Gerber Materials

[Pilbara92]

G'day boys and girls,

I have read a lot of your threads for advice and reviews however this is my first post here.

I've recently bought a few Gerbers out of curiosity to give my arsenal a little more variety, but the one thing that I seem to have a very difficult time finding is what materials Gerber uses to manufacture their multitools. It simply states 'Stainless' on a lot of their gear and on the website but will not specify what grades we are looking at. The only information on anything that I could find was the CentreDrive's blade is 420HC and the MP1 plier heads are a 6150 Alloy Steel.

It seems that Victorinox, Leatherman and even SOG are very transparent with their materials so I figure either Gerber does not want to advertise it or more likely I am looking in the wrong places.

The Gerbers that I have are as follows:

- MP600
- Diesel
- Strata

I would very much appreciate if someone knew something more about this, because surely I am not the only one curious I have also kindly emailed Gerber about this and am hoping to get a reasonable response, so if nothing comes up here then I will post what information I receive onto this thread.

Cheers!

[Grathr]

Welcome!

Im not exactly sure what materials they use myself.
Hopefully someone with more knowledge will come along shortly.

[David Bowen]

Most of the manufacturer's what they classify as series 400 stainless. That could mean they use anything in the 420 area if I had to guess. 420 has a higher corrosion resistance than any of the higher 400 series due to lower carbon content. I think the manufacturer's don't fully divulge what steel they use because they use a propriety recipe that only they use. It's easier to just say 400 series and leave it at that. Some tools however like the Tread series and the Spyderench use 17-6 stainless. That's the same stuff used in high end kitchen gear and compartment sinks. They use it for very high corrosion resistance but they don't have very good wear resistance as a trade off.

[Pilbara92]

Update:

Thanks very much for your responses guys, David you know more than I do about stainless.

I do understand that manufacturers would not want to advertise their exact processes, however I feel that as consumers we are entitled to some basic knowledge of the products that we purchase, no different to wanting to know what a shirt is made of, or what is in a pie.

I really want to like these tools (I do) but receiving responses like the following are starting to make me lose faith in the name. This is a copy and paste of the response I received:

"Hello ******,

We are not provided that information I do apologize.

Thanks,"

That was it, hard to believe. I will try to prod a little further

[gerleatherberman]

I have always been curious as well, as I own quite a few Gerber MTs.
I do know for a fact that the steel used in the MP400/600 series is very good steel. I've had Leatherman, SOG, and Victorinox drivers bend(Victorinox), chip(Leatherman) or break(SOG), but whatever Gerber makes their MP series drivers out of seems to very good as a tool steel. The Gerber drivers to get rust spots if not oiled, so that could mean a higher Carbon content (which I don't mind a few spots if I am carrying the MT all the time). Rust spots can be removed; bends, chips, and breaks usually cannot be fixed (aside from regrinding/filing the tip).
I have the Bear Grylls tool (one based on a Strata) and the drivers are a little less robust than on heavy-duty Gerbers, but work quite well. Thw Diesel also has less robust drivers than the MP600(mainly the phillips), but should be decent.

I don't think the person who answered the email even know about different tool/blade steels, so they just told you what they did. At least they responded.   

[Pilbara92]

UPDATE:

GREAT NEWS!

After a little probing they shuffled me higher up the food chain and the information I received was this:

MP600 Specifications:
Implement Material: 420HC
Handle Material: 410ss
Jaw Material: 420HC
 
Diesel Specifications:
Implement Material: 420HC
Handle Material: 410ss
Jaw Material: 420HC
 
Strata Specifications:
Implement Material: SS420J2
Handle Material: SS420J2
Jaw Material: SS420

I know it has answered my question! I hope it is useful to anyone else in the future

Faith restored!

[RF52]

I only have a Diesel but interesting to see what steel they use for it

Sent fra min FRD-L09 via Tapatalk

[ThePeacent]

good to know,
IIRC all three MT companies (SOG, Gerber, LM) use 420 alloy for their implements, either 420HC or variations of it with more or less carbon, and 400 stainless series for the handles, as your information seems to support.

[gerleatherberman]

UPDATE:

GREAT NEWS!

After a little probing they shuffled me higher up the food chain and the information I received was this:

MP600 Specifications:
Implement Material: 420HC
Handle Material: 410ss
Jaw Material: 420HC
 
Diesel Specifications:
Implement Material: 420HC
Handle Material: 410ss
Jaw Material: 420HC
 
Strata Specifications:
Implement Material: SS420J2
Handle Material: SS420J2
Jaw Material: SS420

I know it has answered my question! I hope it is useful to anyone else in the future

Faith restored!

That is awesome info! Thank you for your diligence on finding out!