When is Gerber going to stop making this stuff? More importantly, when am I going to stop buying it?
Well I guess that won't happen today, as I just received my latest Bear Grylls item. Now I am thinking there can only be so many product placements for Bear, but I keep getting surprised by new items. Gerber, please stop making this and I promise I will stop buying it...because I almost hate myself every-time I buy something for the collection.
Anyways, enough of my grumpiness and onto the new acquisition. Everyone, meet the Gerber Bear Grylls Survival card. Now I am sure most of you have probably realized that I have a thing for card type multitiools. Heaven knows I have enough of them in my collection. When I spied this, I just had to have it. It met two criteria for me, it was a Bear item (in for a penny in for a pound, and I am too deep now to pull back anyhow), and it is a card multi-tool. That is up to the point when it came across my door's threshold and into my hands.
You see, the card looks like every other Bear Grylls item that Gerber is pushing. It even comes with that stupid little survival guide. Like many other items, there is no place to actually carry the little survival guide, which to my mind, make said survival guide moot.
If that wasn't bad enough, I was absolutely floored at the thickness of this card. They should have called this thing a brick!
Flipping the brick, er card over, the underside is one single metal plate held to the backing via 6 screws. There is a bottle opener built in. Just above that is a small 1 lumen momentary one LED flashlight. If that wasn't exciting enough, there are also 3 pull out tools. A fire starter, a flat head driver, and a Phillips driver. The last tools is a pull out blade.
The pull out blade features a small cut out notch for the fire-steel. What truly annoys me with this knife however is the large hole in the handle. When I first grabbed the knife, ones first inclination is to slip a finger inside that hold. Well the orientation of that hole in regards to the blade is off. If you do this, it will push the knife blade downwards and towards your palm. The issue, I keep wanting to slip a finger in there for better purchase which throws the whole geometry off. It doesn't help that the blade is thin and awkward to hold.
So if you are hankering for a card style multi-tool, please stay away from this one and buy yourself something from Tool logic or Victorinox. As for me, i would sooner throw this brick at a bear.