S. 420HC Stainless Steel blade is beefy, and coated with ceramic for improved corrosion resistance and reduced visual signature. The ergonomic over-molded rubber handles ensures a soft, comfortable, but secure grip in all conditions. Its also MIRS compliant. Much like the knife, the sheath is designed to live up to the task with a friction-release thumb lock for security and a list of non-detection features. Noise is dampened thanks to a molded softgrip coating which, like the ballistic nylon material, is MIRS compliant. It’s also MOLLE compatible and comes with a leg strap.

Let us know what you think of your Gerber Prodigy fixed blade knife.

Get the Gerber Prodigy on Amazon for around $50

Originally published on the Crate Club Knowledgebase and written by Wes

Gerber Propel AO (Assisted Opening) Knife

I’ve always been a proponent of having a blade on you ALL the time. I have the privilege of testing many different knives and have done so over the past few years. One thing that can be time consuming and costly is finding that ‘perfect’ blade to carry with you everyday. Today we are going to take a quick look at the Gerber Propel AO. I’ve heard a-lot of good things about this blade, especially from those that have been downrange. I know of a few Army SF guys that carried the Propel when deployed.

The first thing I noticed out of the box was the weight. It has enough weight and heft to it, to remind you it’s a tough blade that is meant to get dirty and be used on a daily basis. It’s not too heavy though to keep me from putting it my pocket for daily carry. Some will argue that it weighs too many ounces to be an everyday carry knife. I’m sorry, but I’m not counting ounces when I choose a knife to carry.

The Gerber Propel AO is an assisted opening blade with a plunge lock that seems to lock up pretty damn solid. This model also sports a safety mechanism in case you want to lock the blade open or closed. Some will lock the blade in a closed position when carrying in their pocket for fear of the blade opening inside the pocket. I’ve never had this happen and typically always keep the safety on the off (red) position.

Gerber Propel AO | Quick Look — The manual slide safety and plunge lock button.

The handle scales are an aggressive G10 material that has several milled out sections to improve your grip in adverse conditions or if your hands are wet and/or sweaty. When clipping it to your pocket it does grab on rather tightly, so time will tell how bad it wears through the material of my pants. I may remove the pocket clip to lightly sand down the area under the clip so it doesn’t chew my pants up over time. We’ll see….

Speaking of the clip, I really like the clip design on the Gerber Propel. It’s standard length clip that comes ready for tip up right side carry (my preferred). The clip also has a really nice black oxide type finish to it that gives it somewhat of a distressed look. The retention of the clip is solid too. This knife isn’t going anywhere unless you deliberately pull it from your pocket.

The blade is a partially serrated tanto design with a slight drop to it. The slight drop and swedge combination give this knife a robust tanto tip. The type of steel may be a deal breaker for some. The Propel AO model is manufactured from 420HC steel (not the best). I will tell you this though. Just because it is 420HC does not necessarily mean it’s crap. Take a look at Buck knives. They have been using 420HC for many many years with no issues. The important thing is how they treat that steel during the manufacturing process. If the steel has a good heat treat then there is nothing to worry about. Yes 420HC may rust easier, but if you keep the blade clean and maintained that is a mute point. Take care of your gear and it will take care of you.

*Featured image courtesy of Gerber Gear

Gerber Freescape Folding Camp Knife

If you have read any of my previous articles you know the importance I place on always having a blade. A common question often asked is ‘what is the best knife to have?’. The blanket answer to that is ‘the knife you have on you’. The Gerber Freescape Folding Sheath Knife is marketed as a camp kitchen prep knife, but it can be used for much more than that. Depending on your budget this may be the knife you decide to carry for everything; hiking, camping and outdoors related. If the knife is used within its means then it will serve you well for many years. Gerber knives have been around for many years and manufacture a solid product, I know because I carried a Gerber knife during my active duty years as a Marine, and it never failed me.

Style of Knife: Folding Sheath Knife. This knife is a larger folding knife, much like the Gerber Gator folding knives making it ideal for belt carry. As the weather becomes colder you begin to layer clothing and wear heavier jackets reducing your access to your pockets. Having a belt knife makes life a little easier when you need access to your blade without having to move a bunch of clothing around.

Blade Length: The blade length is 3.5″ making it well suited for many camp, and hunting tasks. The overall length of the knife is 8.4″.

Type of Edge: The edge of the knife is your traditional V grind. The blade is partially serrated giving you better cutting capability when having to cut through rope, twine, or any other tough material. Due to the type of steel used and the grind angle, the knife is easy to sharpen in order to bring the edge back after heavy use.

Blade profile and design

Blade and Handle Materials: The blade steel used is 7cr17MoV stainless steel. The 7cr17MoV stainless steel is similar to 440 steel, but with a higher content of vanadium. With the higher content of vanadium you get increased strength, wear resistance, and increased overall toughness of the blade. The handle material is a textured rubber grip similar to the gator grip found on the Gator series of knives.

Gerber Freescape Folding Sheath Knife — The grip of the handle offers great retention

Sheath: The sheath in the hand almost feels like a hybrid of nylon and neoprene. The blade is held securely in the sheath via a combination of the snug fit and the flap which is held closed by a velcro clasp. Also integrated into the sheath is a generous belt loop accommodating belts up to 2″ wide. Overall this is a well constructed sheath that will remain on your belt and retain the knife during vigorous activity.

Weight: 4.3 ounces

MSRP: $53 direct from the Gerber Gear website.

Unique Features: The new Gerber Freescape folding sheath knife features a safety that allows the user to either lock the blade open or lock the blade closed. The bright green highlights on the handle allow you to better locate the knife if dropped on the ground in the leaves or the snow. The toxic green color also gives the knife a cool zombie look if you’re into the kind of thing.

Application: General camp tasks, day hiking, or hunting.

Pros: This blade performs pretty damn good for basic tasks in the yard, or out at the camp site. The blade excels at prepping sticks for roasting marshmallows or hotdogs. I was able to produce several feather sticks for fire prep – something I believe every field knife should be able to do. Time will tell on how well the blade holds up to field use.

Cons: I would not consider this knife a good option for military field use like I would the Gator series of knives. Don’t get me wrong it’s a well made knife, but it’s geared more for lighter duty tasks. The lock back design of this knife seems to be on the lighter side. What I mean is when you disengage the lock, there isn’t a whole lot of resistance. I can’t yet say I would trust my life to this knife, but time will tell.

*Featured photo courtesy of Gerber Gear

Solo Hydration Setup | Clean Water on the Move

I’ve been through several different types of water bottles and water filter systems over the years. The water bottle can be somewhat of a debate to those in the survival community. Some prefer stainless steel over plastic for the sole purpose of being able to boil your water. For a while I carried a 32oz stainless steel bottle for that purpose, but I honestly never found myself needing to boil my water. This would obviously be a benefit in more of a long term survival situation where a personal water filter may become compromised after too many uses.

Although I do still own a stainless steel water bottle I more often than not carry my trusty 32 ounce Nalgene water bottle with a nesting cup.

The Olicamp stainless steel nesting cup provides me with a means of boiling questionable water if I don’t want to use my water filter, melt snow to create drinkable water, or to just enjoy that hot cup of coffee in the field.

As for being able to filter questionable water I have settled on a simple, robust, easy to use personal water filter. The specific one I chose is the Sawyer Mini Squeeze Water Filter. This system contains no moving parts and is able to filter 100,000 gallons of water! Because of those two facts, this system will last you a very long time.

The kit comes with the water filter, drinking straw, and 16 ounce reusable squeeze pouch. You can also get additional squeeze pouches of varying sizes. I opted to purchase two additional 32 ounce squeeze pouches. Not only can you fill these with questionable water to process through the filter, but since they come with a screw on cap, you can carry them over distance back to camp without worrying about spilling the water.

I don’t mess around with filters that require changing our pre-filters, have some type of pumping mechanism, or having enough water purification tablets. You can eventually run our of the pre-filters and the pump mechanism is a point of failure out in the field. In general 1 person will require 1 gallon of water a day. With the Sawyer Mini Squeeze filter system that equates to 100,00 days! Pretty damn impressive if you ask me. There are plenty of other water filter systems to choose from depending on how many people you need to filter water for and what you want to filter. Alot of this stuff comes down to personal preference as well. The combination of the proven Nalgene water bottle and the very robust Sawyer Mini Squeeze water filter give me a no bullshit easy to use hydration system for day hikes, multi day backpack trips and natural disaster preparation.

What hydration setup do you use?

Gerber Launches G1 Series with Super-Premium Propel Automatic

Gerber is providing KnifeNews readers with an exclusive first look at their brand new G1 Series of limited edition, high-end knives. The Portland, OR company envisions the G1 lineup as an annual limited release series. As the series evolves, there may line-exclusive models but for now the plan is to elevate existing designs with top-shelf materials and hand-crafted finishes. The pilot for the new line is the G1-001, a premium version of the company’s popular Propel automatic knife.

Each American-made G1-001 is built by Gerber’s Prototype Team, made up of four skilled artisans with many years of knife making experience. For the 3.5-inch spear point blade Gerber implemented a laminated steel configuration developed exclusively for this knife. A Hitachi Blue core sandwiched between 410 stainless steel cladding allows for high cutting performance at the edge and better stain resistance and toughness on the outside. “We thought it was really important to step into a different type of steel,” says Karrson Koivisto, Product Manager at Gerber. This is the company’s first ever laminated steel offering. “Going into a bi-metal steel was exciting for us.” The G-10 handle scales have been replaced by milled and chamfered titanium ones. “Putting out this caliber of knife we wanted to make sure we looked after every detail,” Koivisto says.

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