Customer Reviews

Gerber 22-41576 Gator Machete with Sheath

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(14)

 

 

I will admit that this is a great looking machete. At first glance you would think from a company like Gerber, it would also be high quality as well. Guess again, there blade is less than a quarter tang. This means you have 2 inches of metal in the handle trying to keep the rest of the 18 inch blade from snapping off or coming loose when you swing it at the brush you are clearing. The handle feels great in your hand but it is only a handle, it doesn't support the blade. To get an idea of how much tang you have, look at the picture of the machete on this site with the blue background and the ruler in it that I posted. In this picture you can clearly see why swinging this "machete" too hard may be hazardous to you and those around you. It is held in the handle by a single bolt with the bottom bolt only holding tension in a slot in the bottom of the tang of the blade. The entire tang, clearly shown in my picture, is only 2 1/2 inches long.

I sure expected a lot more from a company with the reputation Gerber has and this has made me rethink a lot of future purchases from them. Go to the hardware store and get one of their $8.00 surplus machetes. It will serve you a lot better than this piece of junk will. Glad I took it apart before I had to depend on it in the brush.

I thought for the price, this Gerber Machete was either too good to be true, or a steal. It's both, but now that the handle is starting to fall apart, and I've disassembled it to see why, I now say it's a dangerous tool to use.

There is already a customer image showing it disassembled. Look carefully. The tang only goes into the handle a short distance. This has allowed the blade to flex enough to break the front part of my handle, and the handle now is bent up in a V pattern rather than straight inline with the blade.

I was entirely pleased the first few hours of using this tool, nice rubber grip, sharp enough, pretty Gerber emblem laser engraved on the blade. But then the handle cracked, I noticed the blade edge was dented, and the entire blade was bent about midway.

I've sharpened it on a grinding wheel, and wow, it's a very soft metal, the lightest touch to the wheel takes off a lot of metal!!! It was then I took the handle off and to my dismay/horror, the tang is really really short. There is NO EXCUSE for not having a thin bit of metal running the entire length of the handle.

I still will use it for extremely light duty work, but it's far too dangerous for serious brush clearing, as I'm quite certain the blade will one day fly off into the distance.

As for the soft metal, the bend in the blade, and the lack of edge holding ability, maybe it's safer than a hard blade that will crack or break, I don't know. The saw back is for decoration in my opinion, I've not used it, as I like to put a little weight on the back side of my hand saws, and, well, there's a blade on the back of this one. :)

Straight out of the box, I'd have given this a 5-star for looks. Sadly, in use, it disappoints, and is a real hazard to the user and bystanders.

If only they'd make the tang full or 3/4 length....I can deal with having to sharpen it frequently.

I ordered this machette to blaze trees for a property paint line. However right ofter receiving it, I used it to trim a small bush next to my driveway. Although it is as sharp as a knife the metal edge bent easily, and now it is serrated and useless just from cutting < 1/4 inch stems for less than 5 min. I am not sure what type of brush it will cut without getting damaged.

I own and love many Gerber Products. This Machete is not one of them.
The blade bent and cracked on the first swing at some 1/4"-1/2" thick
brush. This Item not worthy of the Gerber name.

Scott Phillips
Franktown Colorado

Went out to clear a thicket. First few swipes the cuting edge bent in 2 places. This is not a tempered steel blade.
Saw it not that sharp either.

If I could give it 1/10 of a star I would do that.
The case is nice, the handle is nice, but the steel inthe blade is the worst.

Gerber you can do better than this.

I've been looking for a good machete for some time. I'm also a big fan of Gerber products. Unfortunately this doesn't seem to be as well made as most of their products. I've found them locally for under $15 and for the price it's worth having for light stuff. My search for a proper machete continues.

A decent sheath and a decent concept of design and features but not a good blade at all. Apparently there must be a lot of variance in the degree of heat treatment if any as some claim it cuts 1 inch trees. I could not get it to cut anything, sharpened it till it sliced paper and it still would not cut even a dead twig. The saw back did work so maybe they only tempered that edge on the batch I bought. It now has a nice divot about 2 inches back from the tip where I tried foolishly to chop a 1/8 twig against a dead, spongy, tree stump. Also had to glue the rubber grip back on the handle after one day of very light use.

Gerber should be embarrassed to put their formerly fine name on this piece of junk.


First complaint: it has no edge and can not ever have an edge because the material of the blade is very soft. You would have more luck trying to sharpen an unripe banana! What ever this machete is made out of it isn't even remotely a tool grade steel. Is it steel? After receiving it from a catalog order (not Amazon) I am not sure if the blade is steel or some sort of sheet metal. You can't sharpen this blade, well I sure couldn't.

I tested it on a cardboard box. It would not cut it! It was like wacking away with a yard stick or a blunt piece of metal...more like a hammer than a machete. So I tried to sharpen it with several different high quality sharpeners I have had great success with in the past....trying each one then testing the edge. Then I went to the grinder. I got a tiny bit of cutting performance improvement, but a lawn mower blade I had lying around (yes it was rusty) performed better.

Second complaint: The short tang makes this machete something I would be afraid to use. Well...maybe not since it can't cut! No...I personally would not risk it. I didn't realize that the tang was so short until I read the earlier reviews here...then I checked it for myself. After looking at how short the tang is, I couldn't use this machete without worrying about the blade flying off.

The handle felt very ergonomical. This is the only positive thing I can say about this...oh you fill it the blank.

It's just not what I would have expected from Gerber. They should be ashamed of themselves for marketing this junk.
Waste of money. Maybe Gerber will one day issue a recall and I'll get my money back. It's junk!

This Machete is not a brush clearing achete. It is basically a 14-15 year olds dream knife that they can show off to their friends. Or could be very easily used as a close quarters defense weapon.

I purchased this for clearing brush that consisted of TONS of vines and pricker bushes. Also since I used last weekend when it was still sort of winter, most of the stuff wasn't full of life. It cut anything I tried. I was pretty happy with it. It wasn't as sharp as I would have hoped but if you run out and get a sharpening stone it probably wouldn't be a bad idea. But overall out of the box it was able to cut through the vines and such. I would recommend or lend this to a friend in need of the same. I plan on using it again next weekend without sharpening it.