Gerber Infinity Ultra on Clearance

I saw this on the Target website in the clearance section:

http://www.target.com/gp/detail.html/sr=1-7/qid=1155555801/ref=sr_1_7/602-2053474-1549431?%5Fencoding=UTF8&asin=B000A3SY32

The Infinity Ultra with a black, Teflon coated Mini Covert folder on sale for $29.99 - if you look around, you can easily find a 10% discount code for Target.com purchases.

Reviews:

http://candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=24858

http://www.flashlightreviews.com/reviews/gerber_infinityultra.htm

I wonder if the knife's any good.

greenlight said:

I wonder if the knife's any good.

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Gerber normally makes good knifes but I have never used this one personally. I would have no problem buying a Gerber knife however.

Gerber knives *USED* to be good, but ever since they were purchased by Fiskars, they've been going downhill, current Gerber knives are looked down upon by Knife Knuts for many reasons;

1; they've reduced the quality of their steels to "400 series Stainless", a mediocre, soft steel that doesn't hold an edge worth crap (ironic considering their slogan is "legendary blades")

2; overall QC has dropped as well, it's not unusual for their linerlock models to fail, causing cuts

3; most distressingly, Gerber has started to *ahem* "borrow" *ahem* knife and multitool designs from more reputable manufacturers

Gerber is considered in the same group as Smith & Wesson (Taylor Cutlery), Frost Cutlery, and other low-end crap vendors

CRKT has also been slowly lowering the steel in their entry level knives to "AUS-4" (more than likely renamed 420J2), their midline and high end blades are still okay (AUS-8), but they've been cutting corners recently

if you want a good, solid pocketknife there are *FAR* better choices, Buck, Spyderco, Benchmade's Red Class, and Spyderco's Byrd line, the Byrds are incredible bang-for-the-buck, i've tested a Byrd Meadowlark in my fog chamber for corrosion resistance, it withstood a full 48 hours before the first rust specks appeared, a cheapo Sheffield hawkbill from Home Despot rusted in *ONE* hour, a Victorinox Bantam Swiss Army Knife started rusting in 12 hours, Byrd's 8Cr13Mov steel also has pretty decent edge retention and durability as well, not bad for a $20 knife

Byrd is the Fenix of knives, wheras Gerber is Mag Instrument, used to be good, but now outdated and resting on their reputation

That looks like the new crappy version of the Infinity Ultra. I'll pass.

MacTech said:

Gerber knives *USED* to be good, but ever since they were purchased by Fiskars, they've been going downhill, current Gerber knives are looked down upon by Knife Knuts for many reasons;
...
Byrd is the Fenix of knives, wheras Gerber is Mag Instrument, used to be good, but now outdated and resting on their reputation

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Thanks a lot for these great insights.

MacTech hit is nicely on the head about knives. I find Spyderco and Benchmade fill all my knife needs as the lower priced models from both brands offer superior steels and equal or smoother action than similar, and even higher priced, models from other brands such as CRKT, SOG, etc. And their higher priced models, which are still low priced relative to their competition, offer equal or better steels at a much much lower price. Buck's low priced models are nicely made and though I've never tested out the edge retention of their 420J2 steel, I've read it's quite good, but their leverage points for the opening isn't suited well for me, but they're very affordable and more compact than Spyderco's Byrd line if size is a matter.

I hope i didn't derail the thread too far with my off topic remarks about Gerber blades, but they really are bad (i had a Gerber EZ-Out before i got serious about knives)

anyway, back on topic, is the Gerber IU *really* as bad as it seems from reviews here, i don't have a CMG IU to compare against it, but i *do* have a Fenix E1 on the way

i'm looking for a long runtime keyring light, brightness is not important, how bad is the GIU, *really*....

Mac - I actually really really like both my Gerber IUs (purchased on sale from REI). I got the newer ones which seem to be equipped with brighter LEDs (Gerber reps say they're Nichia CSs). This might be true as my Gerber IUs are very close to the overall brightness of my CS-modded KeyMate which runs a higher voltage and they seem to output as much as an Arc-P (~7 lumens). I tested one of my IUs to run for 5 days straight on a partially used alkaline AA (would've lasted longer on a fresh alkaline)...it produced enough light for useful dark indoors navigation...probably around 2 lumens at the end of "useful light" and was too dim afterwards. Good survival light tho, but a bit big to carry on keys. I have a Fenix E1 also (just received recently) and I like it. It's replaced my CS-KeyMate on my keychain, tho I rotate between the two. I plan on testing how long it will make the same "useful dark indoors navigation" light sometime also. The E1 is much easier to carry on a keyring.

One thing to note that I have noticed is that the E1 will continue to run on a dying AAA alkaline for a while and as it gets to the not-useful amount of light, if you turn it off, it won't light back up, even if you give the alky some time to recover. In my Gerber IU, once the light completely dies or making not-useful light, if I turn off the IU and let the alky recover, it will light back up with a useful amount for a few seconds and you can keep doing that. Perhaps it's more a difference between AA and AAA, but it's something I noticed. This is useful in my mind as if I was on my last battery and it died, I could still let the recovery provide enough light for short bursts and navigate out of a building.
HTH.

I have a 13 year old Gerber LST. Any good? Of course I now prefer my Benchmade...

This has been on clearance a long time. I bought this set many months ago and returned it. Didn't feel the knife and light were worth even the sale price.

InfidelCastro said:

That looks like the new crappy version of the Infinity Ultra. I'll pass.

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Which "crappy" version are you referring to? The "military" one? It doesn't look like it's that one--it appears to have the normal reflector.

Gerber "Mini Covert" ia a good quality knife, pretty toy, but due to it's size it has no clear application, ecxept for selfdefence if being hold in a small palm. It's big brother - Covert - a top rated knife, which, regretfully, as it was mentioned, has been unusual for Gerber brand lately. I have both.

NutSAK said:

Which "crappy" version are you referring to? The "military" one? It doesn't look like it's that one--it appears to have the normal reflector.

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The new version has the LED recessed, which makes it more of a spot beam than a floodlight. Really makes the light alot less useful for emergency navigating in the dark, which is its intention in the first place. Also it's not hard anodized, but neither were the Infinity Ultras, except for the Government version. That's not a big deal really, it's just the spot beam and lack of flood on the new version is really annoying.

InfidelCastro said:

The new version has the LED recessed, which makes it more of a spot beam than a floodlight. Really makes the light alot less useful for emergency navigating in the dark, which is its intention in the first place. Also it's not hard anodized, but neither were the Infinity Ultras, except for the Government version. That's not a big deal really, it's just the spot beam and lack of flood on the new version is really annoying.

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That is the Ultra-M military version. It's doesn't replace the "normal" IU, and that's not the version on sale.

Ultra-M Military IU

InfidelCastro said:

Really makes the light alot less useful for emergency navigating in the dark, which is its intention in the first place.

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And here I thought the IU was for reading.

carrot said:

And here I thought the IU was for reading.

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