Gerber Ultimate Knife.

[Chako]

I will have to admit, I was a bit shocked to have found this guy for sale at a Canadian Tire. I had assumed this knife left with the discontinuation of the Bear Grylls line of Gerber products. I guess I was wrong. Seeing that the original BG Ultimate knife took some well deserved knocks for not having a full tang, and with reports of having the knife fail in the wilderness, this would have been discontinued. Gerber at the time produced a Ultimate Pro knife to fix the issues with the Ultimate knife. I bought this because it was on sale, and also to see if there were any fixes. I am sorry to say I cannot see any. Furthermore, I found on the US Cabela's site the following inscription: "Physically separated from the knife's tang, this buttcap absorbs the shock of impact and also prevents electrical shock". So instead of fixing the known issue that Gerber knew years ago, it is now a design feature? Just wow.

It looks like there are no design improvements over the original BG Ultimate Knife.
20221231_161623A by Chako, on Flickr

This included the downward facing fire steel. I remember hearing of accounts of folks losing theirs out in nature when gravity did its thing.
20221231_161717A by Chako, on Flickr

20221231_161743A by Chako, on Flickr

From top to bottom: BG Ultimate Pro, BG Ultimate Half Serrated, Fake BG Ultimate Plain Edge, Ultimate Half Serrated Knife.
20221231_162114A by Chako, on Flickr

20221231_162209A by Chako, on Flickr

20221231_162333A by Chako, on Flickr

[cody6268]

I'm wondering how it is done on this model?  When the military was looking for a new Aircrew Survival & Egress Knife, Gerber beat Ontario because the LMF II (a much more expensive US-made model) had superior electrical insulation because of that handle design.

However, the butt on the LMF II is designed to serve as a glass breaker only, not a hammer.