One Survival Knife You Should NEVER Leave Home Without...

I initially thought that one of my buddies at work snuck up from behind and started rocking my chair. But when I looked around there was no one there.

If fact, people were running for the doors to exit our office building. I finally realized that what I felt was an earthquake. What makes this particularly unusual is that our office building is in the rural mountains of North Central Pennsylvania, not California as you might think. What’s stranger is that the epicenter of the earthquake was 350 miles away.

We do live in strange times. It seems as though there are disasters everywhere. At the time of my writing, just 2 weeks after our minor tremor, there is another natural disaster in my region. Flooding, worse than in 1972. Malls submersed, cars floating down the river, thousands homeless, untold millions in damage. In Texas as I write there is an intense drought and wildfires are raging. It’s crazy! Disaster can come in many forms like a thief breaking into your home in the middle of the night, a snow storm, hurricane, tornado, outdoor excursion gone bad or our economy going totally south.

I pray you never face a disaster head on, but chances are that you will at some point in your life. There is an old English Proverb that says, “Hope for the best, be prepared for the worst.” One simple and easy way to begin preparing for the unexpected is to invest in a reliable survival knife, and the Gerber Prodigy survival knife is a great place to start.

Construction Made of 420HC stainless steel, the Gerber Prodigy knife is respected by those that use it just for fun as well as those who’s life may depend on it. Both Prodigy knives feature full tang construction, this means that it is one solid piece which makes it virtually impossible to break.

Handle The handle is molded to the knife and then covered in a very grippy rubber that keeps it from slipping from your hand, even in wet weather conditions. Having a good grip is really important also because you don’t want to get blisters on your hand, drop it or get cut. The knife is also well balanced so when it is in your hand it doesn’t fell heavy. Using it is a joy and it doesn’t cause fatigue.

Blade Because ultimately a knife is only as good as it’s blade, one of the most important and impressive features of the Original Prodigy is the blade itself. It is a drop point style which mean that the blade is thicker across the spine and tapers off toward the blade. This style is known for it’s great strength across the entire blade and for holding an edge well.

The Gerber Prodigy Tanto bladed knife is equally strong with the extra piercing power of the pointed blade. This knife is best suited for tactical and military situations where hand to hand combat made be required. It looks cool too.

Both of these knives allow for peace of mind, during your outdoor adventure, and have a pile of features for the money. With the precision, craftsmanship of Gerber, the Prodigy survival knife has additional features you won’t find in cheap blades. For example, both have a butt-end pommel for breaking glass or puncturing thicker materials. This could come in handy in an emergency if you need to extract yourself or someone else from a building or vehicle.

One of the most useful and well thought out features is the partially serrated blade toward the knife handle. This increases cutting and chopping power and speed dramatically. When you need to slice down a small tree or cut through difficult material fast you need a nicely crafted serrated edge like this one.

Sheath The Gerber Prodigy knife also comes with a military quality, ballistic nylon sheath that is designed to be attached to just about anything including: a belt, pack or MOLLE vest. One leg strap also comes with the sheath so that the knife can be attached to your leg. Both versions are also MIRS compliant which means they meet certain military standards and can be purchased by the federal government.

Size Both knives are a nice size at around 9.5 inches total length with a 4.75 inch blade. They weight around 12.5 ounces with the sheath.

Cost The cost varies between the original Prodigy and the tanto version, but not by much. They can be found online for around $50... and in retail stores for about $60. Because of it's smaller size, excellent craftsmanship, well thought out design, and versatility, the Gerber Prodigy is one blade you may want to keep around at all times - because you never know.