Vintage Gerber USA

[Another Knife Collector]

Does anyone know anything about this knife or the history of Gerber?
It's marked GERBER other side PORTLAND OR. 97223 U.S.A
Any ideas on value? Thanks.

Never really see any old Gerbers, if anybody has any they want to show off I'd be interested.

[knife7knut]

Not sure I've ever seen that model before but it looks to be a good one.
Here's a few of mine:

[Paladin]

Here are a couple from my small group. Very good knives in years past. I am not too familiar with the newer ones.

[Mossdancer]

K7K:
I'm sure you are already aware of it but someone else may not be. In as new condition that first knife you show with the checked handles is the folding hunter(FH) that Ham Gerber came up with in about 1965-66 era. It was Gerbers first folder. HS tool steel blade model commanded at one time pre Ebay a couple thousand in Japan. I have often wondered if FH stood for folding hunter or his name Francis Ham Gerber. Someday when I find time I may just make a study of the folders from this fine company.
They are by the way currently owned by Fiskars.
moss

[knife7knut]

K7K:
I'm sure you are already aware of it but someone else may not be. In as new condition that first knife you show with the checked handles is the folding hunter(FH) that Ham Gerber came up with in about 1965-66 era. It was Gerbers first folder. HS tool steel blade model commanded at one time pre Ebay a couple thousand in Japan. I have often wondered if FH stood for folding hunter or his name Francis Ham Gerber. Someday when I find time I may just make a study of the folders from this fine company.
They are by the way currently owned by Fiskars.
moss

Thanks for the info Moss.That particular knife I bought from a friend of mine who owned a knife store in Massachusetts many years ago.He got it from B.R.Hughes who was one of the writers and creators of Knife Digest.

I also got an incredible collection of knife books and magazines from Ed when he closed up shop including the first ten years of Blade magazine in binders.

[Another Knife Collector]

Thanks for sharing your knives, very nice , Gerber sure had some innovative designs.

[Mossdancer]

Another Knife Collector:
Here is a link to some of the older Gerbers.
moss

http://www.allaboutpocketknives.com/kni ... php?t=1640

[John F.]

Howdy,
I'm curious to ask about the quality of the blade steel from Gerbers of the 70's? The Folding Sportsman II's occasionally pop up here and don't seem to cost very much. I wonder if they would be very good using knives? Do they hold an edge well, and are they especially hard to sharpen?

Any info would be most appreciated.
Thanks,
John

[Another Knife Collector]

Well, I can tell you about mine, my dad got it in the late seventies or early eighties. He worked in a store that sold Randalls and other very high end knives and chose to carry this Gerber. It has very hard steel, takes a bit of work to put an edge on it, but it holds it real well. He carried it for about twenty years until he gave it to me. Can't speak for all of them but this one is nice.

[knife7knut]

Howdy,
I'm curious to ask about the quality of the blade steel from Gerbers of the 70's? The Folding Sportsman II's occasionally pop up here and don't seem to cost very much. I wonder if they would be very good using knives? Do they hold an edge well, and are they especially hard to sharpen?

Any info would be most appreciated.
Thanks,
John

I've carried several Gerbers and think they are of very good quality and easy to sharpen.My favorite was the Skookum.The pen blade was the thinnest production blade I've ever seen and held an excellent edge.I carried a Bolt Action for a time but it was a bit too big for my taste.I favor smaller knives anyway.I have a couple of pearl scaled Silver Knights but was always afraid that I would shatter the pearl.I get clumsy occasionally.

[El Lobo]

knife7knut wrote:
I get clumsy occasionally.

Man, oh man, don't we all.

Bumbling Bill

[orvet]

Howdy,
I'm curious to ask about the quality of the blade steel from Gerbers of the 70's? The Folding Sportsman II's occasionally pop up here and don't seem to cost very much. I wonder if they would be very good using knives? Do they hold an edge well, and are they especially hard to sharpen?

Any info would be most appreciated.
Thanks,
John

I was in the retail cutlery business in Oregon in the 1980s up until 1992. We tended to carry a lot of knives made in Oregon because Oregonians like things made in Oregon & because we did a lot of business with the Japanese tourists.
There was a very popular television program in Japan at that time about a boy who moved to Oregon from Japan and was raised by his aunt and uncle. Oregon products were very high on the Japanese tourists list of gifts to buy. Kershaws have always been made in Japan as well as Al Mar knives. We would sell the Japanese some Benchmade knives, which were all made in Oregon then, as well as Al Mar knives, but they rarely bought Kershaw. I asked one Japanese gentleman why he would buy Al Mar knives when they were made in Japan; his answer was "Al Mar Bushido (warrior)." With the exception of Al Mar knives, the Japanese tourists would not buy any product made in Japan.

Given that our local customers preferred to buy products made in Oregon and that our Japanese customers wanted products made in the US, with a preference to Oregon, it would seem that we would sell a lot of Gerber knives. However that was not the case. Most of the locals had a Gerber knife or two and were not terribly impressed. The locals loved Kershaw because of their quality and the fact that it was an Oregon company, (never mind that the knives were made in Japan), Al Mar for the quality, and Benchmade, for the quality and the fact that it was a local product.

We did not do well with Gerber knives in the time that I was in the business, regardless of the fact that Gerber had been a main line of the store when it opened. The most common complaints I got from customers had to do with the difficulty of sharpening Gerbers. Many of the Gerber knives at that point in time used about a 30 degree bevel on the cutting edge. While the knives held the edge quite well they were not nearly sharp as a Kershaw, Al Mar or Benchmade. So most of my customers, even those who had liked their Gerbers, fell in love with Kershaw, Al Mar and Benchmade knives, and most moved away from Gerber. Somewhere in that time frame Fiskers purchased Gerber, and the attraction of the local product was gone to most of the customers because it was no longer a locally owned company.
Our Japanese customers preferred to buy smaller knives and at that time most of Gerber's smaller knives were being made in Japan, such as the Silver Knight series.

I think Gerber made a better product prior to the 1980s than they made while I was in the business. I base this on some of the earlier Gerbers that I now own. It's my personal impression that Gerber’s designs were rather stale in the 1980s, whereas Kershaw and Al Mar offered exciting new styles and some innovative design and materials. I believe Al Mar was one of the first knife makers to put ATS-34 steel in a production knife. This was quite an innovation in its day. I can't help but think Gerber’s design talent was heavily impacted when Al left Gerber to start Al Mar knives.

Many of our Gerber customers would bring their knives in and have us change the angle at which they were sharpened. Once we had done that there are usually satisfied with their Gerbers, but if they did not pay attention to the angle at which the knife had been ground they usually had a great deal of difficulty sharpening their Gerbers.

I cannot speak to the steels that Gerber used, as I do not know what they were, but I'm sure someone here knows.

I hope this helps to answer your question,
Dale

[Paladin]

Dale,
Great input and analysis. I love the old ones, from the 70s or so, but not too crazy about the newer versions.

Ray

[John F.]

Hi, folks,
THANKS MUCH for the great info!! I sure appreciate the help, and it is amazing what depth of knowledge we have among the members here!

Dale, thanks especially for taking the time to share your experience and insight. I sure appreciate it!

John

[knife7knut]

Thank you for the GREAT info Dale.I can relate to the difficulty in sharpening the early Gerbers.When I finally realized that the bevel was much larger than other knives,my problems went away.

I've owned several Al Mar knives but wasn't particularly impressed with them;not enough to justify the large difference in price.The only one I have left is an Osprey.

I have quite a few Kershaw knives and really liked their quality,but the earlier ones were difficult to sharpen;no doubt stemming from the fact that Pete Kershaw was a former Gerber employee(as was Al Mar)and used similar bevels.The best one I have is an early Trooper(Feb.1980)I purchased new.

Some of the really recent Gerbers are nothing but junk,but so are a lot of recent knives.

[Mossdancer]

Nice answer Dale.
For anyones use the below document might help you. In case you do not know, you can hold down your ctrl key and roll the dial on mouse to enlarge photo. Feel free to save and print a copy.
moss

[redferd]

Years ago I had a Gerber Gator folder. I gave it to a friend and he used it to clean deer. He would let me rehone it and then he quit using it. He seemed to like it a lot and was afraid of losing it or misplacing it in the woods. I don't know much about the newer ones tho. I see the Man Vs. Wild using a Gerber Gator sometimes so they must be ok.

[Don Luis]

Here's one of mine, from the mid 70's, I added a thumbstud and lanyard hole and fixed the broken wood scales with epoxy putty.

Luis

[justold52]

Nice knife DON and I love that touch of color to it too...

[david@arbow]

Not sure I've ever seen that model before but it looks to be a good one.
Here's a few of mine:

I see you have a smaller version of one I have. Do you have any information on this knife?

[John F.]

That is a “presentation“ version of the Gerber Mark 2.
They were occasionally given to people as retirement, graduation, etc. gifts. You mentioned the “smaller version” of your knife earlier in the thread — that is a presentation version of the Gerber Mark 1 boot knife, which in its normal “working” form was pretty popular.

When I served in the regular Army (77-84) it was not uncommon to see the occasional soldier carrying the Mark 1, as its size made it easy to carry concealed (which was against regulations.) Typically they were either carried in a combat boot or sometimes under a BDU shirt.

The larger Mark 2 was popular with some for use in the field, where it could be carried on the LBE (load bearing equipment.). However, it was not very useful for the wide variety of rough tasks a field knife is required to perform,
which limited its’ popularity for general use. I hope this helps!
John