120 days with the Gerber BG Compact 2

[cbl51]

I used to scorn the Gerber knives. I will freely admit that I am a traditional pocket knife kind of guy, with my main love being the old time pocketknives, aside from SAK's. But a bit over 10 years ago, I was having some problems and needed an operation on my left hand for the tendon problem. That put my left hand out of action for a while, so a family member 'loaned' me a Gerbr LST. I used the heck out of that LST, and became a believer in Zytel and non traditional pocket knives ability to be a rugged little cutter. For 10 years that little LST has been the red haired step child in my pocket knife rotation, being used for stuff that I didn't want to sully my nice Caae or GEC knives. In other words, a beater knife. So far it's taken everything in stride with no problems, and no blade wobble or slop in the lock mechanism. Aside from some scratches scaring up the blade, and the zytel handful having a slightly smoothed off feel from years of use, it's fine.

I hate the BG logo stuff, but the knife is going to possibly surprise you with how ell it will do.

[Grathr]

Day 7:
The compact has performed well in the past week. 
Its not fantastic, but it gets the job done. The edge has become slightly duller, but is still sharp. It will probably need a touch up within a few days.


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[Grathr]

Day 10:
I gave it a quick touch up yesterday.


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[ducttapetech]

So how do you like it personally after 10 days?

Nate
That's us mobile

[Grathr]

So how do you like it personally after 10 days?

Nate
That's us mobile

Its a OK knife, but not great. It gets the job done, but its not always comfortable in the hand or a great slicer.

I think its Ironic though, that a cheap knife like this, wich is probably bought by a lot of people who know little about knives, and probably even less about sharpening, need a lot more frequent sharpening than a more expensive knife, wich is bought by people with more sharpening skill.




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[ducttapetech]

Good point about the sharping.

Nate
That's us mobile

[shark_za]

But is it soft and easy to sharpen?

[Grathr]

But is it soft and easy to sharpen?

Yes, it is easy to sharpen.


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[cbl51]

It's nice to have a knife that you can give it a quick stropping on the bottom of a coffee mug or top of a car window and have it sharp agains in a wink. In fact, as I've gotten older, that's what I love about SAK's, so easy to sharpen up. At my age, with only a dozen or so years left and lots of fish to catch yet, I don't want to make a project our of sharpening my knife when it needs it.

[Grathr]

It's nice to have a knife that you can give it a quick stropping on the bottom of a coffee mug or top of a car window and have it sharp agains in a wink. In fact, as I've gotten older, that's what I love about SAK's, so easy to sharpen up. At my age, with only a dozen or so years left and lots of fish to catch yet, I don't want to make a project our of sharpening my knife when it needs it.

That is a very good point


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[Grathr]

Day 13:
I got a little bored and decided to do a little whiitling. So I let the Compact turn this stick:


Into this little bow for my son:


It handeled it pretty well.




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[ducttapetech]

Cool!

Nate
That's us mobile

[kirk13]

Cool!

Nate
That's us mobile

+1 Nice one mate

[Grathr]

Thanks guys!
I used to make 100ds of theese as a kid.


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[Grathr]

Day 14:
My impressions of the compact so far:
Pros:
-its Light
-its slim and disapears in the pocket
-seems solid for its size and wheight
-easy to sharpen
-grippy handle

Cons:
-needs frequent sharpening
-not very smooth opening/closing
-the handle is a bit too thin for my hands




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[Grathr]

Day 16:
I gave the Compact another touch up today.


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[ducttapetech]

Only One hundred and four days to go...
Good job man.


Nate
That's us mobile

[Grathr]

Only One hundred and four days to go...
Good job man.


Nate
That's us mobile

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[Grathr]

Day 30:
I gave the compact another touch up today, wich it really needed.
Other than that, no other issues.


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[kirk13]

Big question is,are you enjoying carrying it?

[Grathr]

Big question is,are you enjoying carrying it?

Tough question.
No, I dont.
I loved carrying the spydies. Sometimes I would just sit at play with them and enjoy the smooth opening and closing.

The compact is nor beautiful or smooth. The only times I take it out of my pocket is to cut domething or check how sharp it is. Its just a tool, that gets the job done in a satisfactory way.


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[kirk13]

Harsh,but honest!

I wonder what you'll say at the end of your test

[Syph007]

Big question is,are you enjoying carrying it?

Tough question.
No, I dont.
I loved carrying the spydies. Sometimes I would just sit at play with them and enjoy the smooth opening and closing.

The compact is nor beautiful or smooth. The only times I take it out of my pocket is to cut domething or check how sharp it is. Its just a tool, that gets the job done in a satisfactory way.


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Thats kind of what I'd expect. Meaning the joy of owning a knife is measured in more than just the function it can perform.  I mean you could probably carry a small sharp rock and use it for cutting tasks too, but pride of ownership probably isnt going to be all that high.   

[kirk13]

Big question is,are you enjoying carrying it?

Tough question.
No, I dont.
I loved carrying the spydies. Sometimes I would just sit at play with them and enjoy the smooth opening and closing.

The compact is nor beautiful or smooth. The only times I take it out of my pocket is to cut domething or check how sharp it is. Its just a tool, that gets the job done in a satisfactory way.


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Thats kind of what I'd expect. Meaning the joy of owning a knife is measured in more than just the function it can perform.  I mean you could probably carry a small sharp rock and use it for cutting tasks too, but pride of ownership probably isnt going to be all that high.   

Depends if you knapped it yourself 

[Grathr]

Day 41:
Having a cheap dirty knife has its advantages. The other day I had a incident involvong a broken pen, and a lot of ink.

Had this happened to the G10 Dragonfly, I would have become very unhappy.

Other than that, the Compact soldiers on getting the job done.
I half expected that it would have developed some bladeplay by now, but Gerber knows their stuff and it is as tight as the day I got it.


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[ducttapetech]

Nice! The pen wasn't your fountain pen was it?

Nate
That's us mobile

[Grathr]

Nice! The pen wasn't your fountain pen was it?

Nate
That's us mobile

Not the fountainpen. A biro type pen that got crushed in my hip pocket.


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[ducttapetech]

Cool! i was worried it might have been your fountain pen.

[Grathr]

Cool! i was worried it might have been your fountain pen.

The fountainpen would have made a proper disaster.


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[Grathr]

Day 43:
I gave it another touch up yesterday.


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