Gerber Folding Knife

There are many excellent Gerber folding knives to choose from but I am only going to be focusing on the most popular. By "most popular" I mean those knives that are the most used in the real world and have the best reviews.

Also, If your knife isn't listed here I would like to hear why you like your particular knife as well as maybe what you don't like about it. As I find more folding knives that are deserving, I will add them to this page.

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The Gerber Gator II gets it's name from the alligator skin texture on the handle. It comes in a few different variations. The Gator II, Gator II with gut hook, and the Gator II with E-Z gut hook. Each of these come with the option of a plain or partially serrated blade.

This main difference between this knife and the Gerber Gator Folding Knife (The first incarnation of this knife) is the hole in the blade for quick opening. The handle is also different as they added a finger slot to make it more ergonomic.

It is has a lock-back style ergonomic handle, and a stainless steel drop point blade. The separate E-Z gut hook knife comes as an option with either the Gator II Plain or Serrated version

You can find the Gerber Gator II Drop Point, Fine Edge Knife here.

There are a few knives Gerber makes in the Paraframe style. I own one of the Paraframes and I love it. It is so light you forget that it's in your pocket. I play with mine a lot and I will admit it was pretty stiff when I got it. But with use it opens and closes smoothly now.

The one drawback to this knife is that, sometimes, when I close it the blade will catch my pinky finger because I have inadvertently pushed my finger too far into the hole. I haven't cut my finger with it so it hasn't been a problem for me but someone with smaller hands may have more of a problem than I do.

Get The Gerber Paraframe Knife Here.

The Gerber Torch II folding knife with the tanto blade is another great design from Rick Hinderer. It is one of the top selling tanto folding knives available. The handle comes with a pocket clip and is made from stainless steel, it also has G-10 inserts for a safe and secure grip.

One of the best features of this knife is the finger flip that doubles as a finger guard. You can see the finger flip protruding out the back of the knife. While pushing that down and flicking the knife, you can open the blade extremely fast.

One small drawback to this knife is sharpening it. If you've never owned a Gerber serrated knife or a tanto style blade before, then you'll need to learn how to sharpen them. The tanto blade needs to be sharpened as two seperate edges. If you get the serrated style Torch II then you will need special sharpening tools for the serrated section of the blade.

The GERBER TORCH II TANTO Folding Knife can be found here.

The Gerber Game Pro folding Knife was designed around the fact that usually the best meat in the field doesn't come from the biggest animals. It's true that in a survival situation you're probably going to be after smaller game initially anyway.

This particular Gerber folding knife was designed by Rick Hinderer of Rick Hinderer Knives. He has over 20 years of experience making many different types of knives. This was his first collaboration with a major knife company. He also invented an improvement to the framelock folding knife called the "Lockbar Stabilizer" which he has licensed out to Gerber and several other different knife manufacturers.

The Gerber Game Pro is 4.12" when folded and clipped in your pocket, and is made from high-grade stainless steel. It comes with a hand sharpened blade, a stainless steel handle with a soft grip insert, Rick Hinderer's Lockbar Stabilizer style framelock, and a thumb stud for one-handed opening. It will make field dressing your animal a breeze.

One other observation I would add from personal experience. When I try to open the blade using the thumb stud it takes quite a bit of thumb pressure to push the blade out. I learned that the way to open this knife is to push up while pushing out on the thumb stud instead of trying to push the blade straight out from the frame. It takes a little practice but once you get it, it opens easily.

This knife was discontinued in 2008 and it's getting harder to find this knife at a regular retail price. It's destined for the collector market and I expect the price to be going up. If you're lucky enough to find it at a good price I say grab it while you can.