Bear Grylls Ultimate Survival Knife may just be the Ultimate Bargain

You either love Bear Grylls or hate him. I've only seen maybe two episodes of Man vs. Wild; so I don't really have an opinion. The same goes for his new line of Gerber knives and gear. I've read positive and negative things about the Ultimate Survival Knife. So I had to get my hands on one to form my own opinion. Luckily a good friend of mine lent me his for the review. I also know that Gerber makes some decent products (multi-tools and fixed blades; but not a fan of their folding knives). The Ultimate Survival Knife seems like a mix of the Gerber Prodigy and Gerber LMF.

The Bear Grylls Ultimate Survival Knife can be found for around $30 on the Amazon. With that, you receive a firesteel, sharpening plate, whistle, lanyard, nylon/plastic sheath hybrid, and signaling/survival instructions. I will say that is quite a bit of gear for the price.

My first opinion of the Bear Grylls Knife; I like the handle of the Ultimate Survival knife much more than the handle's of the Prodigy or LMF.

If you look at owner reviews of the Gerber LMF; people love them. The LMF currently goes for around $60-90 with less add-on's. The only real difference of the two; is that the Gerber LMF is a true full tang design and has glass break pommel. The Bear Grylls is a almost full tang, but features a hardened striking but for hammering.  Both have lashing holes to make a spear (if you desire to do that). Bear Grylls is a fan of serrations to make light work of rope; but Gerber now offers a plain blade version.

One feature I do really like about the BG Ultimate Survival Knife is the ferro rod striking surface on the back of the blade. I wish all knives came with this feature! The knife works well with the accompanying ferrocium rod. The sheath secures the knife and additional gear quite well. It can be worn vertically or horizontally.

I was also able to test the Bear Grylls Sliding saw. It's basically a Gerber Sliding Camp saw; branded with the Bear Grylls logo. Gerber makes exceptional saws if you have not tried them. The BG saw was no different. We used it to cut some limbs to make a bow drill set and it worked very well. I do like that it's super lightweight and has the high-vis orange; so that it's not lost on the forest floor.


Overall I do think calling a knife the "Ultimate Survival Knife" is a strong term. But as the articles title reads, I do feel it is the ultimate bargain. Finding a comparable fixed blade knife with all the extra gear for $30, would be a very hard task.

Let me know your guys experience with the Bear Grylls/Gerber product line.