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Knife review- Gerber Empower auto


Kingcreek

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I haven't seen many reviews of the Empower (just recently released by Gerber) so I'll do one here.

These are just now available and I got this one from our own Queen Stiletto for $125 plus tax. Delivery is free and service from Queen is excellent. I got the Urban Blue with black oxide blade.

 

https://queenstiletto.com/collections/frontpage/products/gerber-auto-empower-fine-edge-black-blade-blue

 

I have owned and carried many different knives over the years. I have moved away from carrying an expensive custom that I am reluctant to use and fearful of losing.

To start, I am not a big Gerber fan but Gerber/Fiskars is known for reasonable value and for S30V steel the price is certainly reasonable. I decided to start regularly carrying an auto knife for utility and defense and this knife is marketed directly to that. It is a large knife in my fairly large hand. The specs can be found at Gerber or Queen Stiletto.

A large auto has to deploy with a lot of energy and this one does. All that inertia causes some recoil when it hits the stop and I have found I like it better if I feather the blade with my fingertips as it releases. There is plenty of spring so full opening is never an issue. The black oxide coated blade has a false double edge claimed to aid in piercing but I suspect it is also to lighten the big blade. 4" from tip to center of the pivot is no small mass. The edge came reasonably sharp and a few licks on my ceramic sharpmaker took it to shaving sharp.

The simple proven plunge lock works well. It was extremely dry and gritty out of the box but some lube and a few firings have improved it greatly. There is still a rough feel to it and I may eventually take it apart and polish the surfaces but it is still improving so no hurry. (I admit to being a harsh critic here since I will forever compare to the Larry Chew spitfire I owned and regret selling but then it isn't fair to compare a $650 custom to a $150 production knife.)

This is the first auto knife I have owned with a safety. My first thought was why bother but I find myself liking it more as I get used to it.

The blue anodized handle is pretty smooth and the laser textured insert and the jimping cuts on the thumb ramp and bottom of the frame are useful for indexing by feel but offer only limited traction. This is intentional as the knife is intended for edc without tearing up your pocket. Not a bad balance of utility and ease of carry without being too aggressive.

So my initial impression is that Gerber has brought the edc market a large defensive knife with premium steel and solid workmanship at a price that is certainly a fair value.

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