Gerber Parabellum

Gerber Parabellum:  Prepare for war

The Gerber Knife Company has a funny origin story.  It’s not secret but I find it amusing.  It's not about making knives, it's about selling knives.

It’s 1939, Hitler fires the opening shots of WWII.  A few Americans are concerned.  Leo Szilard and Albert Einstein draft a letter to President Roosevelt about the potential to build an atomic bomb and advising him to create and fund a government research project on nuclear weapons.

Joe Gerber owns an advertising agency in Portland Oregon that has been in his family since 1904.  Christmas is coming and Joe wants to give special presents to his best customers.  He has David Murphy, a local knifemaker, craft 24 knives.

Somewhere, somehow Abercrombie and Fitch get their corporate hands on one and they want to sell them.

Joe, knowing advertising and business, starts Gerber Legendary Blades by ordering more knives from David.  Eventually David and Joe separate and my source claims David Murphy, despite his fame, dies bankrupt.

Over the years Gerber has employed craftsmen who went out and established names for themselves.  Both Pete Kershaw and Al Mar left and started their own companies. 

It is reasonable to say Gerber started the knife business in Oregon.  Over the years Gerber bought knife designs from a list of Who’s-who in the knife industry.  The list includes Bob Loveless, Blackie Collins, Fred Carter, Ernest Emerson, Bear Grylls, and local hero Rick Hinderer.

The Parabellum is not a pocket size knife

In 1987 the Finnish company Fiskars bought Gerber Legendary Blades.  Fiskars is essentially a holding company whose main business concern is owning significant portions of other profitable companies.  Fiskars also owns the classic British company, Waterford Wedgewood, who is themselves a holding company.  Let’s not go down that rabbit hole.

From 1987 to 1994 Gerber made the Parabellum aka Black Bolt.  It was engineered to be one of the stoutest folding knives ever made.  And if you ever handled one, you would believe it.  It is reported that Blackie Collin designed the Bolt Action, the mechanism used to lock the knife open.  It takes a little force to unlock the blade.  That isn’t always a bad thing.

I ran into this one and despite the shadow on the back of the blade I bought it.  The edge looks factory and it comes with the duty belt clip.  The pouch can be reconfigured so the Parabellum can be slipped into it with the blade open like a sheath knife.

Discoloration on back of blade

The 4-inch flat grind drop point blade is over an inch and a quarter at the widest point and 11/64 of an inch thick.  The steel is probably 440C, the best of the 400 series.  At the time 440C was premium mid-level steel for knife making.

440C stainless contains:

                                    C   0.95-1.2%

                                    Cr  16-18%

                                    Mn and Si at 1% each,

                                    Mo  0.75%

The steel is magnetic so keep it away from your compass if you’re navigating by map and compass.

Gerber Parabellum and original sheath

I think my Parabellum was carried and never used.  The pouch shows a little rust on the back snap and the cover snap seems to have been thumb polished.  The discoloration on the back of the blade appears to be confined chiefly to the portion of the blade not protected by the knife handle.  The handle itself doesn’t have a mark or scratch on it.

Back of Sheath  It can be unsnapped and rotated to a drop leg sheath to hold the open knife

I’m going to leave it the way it is.

Window Shopping

I find myself window shopping in the Böker catalog.  It’s the adult version of creating a wish list for Santa.  Since I’m just window shopping, price becomes irrelevant.  Grab a shopping cart and come with me.

Böker 98K with those interesting handle grooves

I like working blades.  Knives that I’m going to carry and use and surprisingly they don’t all have to be tactical blades.  I really like the Böker 98K Damascus modestly priced at $419.00.  The blade is made from portions of the German Karabiner 98K, best known for its Mauser locking system.  Chad Nichols changes it into a ripple pattern Damascus blade.  

The clip point blade uses a nail nick to open and the handle scales are walnut wood. The knife has a protruding back lock and steel liners for strength. https://www.bokerusa.com/98k-damascus-110715dam

Swiss Dagger

I’ve always had a thing for Swiss daggers.  Maybe it’s the name, Baselard.  It was a popular weapon with pikemen in the 15^th and 16^th century.  The long tapering 18.5 inch blade with a double edge and distinctive hilt makes it a unique and recognizable weapon.  Too bad it’s associated with damn Nazis.  

Boker has a simple, working pikeman version too.

It’s not available at Böker anymore, but you can find it at…  Well I’m wrong, actually nobody has it here in the States.  It does seem available at the German Böker website.

I suspect it should be called Glamping, not camping.

I remember when being called a Boy Scout wasn’t a derogative term.  It still isn’t to me.  Perhaps that is why I like the Böker Camp Knife.  It sports a stag handle with a main 2.5 inch drop point blade and a smaller 1.75 inch clip point blade.  What would a camp knife be without a can and bottle opener?  Included is a leather punch/reamer and a cork screw for adult beverage camping.  

Your basic scout knife

This pattern has been in use since 1869 which was long before I graduated from high school and Scouts.  I wish I had one.  The blade?  Oh, it’s a 4036 steel, which needs a little care.  You can find one for $279.00.

https://www.bokerusa.com/camp-knife-stag-110182hh

What can I say, I have permission to use Boker's website images. 

Lastly, I’d want a Böker plus Nori CF.  It a thin streamline folder with carbon scales designed by Kansei Matsuno.  It’s a gentleman’s knife with a pocket clip and a subtle front flipper.  The 3.15 inch blade is completely submerged in the handle and it weighs in at 1.6 ounces.  

A little nicer look at the carbon fiber handle

The VG-10 blade rolls out on ball bearings and locks open with a liner lock.  It could be the perfect knife to tuck behind your cummerbund and it will not pucker the lines of your Savile Row suit.  The list price is a mere $120, which could actually be in my price range.

https://www.bokerusa.com/nori-cf-01bo891?number=01BO891

Ladies did I forget you?  No, I didn’t.

Damascus is hot this year.  The auto kwaiken has very good looks, especial with the abalone button

Böker makes a lovely auto knife perfect for elegant wear.  It’s a Damascus kwaiken with a 3.5 inch Chad Nichols virus pattern blade in a black handle weighting 3.4 ounces.   The activation button is inlayed with abalone.  It is very nice and expensive at $650, but you’re worth it, aren’t you?  At least I think so.  Unfortunately, it isn’t quite available yet.

https://www.bokerusa.com/kwaiken-automatic-damascus-06ex293dam

There no sense leaving post-it notes on the pages.  My wife just throws her hands up and says, “You want it?  Order it.  Don’t make me a party to your edge lust!”  It’s a thought, but I’d rather window shop.  There is always a nicer one out there.

Young Turk

I ran in to a young man who is just starting to make knives.  For the last two years he’s hammered, removed stock, taken classes, sharpened edges and dropped a lot of sweat on the ground.  Why?  Because David Pienta wants to be a master knife maker.  But the road is long and twisty and not everyone makes it, but he’s starting.  Right now he’s working with stainless Damascus steel he hammer forges himself.  

I bought the one on the bottom

The name of his forge?  Fenic Forge.  The name derives from the chemical symbols for iron, nickel and carbon, important elements in steel.  He doesn’t have a tang stamp yet and I urged him to.  Many of his knives are objet d'art and without a tang stamp their value will be less.  I’ve handled too many nice knives that everyone simply shrugged and said “Beats me who made it or what it is worth?”

Bold Tiger Stripe Damascus

We disagreed on the artistic nature of his stainless Damascus choppers.  He thinks they are practical Choppers.  Perhaps.  I think you will not see too many Damascus knives as choppers.  Yes, I know the maker has the edge on what he thinks his knives are for, but it is really up to the consumer.

I bought a small kitchen utility knife, maybe seven layers of steel in an exotic burl handle. The handle has good symmetry and the blade has nice lines for a small working knife.  The small number of layers allows the differences in steel to be bold statements.  The working edge ends with a gap between the steel blade and the handle.  I like the way my finger sits in that place, so clearly defined with no worries of sliding onto the blade.

My kitchen utility knife

I’m going to sharpen it bit more and treat the handle to a good wax coating and Karen will have a special kitchen knife.

You can find David on Instagram or http://fenicforge.com/.

Spyderco K390 steel

It an Endura, one of Spyderco’s top selling knives. But this one is a little different . It has the new K390 steel blade. The flat grind blade is quickly becoming one of my favorite configurations. I grew up with saber and convex grinds but I’m won over by the flat grind. The absence of shoulders makes for easier cutting. If you’re slicing a wedge of Swiss cheese, you may want the shoulders as they push the materials apart and away from the knife. But you also encounter drag. Drag just means you have to put more force on the blade, and for most applications, forcing a blade is never a good idea. So I’m running some test because K390 steel sounds like a step backwards.

It’s not stainless. In fact a product insert warns you to protect the blade.

Bohler-Uddeholm list the following reasons to use their K390 Microclean steel:

1. Good machinability because of uniform mechanical properties,
2. Excellent grind ability even with deep engraving in the tool & die center,
3. Uniform low dimensional change during heat treatment,
4. Non sensitive against overheating or long soak times.
5. Optimal EDM characteristic due to uniform carbide distribution.

EDM is Electrical Discharge Machining and it is becoming industries’ favorite machining and milling tool because it is efficient, economic, fast, controllable and computer-driven. Many of these steel properties, like dimensional stability are a big draw for knife makers.

The Chemistry also looks interesting.

•  C  2.4%,
•  Cr 4.2%,
• Mo 3.8%,
• V   9%, 
• W  1%, 
• Co  2%.

I should also note, new steels aren’t simply made by dumping elements together. Tempering, stress relief and hardening cycles have a major part in any production metal. Still, I find these numbers amazing, especially the 9% vanadium and 2.4% carbon!

Strictly speaking chromium levels should be around 11% to be classified as stainless. Chromium forms carbides that stabilize the microstructure, so in ordinary steels you need an excess of chromium to react with carbon and still have enough to protect against rust. Here you have vanadium to form carbides. So is there enough chromium to form the transparent chromium oxide barrier?  I don’t know.

Let’s play.

I’ve been cutting cardboard all week, I haven’t noticed any loss of sharpness. Today I cubed semi-frozen beef for a future chili dinner. I thought the knife handled better than many of the larger chefs’ knives or the smaller utility knives.

I sliced up some lemons and limes for summer drinks and the knife worked fine.

Tasted pretty darn good, too!

Afterwards I noticed the acid fruit left a start of a faint patina. I could lightly rub it out with a fine metal polish, but I think I’ll keep it. I like a working knife that looks like a working knife.

I increased the contrast slightly so you could see the patina. I'm wondering if it will wear away on it's own.

I think the K390 steel is going to be a winner. I haven’t had to sharpen it yet, but I have no doubt my Spyderco Sharpmaker is up to the job. I understand you’re going to see K390 steel in a lot of other Spyderco products. I also think you’re going to like it.