Gear Gerber Fast Draw Knife, Assisted Opening, Serrated Edge [22-47161], Black

I have had this exact Gerber knife in my pocket since they became available. In my opinion it is the very best, most sensible, practical pocket knife one can have. Believe it or not, one of my favorite features is the simple, easily accessible, sliding lock mechinism. If you think this little lock will slow you down I can assure that it will not. The placement of this lock-switch is such that you can activate it and open the knife with your thumb all in virtually one move. You won't even think about after you've had the knife for a little while It just becomes automatic. Then, when you go to close the knife, you slide the little switch to allow the blade to move freely. The reason why this little lock it so important is because a spring loaded pocket knife an actually open in your pocket on occasions just enough to catch your finger when you reach for it. I am not saying this is likely to happen but it can happen and it happened to me many years ago. It also happened to a guy I was working with. That guy is the same person who turned me on to this knife to begin with. I find a use for this knife many times per day and at times I have been very rough on it. I never leave home without it. By the way, I received an expensive pocket knife with a value of around $100 as a gift from my brother a few years back. It is top quality in every way. It sits in my desk drawer and I will not carry it in my pocket because it does not have the locking feature that the Gerber has. I think it is a great value for the money, it's the perfect size for day to day use and I find it very durable in every way. I highly recommend this pocket knife!

I work in Kandahar, Afghanistan and had need for a light, general use knife. After six months of daily use I like this knife so much that I plan to buy another and one with a regular blade so that I have them when Gerber stops making them! The spring action is easy to use and quick. I did have it open in my back pocket which was because I didn't set the lock after use. It opened my pants very well! The lock is a bit stiff at first but both it and the spring action smooth out with time. I don't worry about it failing because all hinged knives have weak points and will fail under constant use. Just how long - who knows? The stainless steel blade takes a edge quickly, and goes dull just as fast - as all stainless steel blade do. I recommend you always keep a pocket sharpener with you. The serrated blade is a bit to short for many jobs such as sawing through a big box or rope, but works well for most things. I have a small tapered round sharpener to keep an edge on the serrations. The clip is getting weak from use. But it takes only a minute to remove it, bend it a bit and you're back in business. The clip even has a hole to access the blind screw. For the price you will be hard press to find a better day to day carry knife.

See my other review of the Gerber Swagger, which I don't like as much as the Fast Draw, but if you have iron-plated thumbs the Swagger might be worth looking at. This is a great knife, at least for me. I carry it in my back jeans pocket and it fits very low, with nearly all of the knife handle hidden inside the pocket. That's because the clip design is one that "loops around", turning 180° back on itself so the curve of the clip that snugs against the edge of my pocket is nearly at the very end of the knife handle. It's almost invisible if it weren't for the clip on the outside. Also, I love the fact that it is a "tip-up" carry, which for me puts the knife in the perfect position to open it when I pull it out of my pocket. The slide lock works like a charm (now it does, see photos and re-work description below) and is very easy to operate. And of course the blade is sharp as sh..., well , sharp as sharp can be. Very nice to carry and use. I would recommend it highly unless you happen to get one with a similar defect to mine. See the rest of the story below. I purchased this from Amazon as a discounted "open box" price, which I assumed meant it was a return. It appeared perfect in every way but once I tried it out the defect became obvious - the slide lock would jam when the knife was used (force applied to the blade when you cut something) and required a lot of wigging of the blade in order to get the slide lock to release so you could close the knife. Rather than send it back I decided to take it apart (bad habit of mine), and discovered that the slide lock mechanism uses a flat bar, sliding in a slot punched in the back of the blade, to lock and unlock the blade. That slot is literally punched in the steel of the blade and left completely unfinished - no machining at all. So the shearing force of the punching operation left a rough surface for the flat bar to slide against, and there was just enough of a burr for the bar to catch and jam. I used a tiny grindstone in a Dremel tool to remove just enough metal from the slot to get rid of the burr. I also did a little smoothing of the corner of the locking bar that slides inside the slot. See photos for details. After this work the knife operates like a dream.

Love the knife. Carry it always. Handy pocket clip.

Fits hand well, really like the quick draw feature, works really easy and fast. Locking feature is firm without play. This is my second one because I liked the first one so much. Even bought one for my grandson, who is an Airman.