This is a review of the Bear Grylls Ultimate Survival Knife, produced by Gerber and endorsed by Bear Grylls. I thought I would post this as being of interest to the forum, given the following of Bear Grylls and his popularity as a survival guru based on his TV show.

The knife is shown at http://bear.gerbergear.com/Knives/ultimate-knife/

I was actually quite interested when this knife came out: it appeared to be worthwhile in the ads, so I ordered one from Amazon for examination. Ultimately, I returned the knife for refund. Consequently, I did not attempt to sharpen it with its sharpener or use the fire starter so that I could return the knife in unused condition. However, for the purpose of this review, I did use comments gleaned from others on the Internet, most from Amazon, but one from Blade Forums, who did use these features.

The knife design is impressive. The blade shape and size are well thought out, having a 4.75 inch length that is a good one for a survival knife, the blade is thick enough to provide good strength, the shape is excellent, and the serrations cover about 1/2 of the blade and are of an efficient design pattern, similar to Benchmade's. The blade is covered with some kind of unknown grey material to protect the steel. On the top of the blade there is a ¼ inch wide notch where the steel is exposed to use to strike the fire starter.

The knife is well balanced. The handle design feels good in the hand, and the material appears to afford a good non-slip grip. I like the pommel design, and think it an excellent feature on a survival knife. Gerber seems to be the only company that offers this feature, and I applaud the decision to incorporate it as there are times in the field when one wants to pound on things and a stick is too ackward.

The additional features that are enclosed with the knife are useful: the whistle is loud, althought I would replace it with an aftermarket design like the Fox which is much louder. The sharpener appears to be some kind of diamond material and is very rough. I did not try it, but think it would keep a serviceable edge on the knife without much problem. Including it as part of the sheath is a good idea. It is covered with a piece of nylon to keep the sharpener clean and from rubbing on clothes. There is also a ferrocerium rod that appears capable (from reviews on the Internet) of providing a good shower of sparks, but some complained that it was too short. The rod started fits very tightly into a part of the plastic sheath.

The sheath is made of a plastic and holds knife tightly enough that I believe that it will not accidently come out. The sheath is attached to nylon webbing to carry it. However, the webbing is one or two thickness of nylon and the stitching does not appear very strong. The sheath will fit most belts and can be rigged both vertically or horizontally but its loops are not wide enough for the military web belt and there appears no way to use Molle fasteners with it to attach it to the vests that are so popular.

There is also a very basic picture of some air-ground signals that almost appear to be chosen at random (Yes, no, need medic, drop message, need mechanical assistance, do not attempt to land, among several others) but the plastic on which these are printed is on the outside of the back of the sheath where it will rub against the user's pants. I wonder how long the signaling diagram will last before it is completely rubbed off, as it does not appear to be much more than printed on the plastic without anything over it to protect it.

Overall, I was impressed with the ideas incorporated in this knife system: it has some very good features that would be useful to the owner.

Now, having said all of these things, let me say that from here on, the review is going to get ugly.

While the design of the knife and the accompanying accessories was impressive, the execution was not at all.

The knife was made in China. This in itself might not be a bad thing, but the quality shows throughout it. Overall, there was poor fit and finish of the handle onto the blade, and the cut for the firestarter on top of the blade was at an angle to it rather than perpendicular to the length as I would have expected. Gerber makes almost all its other knives in this price range in the USA, including the superb LMF II, on which the Ultimate Survival Knfe seems to be based, so I fail to understand the decision to make this in China.

The handle appears to be a coating of rubber over a hollow plastic tube. At the end of the tube, the pommel is attached with two plastic pins. Two reviewers on Amazon commented that the pommel broke off when the knife was used for batoning or the pommel was used as a hammer. However, one other reviewer stated that he had driven the knife into a tree by hammering on the pommel with a mallet and had no problems with it.

IIRC, I have seen mention of the blade as being a full-tang design. This is not the case, as can be seen in pictures where the pommel broke off and the interior of the handle can be seen. (See the review at http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=790424).

I am unable to determine the type steel used in the blade. On Gerber's website, it is mentioned as "High Carbon Stainless Steel", which could be anything from old beer cans to used car springs. There are claims by others that the knife is made of 7Cr17MoV stainless or 440A, but to date, they have not given their sources when I queried them. Other knives made by Gerber in this price range, such as the LMF II or Prodigy, list the steel type, such as 12C27 or now 420A, and I do not understand why Gerber is so reluctant to mention the steel used, as it might be a strong advertising feature if they had chosen a good one instead of some anonymous type.

Overall, I was so disappointed in this product that I returned it. It had such great promise and a superb design that was unfortunately betrayed by an extremely poor execution. Had the knife been made of 1095 or better yet, 154CM, with a full tang, an integrated pommel (not hard to do in these days of CNC machines), and a handle of Kraton or Zytel I truly believe that they would have had the best knife on the market for the money, even if they had to raise the price to around $100 retail. (Currently it retails on various websites for as low as $45, with most selling it for around $60).

This is advertised as the first product in a line of outdoor survival gear, The Bear Grylls Survival Series, produced by Gerber and endorsed by Bear, which will include other useful survival products, such as clothing. I only hope that the poor quality demonstrated in this knife will not be indicative of the quality of rest of the line.

Perhaps the most telling remark on the Bear Grylls Ultimate Survival Knife was when another reviewer commented to the effect that this knife would serve to open his TV dinners while Bear was resting in a motel. To this I would have to add "while he counted his monies pouring in from all of the Bear-wannabes who bought this product thinking it was worthwhile because his name was on it."

Unfortunately, it is not and I cannot recommend its purchase when there are many, many alternatives on the market for about the same (or a little more) money, such as the Cold Steel SRK, the Benchmade Rant 515, the EESE RC-4, and the Fallkniven F1 Swedish Military model to list models with which I am familiar.

Thank you for a thoughtful and full review. I must say that I am not surprised that the poor, sensationalistic quality of BG's shows is mirrored in crummy gear.

Someday I will tell you what I really think of Bear Gryll's perfectly awful presentations.

Not too suprising, unfortunately. I've been really disappointed in several Gerber designs (lights and knives). Nearly all of their cutlery seems to be 420 or worse, their no name "surgical steel." Either way, I don't plan on buying a Gerber ever again.

Sounds like Gerber hit the mark when trying to market something Bear Grylls-like. All show, no substance. They researched their target market, and designed for it. This knife should fit in nicely next to the Ninja throwing stars in the mall stores.

Looks like junk, tests like junk, must be a Gerber! Most BG fans will never know their knife is junk, they will sit around the TV fondling their knife and day dream about their never-to-be survival exploits.

Go back to the resort, have a cold one and edit it to look good. Money in the bank!

I got a catalog the other day from Craghoppers, all Bear Grylls clothing. Each and every item has his name embroidered on it. I wonder if they realize that most people would not consider an item with that name on it? Then again, I am sure enough people will buy it because of the name. What a commercial world we have made!

Regrettably not shocking. Gerber was a very good knife company but doing this project with Bear, rather hampered there image. To see a survival knife that isn't doesn't have a hollow handle break like that when doing something that Bear himself shows on TV is appalling.

Back in 1990 I had some Gerber knives and equipment sent to me for evaluation, they were amazing! The products preformed flawlessly!!! But what I am seeing for products now just isn't as good of quality. The other day I picked up a Gerber folder, out of compulsion, the price wasn't much (less that $50) but the quality just wasn't there, not at all what I remember.

And for the record, I don't know why, but the clam shell packaging just bugs the heck out of me, it makes the product feel cheaper, or like I am buying an action figure accessory.

I have a Gerber I've had since the early 80s, if not late 79 then 80/81. It's been with me on deployments, field exercises, jumps, and pretty much has been around the world. It's a Command II, 5 in single blade with a serrated false edge. I think it cost the princely sum of $25. Sheath is a little worse for wear, handle hs some dings, paint is worn - it was a working knife for most of my time in the service. I wouldn't trade it.

The stuff now, ehhhh. I have a folder that does what it is supposed to.

Guess when you outsource you degrade the quality some.

My Gerber blades consist of an original 70's vintage Mk II (L-6 steel IIRC), carbon steel Mk 1, the stainless Command II JBMat described and an early 80's Guardian. I was going to say that none of their current line hold much interest, but then I saw the Gerber Mark II 70th Anniversary Edition, S30V . . . hmmm, may be some hope yet, but they need to purge the junk. . .

Thanks for the review of the Bear Grylls knife. What I find quite interesting from the responses and from the review is that the knife produced by Gerber and with the BG moniker makes for a poor survival knife. There doesn't appear to be any mention of in the review two of the most important aspects of the knife i.e. the edge taking and edge holding qualities, only that the knife handle failed when being struck during batoning.

A question I would like to ask is 'what constitutes the properties of a knife to be placed in the so called 'Survival' category. Folks like Nutnfancy on Youtube certainly have their opinions, which I suspect have been slowly changing since he picked up and started using a packable saw.

After visiting the local history museum and seeing what survival tools were available to folks such as Nanook of the North dating back 100 years who were some real experts at survival in some of the harshest of conditions, then I suspect no one would be complaining about the BG 'survival' knife durability.

The reality is that any of the knifes shown here



would be welcome in a real world survival situation. Chances are that none of these would be to hand unless you rigidly carry a fixed blade, which is certain areas and countries, could get you 12 months in Sing Sing without the assistance of Knife Rights (even then a fixed blade might still be tough call not to get a conviction)

The reality is that the majority of the owners of any of the knifes shown above might be used occasionally to slice of the top of a mountain house freeze dried meal packet or an MRE after the notch failed out in the woods just as much as any TV dinner whilst sitting comfortably in a motel.

But as always if money is the issue then I would suggest the following combination for 'survival' tools, to replace the BG 'surival' knife.

i.e. A pruning saw such as a Bacho Laplander (£13), a Mora 780 (£9), and one of those cheap DX firesteels (£2). You may even have enough money to get a Bahco - Standard Axe 1.1/4LB (£13) as well for the sum of £36 or $54.

The guy that reviewed this had said on the yard forum that the edge retention was not very good and the thing should be sent to Toys R US as a toy.

I had sent Gerber a e-mail alerting them of a problem with one of their knives as a courtesy since I own a few of there products as well as leatherman. I have had good service and warranty from both company's. I do not own a BG product but I hate to see Gerber put out a low quality knife that has china written all over it and some kid looses his eye because he did something Bear did on tv and the knife came apart and hit him in the eye.

Anyway the e-mail is below, starting from the bottom to the top and I X'ed out the names, one question I had was my original e-mail I sent, was it that bad and misunderstood to give me a generic e-mail back and throw in a comment that the 2nd generation will address this problem, when they could have simply said yes we are aware of the problem and we are or not taken action on this matter. Anyway, I was disappointed with the response but maybe this is the direction they want to take the company in, lousy products and customer service. I would hate to see a good company turn this way but it isn't the first time this has happened.

---------------------------------------------------
Thanks x, I may have worded my email wrong. I don’t own that particular knife but I own several different models from Gerber, my only objective was to let you know of flaws in one of your products that was advertised as a survival tool to protect an individual if an individual was left stranded in a location and this was the only thing the person had with them to keep alive. I did not realize this was a toy and not designed for that purpose. I am glad to see that you are redesigning the handle though, sorry for the mix up, I had hoped Gerber would have done more research on the design of this product, I just hope someone doesn’t trust this knife to save his or her life, anyway a good toy for the older more responsible kids anyway. Thank you for your response and I look forward to see what the redesign comes up with.
Thanks


From: x
On Behalf Of Sales
Sent: Monday, November 29, 2010 10:26 AM
To: x
Subject: RE: Bear Grylls knife failure


Thank you for contacting Gerber Legendary Blades regarding the Limited Lifetime Warranty with your Gerber - Bear Grylls product. Gerber warrants to the consumer that this product will be free of defects, in material and workmanship for as long as you own the product. This warranty does not cover damage due to rust, accident, loss of product, improper use, abuse, negligence, or modification of or to any part of the product. Normal wear and tear is not covered under the warranty.

Should your product have failed while being used as intended, we recommend contacting your retailer for Replacement. At this time, we do not have Warranty Replacements to offer from Gerber. The early release of this product was promotional effort and additional product is not available until approximately January/February 2011.

Of course, you’re welcome to return your Bear Grylls product to Gerber for a new replacement when they’re officially released in January/February 2011. In addition, there are modifications to the handle that will enhance performance with the 2nd release.

If you prefer to send your Bear Grylls Product in for a new replacement in 2011, please send the product, along with an explanation of the defect, your name, physical address, and phone number, to the address below:

Gerber Legendary Blades
Attn: Service Dept.
14200 SW 72nd Ave
Portland, OR 97224

It is recommended that you send your package via UPS, FedEx, or insured mail. Gerber Blades will incur all costs for return postage.

Information regarding the warranty can be found on the Gerber website at http://www.gerbergear.com/index.php/faq/cat_id/4. The FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) page can answer many of your questions.

Sincerely,

x
Customer Service
Fiskars Outdoor - Americas
Gerber

Visit us at gerbergear.com |gerbermilitary.com
Join us on Facebook |Follow us on Twitter



From: x
Sent: Saturday, November 27, 2010 2:36 PM
To: Sales
Subject: Bear Grylls knife failure
Importance: High

I just wanted to let you know that your Bear Grylls knife has design defects with it and is getting a lot of bad publicity all over the net due to faulty designs. I have several of your products and love them and was giving you a heads up of this poor design product that would give you a chance to improve on the design and I would strongly recommend issuing recalls on them to save face with this defect. Gerber has always stood behind their products and I think if you fix the issues with this knife and publicly make a recall, then I think this knife may be salvaged to continue to make revenue. Leaving it in its current design will only hurt your products reputation and cause distrust of newer products. I would recommend taking action immediately.
Thanks,
xxx


http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=790424


http://forums.equipped.org/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=211996#Post211996

Too funny -- most makers in the survival knife field abuse the heck out of the knives because they know the knives can take it and they want to know if a knife fails and what caused the failure. Gerber OTOH specifically warns against abuse in their warranty:

Interesting. Was it Tarzan movies or Rambo that implanted in our little heads the concept that a big, honkin' nife was about the only thing you needed for survival....?

It's hard to stand by and watch a classic knife company stray away from the quality that made them classic. The economic lure of Chinese or Pakistan made knives has taken away too many customers and become the solution for profitability for overpaid and unimaginitive CEO's who focus only on the quarterly profits. These CEO's are willing to ride the company brand into the ground, deploying their golden parachutes at the last minute. These factors contributed to the fall of Schrade and Camillus among others. Even Leatherman no longer has the 'USA' stamp on the pliers. If a company CEO is determined to go cheap, then all we can do is vote with our checkbooks.

Don't know, I suspect it's in our genetic code Personally, I'm a proponent of folders and smaller fixed blades as survival knives because survival is usually come as you are and I rarely if ever see anyone actually carry one of the big wilderness blades. The typical survival could just as easily be a SAK or a Case Stockman. If it's a Victorinox Farmer with a saw, you might be in better shape than carrying a BG toy.

My typical woods carry is a locking folder, an SAK and a small fixed blade. The big fixed blade knives typicaly sold as "survival knives" are too much to casually carry every day. However, the fixed blade knives I carry will not fall apart if I beat on them because I view them as tools. Gerbers warranty is laughable when applied to a survival knife.

This saddens me. Not because I would have considered buying the knife but because I am considering buying the BG endorsed pants produced by Craghopper. Now I'm doubting the quality of these as well...

http://www.us.craghoppers.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Product3_14552_26762_-1_142805_13052

Bear Grylls is a walking trademark . . There may be some good stuff in his clothing line, but the same or comparable stuff can be found outside his line at a better price . .

Neither. Jim Bowie.

Jim Bowie had a song,i also remember the first program where he told the blacksmith he wanted a copper back on the blade to grab and hold the edge of his opponents knife.--"jim bowie,jim bowie,man of the west,,dum..dum..da da"--something like that--

This thread turned out to be very good for me. Unbeknownst to me, the OP just happened to be a good friend of mine from 15-20 years ago. We worked on an ambulance service together and had a lot of fun. He recognized my name from my reply and gave me a call.

How cool is that???!!!

So you're saying that Bear Grylls' knife does have a redeeming feature -- bringing old friends together in critique. Merry Christmas

It makes a dandy paperweight.

If you get a free one, you can always eBay it and put the money toward a real knife.

HJ