Knife Talk: Gerber Legendary Blades

In 1910, the Gerber family started an advertising firm in Portland, Oregon. While working for the family business, Joseph Gerber mailed 24 sets of kitchen knives to clients during the holidays. The local craftsman who made the knives was David Z. Murphy, a knifemaker who would soon be supplying a large number of Murphy Combat knives for use by servicemen fighting in World War II.

When an executive of Abercrombie & Fitch offered to buy as many knives as could be produced, Murphy knives became the top seller in their catalog in 1939, and a business was started.

A slogan was chosen that would point the way: “Legendary Blades.“ It was a daring claim, but one it lived up to. The brand has reached all five continents with its reputation fully intact.

Established in Oregon, the brand was naturally responding to local demand when it launched its first range. The earliest knives featured a cast aluminum handle and the design gained early recognition, especially as household cutlery. With American troops engaged in World War II, a “combat” series was quickly developed.

When Gerber branched out into sportsman’s knives in 1950, a variation of the cast handle would be following through in their Magnum series. But it was not until advent of the Vietnam War that the most effective models were created, notably the famous “Mark II” dagger.

During the long Vietnam War, there was a considerable demand for equipment of all kinds. Gerber, whose hunting and outdoor knives were greatly appreciated, set out to design a combat model calling on the services of Bud Holzman, a retired captain.

Holzman developed a dagger prototype that was greatly modified after tests on the ground. The first models were manufactured in 1967. Strongly influenced by the famous duo of Fairbairn & Sykes, this dagger has a flatter blade through, with a willow-leaf shape, a gray metal handle and a solid guard with two quillons. The sheath is in leather. The blade became more rounded later on, and was produced in black, with saw-teeth cut into the blade halfway up on both sides. With these new “survival” features the knife was renamed the Mark II Survival Knife in 1979. More than a hundred thousand were made and immediately sold.

The Special Forces could not ignore the effectiveness of such a weapon and different variants were made according to specific requests from various units. The handle was produced in different colors including yellow and orange and in other lighter materials. In addition, to meet hand-to-hand combat requirements, certain blades were produced with the blade extending from the guard at an angle so that the point would be turned away off-center. Along with the Fairbairn & Sykes dagger, the Gerber Mark II is certainly the most copied model in the world, which attests to its renown.

Gerber has been consistently innovative in all areas, thus standing out from all the other manufactures, even ones that are much older, firstly through an extremely wide range for every use, with both straight and folding models. Just as the earlier knives, these would earn recognition as well as respect for their high quality.

Gerber added folding knives to its line and became an innovator of new knife designs, some of which were produced in Japan as a supplement to those produced in the company’s own Portland, Oregon, factory. In addition to its own designs, knives designed by Paul Poehlmann, Bob Loveless, William Harsey Jr., Fred Carter, Rick Hinderer, Brad Parish, Ernest Emerson, Matt Larsen and Blackie Collins were produced bearing the stamp GERBER PORTLAND, OR 97223/USA. A large number of the company’s products were stamped with its trademark, the Excalibur sword embedded in a large rock.

In 1977 and again in 1996, Gerber offered knives designed by Paul Poehlmann. Over the nine-year run of the first knife and the two-year run of the second, they sold between 7,000 and 10,000 of these fine knives. Each time Gerber stopped producing the knife because of great difficulty in making the locking mechanism work. Then in the spring of 2003, Lone Wolf Knives, a new company owned by the former president of Gerber Legendary Blades, Jim Wehrs, introduced the small version. It was called the Paul Pocket Folder and was designed by Paul Poehlmann using the same axial locking mechanism, which he patented in the early 1970s. Lone Wolf Knife Company is no longer in business; they were sold to Benchmade Knife Company in the summer of 2010.

Gerber employees who started their own successful knife companies include Al Mar and Pete Kershaw. Gerber built a line of folding knives based on the designs of Rex Applegate who left his indelible mark on the combat models. Bear Grylls has helped design a line of survival knives and tools.

In 1966, the company relocated to a new headquarters next to Interstate 5 in what is now Tigard, Oregon, within the Portland metropolitan area. Ownership of Gerber Legendary Blades remained with the Gerber family until 1987, when the company was sold to Fiskars of Finland. Chad Vincent was hired a chief executive officer in July 2001.

By 2003 the company employed 300 people and had revenues near 100 million and was the second leading seller of knives and multi tools in the United States.

Gerber certainly merits its slogan of “Legendary Blades.”