Some of our minions prefer Gerber Gear products. Others hate them, even decrying the brand at every opportunity – we sent a new Gerber knife to one of the latter to see what happened. Mad Duo

The Ghoststrike Punch Knife

COWAN!

Well look at this little guy. Gerber at some point launched a “tactical line”, though I thought their products were always welcome in the Velcro community without using that buzzword. Gerber has been around for a long time and I have not liked their products for almost that same amount of time. The first multi-tool I dropped my hard earned E-2 salary on at the PX was a Gerber. I don’t remember what model it was, but it had a telescoping design that was useful for cool guy tricks and honestly not much else. I broke that Gerber twisting a seal off an ammo can not long after.

My next Gerber experience was with the Gerber “06” auto opening knife some years later (2008 I think). It was a decent blade, but the auto open feature was lethargic and as prone to stopping mid performance as an aging porn star. Needless to say I put all manners of oil on it and tried all manner of adjustment with no luck. It’s now tucked away in my closet or who knows where. So when the Mad Duo sent me this Gerber tactical knife to review, I did not have high hopes. However, I try to keep an open mind so I started putting it through its paces.

First, it’s called the Ghost Strike Punch Knife. I get that the name needs to be dynamic for marketing purposes but I don’t remember a punch knife ever being a selectable weapon on a single Ghost Recon game. Even Agent 47 uses a garrote. Don’t get me wrong, I like punch knives. I keep one on my person for obvious SHTF reasons but I don’t think of anything espionage or tier 1 when I think punch knife.

This is me trying to be objective.

If you don’t buy one of these t-shirts from us the terrorists win.

So the Ghost Strike is a T-handle knife made of 420HC steel, ceramic coated and it has a rubberized grip. The blade is a traditional drop point with 2.5” of length. For general day-to-day applications it doesn’t have much use. It’s a self-defense design and Gerber says as much in the description (including use of the word operator so you know its legit). The included sheath is a GF nylon with neck cord, eyelets to tie down to gear or slits to wear on up to a 1.75” belt. As far as the sheath goes, it covers all the bases and its design is both simple and sturdy. The knife is maintained by friction pressure so there are no snaps or releases; just pull and (throat) punch.

I began wearing the Ghost Strike on day one. Sadly after several weeks now I still have not had an opportunity to punch anyone with it, so I can’t speak to its effectiveness in that arena. However, I can tell you that the factory edge is sharp and that the drop tip design in conjunction with a generously wide T handle make this little dude quite the over-achiever at stabbing things. It weighs in at just 3 ounces so you won’t fatigue quickly using it, and despite its purpose built design, it actually serves quite well for more mundane (and less stabby) tasks like as cutting open boxes, bags, furniture and maybe even carving hearts into picnic tables and shade trees (I don’t know you, so I don’t know what you’re into).

I wanted to hate this knife because of its lineage but it looks like it has now become part of my EDC gear. It does the job it supposed to do and does it very well, which is more than I can say for the last two Gerber products I dealt with (admittedly, several years ago). My only suggestion to improve it would have to be to work on the knife’s guard. It’s a little too short. While it provides good finger leverage, a little extra metal on either side would make me more comfortable with rapid-fire stabbing mode.

If you want a punch knife and you don’t want to spend over $50, the Ghost Strike is an excellent choice. You can get one right here.

About the Author: Aaron (Breach Bang COWAN!) is an idiot savant of the tactical variety from a little place we like to call Hotlanta (though apparently no one from down there calls it that). COWAN! is the Lead Instructor and HMFIC of program development for Sage Dynamics who believes every article should be roughly the equivalent of a doctoral thesis. To call him thorough would be to damn him with faint praise. We call him COWAN! because anything in all caps with an exclamation point after it must be awesome. A former infantryman turned PSC contractor and LEO, COWAN! has served in several SWAT and training billets. His company, Sage Dynamics, is a reality-focused firearms and tactics training company that provides practical instruction for the civilian, police and military professional. An identical twin whose brother went on to become Agent 47, COWAN! is the author of the novel Rushing Winter and the designated fluffer on the set of numerous training videos, including the really good ones here.