Gerber Instant Review

It’s been tough trying to find a replacement for one of my favorite EDC (every-day-carry) knives, a Gerber 06 FAST. A beefy tanto blade with Gerber’s FAST spring assisted opening mechanism that’s pretty much seen everything from field dressing animals, opening cans, cutting zip ties and whatever else. Now, I should say I’m not fully replacing my favorite knife but finding a good fill in knife with a little more versatility.

In comes new Gerber knife. The Gerber Instant. Tactically inspired, 7Cr17Mo steel, a modified drop point blade with partial seration, G10 handle and Gerber’s new FAST 2.0 opening mechanism.

FAST 2.0: Right out of the box the first thing I notice is how tactile the handle on this knife is. Great texturing to keep a good hold and control while doing various tasks. The new assisted opening on the Instant takes a couple times of use to break in but is very solid. I first noticed that the 2.0 FAST system differs from the original FAST system in that the spring tension lets off at about 1/3 of the way on the 2.0 version where if you’ve ever used a original FAST knife the spring tension goes all the way until the blade locks into place on the frame. For myself, it took a little getting use to but after few flicks the blade deployed an locked into place each time. To release the blade lock to fold it back into the handle Gerber has implemented a plunger locking system in which the blade will fall free to the point of where the spring system stops and from the point you can press the blade back into the handle. As oppose to my Gerber 06, the Instant does not have a “safety” to lock the blade in the handle but I in my opinion to deploy the blade you very much have to deliberately flick it open from the thumb studs.

The Blade: A modified drop point blade this knife has a great looking profile. As much as I love my tanto blade the Instant’s modified drop point will probably serve me better in various uses (particularly field dressing animals). From the box the edge was fairly sharp as well as the serrations on the blade. After a couple weeks of pretty medium use the edge has held pretty well. After running the blade a few times on my pocket Arkansas stone it’s edge was back to razor sharp. Overall, I’m very happy with the blade on this knife.

The Frame: As I mentioned earlier the G10 handle is very tactile and provides great traction for your hand. Cutouts in the handle help reduce weight on the knife making a little lighter than my Gerber 06 which for me weight wasn’t a huge issue to start with. In the hand the frame feels very agronomic and comfortable. The clip if you notice is placed at the hinge of the blade so when pocketed it’s held with the blade point facing down as oppose to most traditional folders in which the clip is on the butt of the handle with the blade pointing upwards when folded. At first this was a minor annoyance as pretty much every folder knife I’ve ever had was a blade point up style but after a couple weeks I’ve gotten use to it. One nice point about the clip on the Gerber Instant is that it allows you to “deep carry” the knife meaning that it sits deep in your pocket with pretty much the clip only showing on the outside. There are no options to move the clip anywhere else on the frame. What you see is what you get.

Overall: Overall the transition from my Gerber 06 to the Instant has been pretty smooth. With my only real gripe being the positioning of the knife clip it ended up not being really a big deal in that you get use to it. For a MSRP of $49 you an usually find the Gerber Instant for a street price of $40. A very practical knife that is light, has assisted opening and is relatively inexpensive. I definitely recommend this knife for every day carry.

But don’t get me wrong… Since I live in the great state of Oregon where civilians can own automatic opening knives… I do plan to get myself the the Gerber 06 Automatic in the near future (which you can find at Oak Grove Guns).

Still Blogging... Just Takin' A Breather...

Apologies to all those who read "The Things That Rock Blog" for the lack of post recently! As some know but I don't think it's common knowledge but I'm getting married this coming Sunday and things needless-to-say have been hectic! Trust me, I'd much rather be blogging about things that are awesome like gadgets, video games, movies & guns then figuring out wedding schedules... Anyway, I promise I will be back in the blogging once the honeymoon is over in a week! Thank you all for support and I look forward to giving you guys the update on all things that "ROCK"! ~DL