Knife Review: Gerber Warrant

I love knives and like most any survivalist own many. Knives have to be one of the most important and useful preparedness tools in existence.  Ever try cutting rope without  knife? Not easy.

Several months ago I picked up a Gerber Warrant. This knife is generally considered to be within the “tactical” genre -whatever that is. Basically – it is a lightweight, tanto pointed, aluminum handled, 9.5″ inch knife. Reminds me a lot of the Benchmade Nimravus tanto.

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I usually carry folding knives or a set of multi-pliers on a daily basis. Fixed blade knives are generally reserved for my packs and kits. The Gerber Warrant is not too big and not too small – kinda splits the difference between a larger fixed blade and a smaller folder.

Deciding to do a few tests on the Warrant I started with some whittling with it – sharpening a 3/4″ stick into a sharp spear. No problem. Seemed to handle just fine.

The sheath is adaquate. I would have preferred one which the knife “snapped” into and was held securely. With the Gerber Warrant – the blade could easily slip out if not buckled in. Once buckled – no problem.

Next, I took advantage of the hole in the handle and strapped the knife to a large stick – and I proceeded to “wack!!!” a larger branch with the blade.  I wanted to check a couple things:

First – would the aluminum handle inserts loosen up due to the impact and vibrations?

Second – how well will the edge hold up?

Answers – The handle inserts did not loosen up at all. The edge certainly was not what it was when new – but I grabbed another 3/4″ stick and sharpened it to a point. Again – no problem.

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Next I decided to do a test that I probably would not do with a $100 knife – but since I paid less than $30, figured “Why not?” I worked on my knife throwing skills into a tree. Me thinking I can stick a knife into a tree by throwing it is like giving me a bag of Nutter Butter’s and expecting to get ANY back. Just not gonna happen. I wacked that tree about 20 times and as expected it just landed on the ground.  Still, the handles still did not loosen up.

Overall – it is a good handling knife. The edge held up decent – but I have seen better. After a little sharpening it was better than out of the box. The sheath is on par for a $30 knife – it works. The aluminium handle inserts held up great. I like the tanto tip – not sure why – just do.

Bad? Everything is not good. Although the handling is just fine – I would have preferred a better grip texture on the grip. The handle is a little slim as well. I am thinking of wrapping it with para-cord and seeing how it feels.

Take care all –

Rourke

A few more pictures:

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3 thoughts on “Knife Review: Gerber Warrant”

  1. Good review of a practical blade..

    Folders are handy but they most assuredly will fail over time, parts will fall off and get lost.. TEOTWAWKI blades are fixed.

    The next best part.. Price nice choice of a reasonably priced knife.. Blades are tools and we should think of them as such.. Tools get lost, broken stolen. Buying a $200 blade so one can have status at the next Disaster is kinda silly.. BTW that is the way one might be wise to think of their firearms.. Tools.. not talismens spend less buy more..

    Problem that must be driven home again and again.. Stainless blades are not the best blades.. They do not sharpen easily they do not keep an edge.. While it gets harder and harder to find plain old steel blades they really serve best.. Do not worry about your blade rusting away.. Put an edge on it and hit the whole thing with a coat of flat green or black paint..
    But won’t that cover up the nice edge I just put on the blade.
    Not really first time you use it the paint will begin to come off. Hit it again if your not using the blade often. If you have a leather sheath you have to be careful you do not oil it too much as you can cause it to lose shape..

    While your at it … take a look at all your Pioneer tools.. You might just dress the edge of your axes, shovels, picks and they with that same shaker can give them a nice coat of paint as well.

    As always.. “One is none and two is one”

    Lots of Lucks

    V

    Reply
  2. Thanks, Rourke for the review. I am also grateful to Vic for the blade advice. I have loved knives since my first Boy Scout pocket folder at age twelve. I have always been partial to Swiss Army knives. I have owned a bunch of them over the years. My favorite model is the Huntsman. Besides a large and small blade, can and bottle openers, it has the ever handy scissors and saw attachments as well. I never spent more than $60.00 on any knife. For me, at least. I bought my son a Gil Hibben Bowie for Christmas a few years ago than ran around a hundred bucks. Lately, I have been obsessed with the full tang blades. I believe I got this idea from watching survival shows on TV. Bear Grylls, Mykel Hawke, Les Stroud and Dave Canteberry, all use their fixed blade knives in lieu of a hatchet, by setting the blade in place then pounding on it with a log. I get the feeling that most knives will separate at the handle, unless they are one solid piece of steel. Anyway, I recently purchased several cheap, full tang blades from Kennesaw Cutlery/BUDK/CH Kadels. They were “buy one, get one free”. The United Cutlery Slim Profile Covert Ops blade is thicker, but shorter than the M48 Apocalypse Fighter knife. Neither would be my first choice for a survival knife. But, at $13.99 and $19.99 respectively (for 2 each), they work for my smaller survival kits hidden away from home. I did splurge and buy a good blade for my web gear last year. It is a Gil Hibben Assault Tactical Knife. Again, it was under 60 bucks.

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