Gerber Gear StrongArm Fixed Blade Knife - Tactical Survival Knife for Camping & Hunting - Made in USA - Plain Edge- Jet Black

Magnacut version of Strongarm is well designed, nicely manufactured, and feels like a high quality piece of equipment. Balanced and solid, very sharp from the factory, it seems to hit the sweet spot for size and weight. I look forward to using this tool for various jobs and as a part of my emergency gear. I see no need to spend 3-5X as much for a similar tool from a high end manufacturer only to be afraid to get it dirty. I expect the Strongarm to last for many years and tackle any job I need it to do.

Excellent knife. I usually carry fold up knives. I use them a hundred times daily. Gerber is great so I gave this a shot AND I bought a knock off of this knife at the same time. The gerber blade is excellent, solid, thick, sharp, good cerakote coating, great handle with easy to hold coating, great sheath. The knockoff was half the thickness of the Gerber, cheap steel, plastic handle, cheap flimsy sheath. HUGE difference between the two despite the fact that the knockoff looks almost exactly the same. They are NOT and Gerber is well worth the added cost if you want a real solid work knife.

I am basing my 5 stars in comparison of other Gerber knives. Gerber produces good knives not great knives. The Strongarm Camp in MagnaCut is a an exceptionally great knife, it's easily sharpened to a hair whittling edge (you knife sharpening skills may vary) and holds that edge under abusive use. If you never had a knife in MagnaCut steel get one you won't be disappointed. I hope Gerber starts to offer more knives in the MagnaCut steel optional choice, it's well worth the extra cost. The Strongarm Camp, is light, good handling and comfortable in the hand at a price point that's very reasonable unlike the over inflated prices of knife makers you see in the behind glass at sporting goods stores.

I hope the rest of Gerber knives follow this trend. For a while there, I didn't think Gerber would come out with anything good again, but this knife has renewed my faith. :) It may only be 420HC steel, but the heat treatment did the trick. Being from Oregon, this knife was in constatnt contact with moisture. Never once, did I spot any rust or corrosion from its trips to the beach (prying open mussels and oysters) or in the wet forest (hunting for chanterelle mushrooms). I purchased this knife back in January 2017, and it has been on just about every adventure I have gone on since. I wanted to really use and abuse this knife; even use it for some finer tasks. In the end, I found that it loves to be abused. Taking a look at my photographs ten months after I purchased it, the only real noticeable defects now are some scratches on the black ceramic coating around the tip of the blade, and one little notch on the edge. Now, I didn't go stabbing old metal water heaters or practice emergency escapes from a Humvee, but I did a fair amount of batoning, chopping, and prying in the woods. The blade was in contact with wood, rope, concrete, and dirt. The point was never precise to begin with (see pictures), but now it is even more "flat". I love the diamond-texture grip of the handle. Very comfortable and easy to word with. My wife really like the handle too and she has smaller hands than I. The handle itself showed very little signs of wear. The fiberglass-infused plastic hand guard did take a little beating. There are gouges and scratches all over the hand guard -- yet no cracks or broken pieces. The "dull" clip point is actually one of my favorite parts about this knife. It can be hammered upon without worry of dulling, bending, or damaging the tip of the blade, yet it still provides an narrow enough point for excellent stabbing, chiseling, and some bushcraft. The pommel at the end of the handle creates the perfect sized lip for an overhanging finger (or two) so one could extent the reach of the blade. I was also very impressed by the MOLLE-capable hard plastic sheath. It is very durable and just as handy on a backpack as it is on your belt. The real downfalls I saw from the knife were in completing finer tasks. The saber grind and thickness of the blade made food preparation (slicing) more difficult. You could make a decent feather stick, but when carving a wooden spoon from a piece of maple, rounding the end of a spoon was very difficult. That being said, I'm sure if one put a more aggressive edge on the blade, you could get better results. The pictures I have posted show the uneven beveling of the edge. In my opinion, Gerber has finally produced something worth being call "GERBER". And for $50, this knife will outlast many of its competitors.

The knife is great.Feels awesome in your hand great quality, super sharp, very durable

You cannot throw sparks from a ferro rod with this knife. The spine has smoothed edges. Which is a great disappointment. Yet, it’s the cheapest full tang Magnacut knife, that comes close to 5”, that I can find in the market. On other knives that I own, I was able to file the spine to get it to spark a ferro rod. But not this knife. The magnacut is too tough and my file hardly scratched the surface. The tip is not perfectly straight. It slightly leans to one side. It did not come super sharp out the box. When I sharpened it, using my sharpening system I got from Amazon for $60, I had to use the 240 grit diamond stone for a long time to reshape the edge, Because from the factory, the tip of the knife was grinded at a different angle from the belly of the blade. I’m glad I got a knife sharpening system that maintains the same angle. Otherwise it would be a lot more challenging to sharpen. It took a while, but I got it razor sharp and slicing through paper like butter. Magnacut has excellent edge retention compared to other knives. And it’s a 7/10 for toughness according to the steel nerds website. So it’s less likely to chip or break while batoning than other steels like D2, 440c or N695. The sheath fits comfortably in my pocket while still attached to my belt and it’s super secure. Not difficult to quickly deploy and stow in the sheath.

Hands down best knife I’ve ever owned. Superb quality weight balanced perfectly, sheathe versatile so it can fit scout style or biker style. Snap closure keeps the knife locked up securely as well as the Pyrex sheathe has its own snap in place if you want it quick access. Honestly buy it try it if you hate it return it though I don’t see how you could.

Llego antes de lo esperado, muy buen cuchillo y es Gerber original!!

This is fabulous. So far i have used this for firewood prep,, food prep etc. the blade is super sharp, and despite the coating the 90 degree angle on the blade works perfectly with a ferro rod for fire lighting. plus with a perfect balance it feels safe in your hand and acts in a predictable way. I know some people are against the semi serrated blade but for what i need it's right. I have to say it's all pro and no cons. I would recommend this blade for it's strength and construction quality as when you're miles away from anywhere and relying on your equipment this will do the job. I know some people will not like the 420 HC steel but I live in the north of England where it's rainy and damp a lot of the time and 420 HC is a good compromise as it's resistance to rust is better than some of the higher tech steels used in more expensive blades.

Couteau agréable a manier, pas trop lourd, la lame est épaisse et le manche confortable. J aurais aimer une garde un peu plus marquée, le système de verrouillage est efficace, le support horizontal pour ceinture est appréciable. Les pressions du support de ceinture classique sont très dur a détacher et mal serties, elle s'arrachent au premier essai, prévoir de les remplacer.

Es la actualización del Prodigy, el cuchillo en si es muy parecido con el prodigy, apenas cambia el rompecocos y un poco el mango, donde si cambia y es lo que me llevo a comprarlo es en la funda, mucho mas versátil y adaptable al sistema MOLLE. En mi opinión es un excelente cuchillo, con acero 440 "Made in USA" y excelentes acabados. Es claramente un cuchillo militar alejado de los comerciales Bear Grylls.

This is an excellent blade. I only have two very specific criticisms about it, and neither has in any way impeded my enjoyment of it. First, the good points. This is an excellent survival or camp knife. It's just the right size - large enough for real work but not too large you feel silly. The blade is sharp and the point is good. Some have mixed feelings about the serration, but I personally prefer it for cutting rope and the like; it works fine for this purpose. The spine of the blade is more than thick enough that I never felt any hesitation about batonning with this knife (using it like a wedge to cut wood - you hit the spine with another piece of wood to force it into the log). It's held up chopping its way through a couple dozen large chunks of wood with no complaints at all, though some of the black on the blade is wearing off along the taper of the blade. The grip is comfortable and appropriately textured, even if your hands are wet or sweaty; the shape of the grip in particular holds your hand lengthwise and feels more comfortable and natural than just an oval grip. The only downsides I have are related to the sheath. The included sheath has a variety of attachment options, so it's clear someone tried, but I find them all awkward to use. Slinging it across your belt horizontally is a bad idea because the handle sticks out and gets caught and the belt loop connectors are oddly sized. Slinging it vertically on your belt is equally awkward. I mostly just stuck it in my pocket (in the sheath), which worked fine. In addition to these, the retention mechanism involves a piece of plastic that gets caught on the groove you can see in the knife's guard at the base of the blade. This works fine, but I do feel like in time, with multiple removals, this mechanism will weaken and the knife will no longer be retained in the sheath. In fact, after perhaps 50-100 cycles, I think I can already feel this happening. That being said, it's a great knife and my current daily driver. Be aware of the price: on amazon, the four variations (black serrated, black smooth, brown serrated, brown smooth) vary between $70 and $110 CAD depending on the supplier and what's in stock. Sometimes if you wait a bit, the variation you want will be in stock and you can knock twenty or thirty bucks off the price. On the other hand I've only ever seen it in stores around $90-$100, so $70 or $75 may not matter much.