Gerber FAST Draw

This is a good quality for the price knife that has the added benefit of an assist feature that really helps with one-handed opening of the knife.

I have been carrying a Gerber Fast Draw knife daily for over the last ten years and have really grown to like it due to the assist feature and that it performs well given its low cost. For most of backpacking and hiking activities I generally don't carry this knife due to its weight, which is around 3.4 ounces, but for all my other waking hours I always have this knife with me as I have found a lock blade knife is one of the most convenient tools you can own.

The basic knife has a three-inch blade and is a little over seven inches long when open and about four and a half inches closed.

The sides of the knife body/handle are made from a black plastic that is durable, but not really slip resistant. There is also a nice sturdy belt clip on one side of the handle that is about two and a half inches long that is stiff and easily retains the knife on your belt or the rim of your pocket. The blade is made from stainless steel (I don't know the particular alloy...) and I have not had any issues with rust or corrosion even though the knife has gone long periods of time with being wet.

I first picked up this knife a little over ten years ago when I was building our second home and quickly fell in love with the knife and the assist feature. While building our house I ended up using this knife for everything from as a knife to open a box, to shaving wood to get something to fit, to being a screwdriver when I was to lazy to go hunt one down and the knife really became invaluable, especially due to the assist feature which enables one handed opening of the knife.

The assist feature consists of a small latch on one side of the knife to prevent unintended opening of the blade, and an internal spring that assists in opening the blade when you give it a slight nudge with your thumb after you have released the latch.

I included a short video below to show you how this works.

For the price, I don't think there is a better value for a knife out there. Again I use this knife for just about everything, and I like not having to worry that if I use it to scrape a gasket while I'm working on one of my cars or motorcycles that I may damage the edge of the blade like you would if you had spent several hundred dollars on a high end knife.

While the blade may not hold an edge as long as a knife with a better grade of stainless steel, it hasn't been an issue for me because I keep a sharpening stone on my desk and I just from time to time will take a few passes to keep the edge nice and sharp.

Overall I think this knife is a great value and the assist feature makes it a joy to use.

This is a reliable EDC. The one drawback is the edge retention.

I bought this knife on a whim in order to check out the assisted opening feature. The assisted opening has been money for three years and I haven't had an issue with it. The blade is is suited for light duty work and performs these tasks well.

The drawbacks for this knife are the scales, which are not grippy, and the edge retention of the blade is lacking.

For the price range this is a good knife, but a nicer steel (154CM) would have kept this knife in my pocket as an EDC.