
Second, the blades are not fixed into the handles with the standard epoxy. However, the color is almost identical to the Orange Handled Mark II knives. First, the handles don't have the typical non-reflective Armorhide finish but are painted with a higher gloss crinkle finish. The knives of both groups have several interesting features. Cole incorrectly identified these knives as a Mark I and Mark II). Supposedly the sets were made for UDT Government Divers and only 12 sets were made. One sold on eBay in 1/2007 for a very high price.Ī second group, were made in sets of two knives, a Command I and a Command II. There were 50 of these knives ordered and there is supposedly provenance in the form of a copy of the original sales order from Ken Lee's shop to the GERBER Company. One group was made for the Ken Lee Dive Shop in Houston, Texas (no longer in business). ORANGE COMMAND II There are several issues of Orange Handled Command II knives.
Gerber mk1 defender serial#
NOTE: Without the original box with the Force II tag, and a knife with a very low serial number, any knife claiming to be a Force II is simply a Command II. I don't know the length of the contest but the deadline was 1 July 1979. The forth picture shows the contest ad that was run in the July 1979 Issue of SOF Magazine. A neat variation for you Gerber collectors." most likely within the first week or two of production.

The S/N is 001185.assuming the numbers began with 001000 as was Gerber's custom, this was the 185th knife made. This knife is in mint condition having hardly been outside its box. If it were not for the sticker on the box - you wouldn't know it from any other Command II. I recently acquired this second knife from the same dealer. He had two - I got one from him about 2 years ago and sold it here on eBay not knowing exactly what it was - this was the story that was told to me by several Gerber collectors. Evidently Gerber shipped some of these knives to their dealers before the change was made as I acquired this knife from a retired Gerber dealer. For reasons unknown (to me) Gerber decided to run a contest to give this model a (different) name in Soldier of Fortune Magazine (probably as a promotional way to introduce the design) and the result was the Command II as we know it today. In the early 1980's Gerber designed this knife for areas where a completely double-edged blade was not allowed and apparently initially called it the Force II. "This is a rare Gerber! The story on this one is this. The following is an excerpt from that sale: The only difference between these early knives and the Command II is the label on the white boxes.īack in June of 2005 a Force II knife was sold on eBay. However, Gerber evidently shipped an unknown number of these knives to their dealers before the knife was renamed. The contest was run in Soldier of Fortune Magazine. Then for some unknown reason, Gerber decided to hold a contest to rename the knife. They even had labels made up for the boxes.

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The Command II knives have their own serial number ranges.įORCE II When Gerber first designed the Command II model they initially called it the Force II. IMPORTANT NOTE: The Mark II's serial number and date information does not apply to the Command II knives. There are also several rare copies of the Command II model which are shown in the following sections.

I suspect that there wasn't a big demand for these knives and so they were discontinued. The Command II was probably produced only between late 19. These serial number ranges imply that less than 22,700 of the Command II knives were produced. The black bladed serial number range I've noted is between A3512S and A8019S. The black blade models were only offered in stainless steel. The highest stainless steel bladed serial number I've noted is B0019S. There were no camouflage versions of this knife.įor the satin finish blade knives, the highest tool steel bladed serial number I've noted is 015197. They were issued in two versions, the first with a satin finish blade and the second with a black blade. 007203) as well as stainless steel blades with an alpha-numeric serial number (e.g.
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They can be found with tool steel blades and 6-digit numeric serial numbers (e.g. They are serialized in the same manner as the Mark II. They were possibly designed for locations where a double-edged knife was illegal. I've only noted one Command II blade without serrations. Second, there are serrations (teeth) only on 2 of the 3 inches of the sharpened top edge. Only the bottom edge and 3 inches at the front of the top edge are sharpened. However the Command II blade differs in several ways. It has the same handle and the blade is the same length. The Command II knife is very similar to the Mark II.
