In Gerber’s world, LST means light, strong, and tough. In mine, light is part of it and the rest is in doubt. A person who knows knives and uses them well will do fine with this knife, which would be a good choice if you need a workaday tool you can afford to lose and replace. If you can’t see immediately when you look at this one that you can’t use it as a hammer or a hammer-driven chisel, then it probably won’t last long.
The high carbon stainless steel blade is just under the legal 3.5″ limit, and the nylon belt pouch is a handy feature for a handyman like me. Just make sure you check the stitching on the belt loop, which even with a product from a highly rated company is often poor enough to easily rip away. The handle itself, of glass filled non slip black Nylon, is the part in which I would have the least faith–good enough for most purposes, easy to grip, but in those circumstances where you need a knife to be more than just a knife, probably not the best idea ever.
Gerber may disagree with me. I spent a half hour digging through their website looking for a warranty to see how well they’d back this up and didn’t find one. That’s usually not a good sign, but I’m waiting to hear back from them on that.
Warranty update! Gerber responds! They offer a lifetime warranty on faults, not on abuse (a pretty standard warranty for knife makers). If you get a knife that isn’t right, complain before something goes wrong.
There are many times when I need a knife that’s cheap enough to abuse and good enough to be functional. This Magnum LST fits the bill.
