Gerber Fastball (custom) knife review – create a knife with your own flair

REVIEW – We sure do love our EDC gear here on The Gadgeteer and that obviously includes knives. Do you have a set of criteria that represents what you look for in a perfect knife – other than the ability to cut stuff? Is one of the items on that list style? If so, then check out the custom Gerber Fastball knife. You can create a knife that will look like no other knife in the world. If that’s important to you, then keep reading!

What is it?

The Gerber Fastball is a folding pocket knife that you can customize with your own logo, artwork, and color choices for several of the knife’s components.

What’s in the box?

• Gerber Fastball knife
• Gerber sticker
• Gerber handkerchief (not pictured, but you can see it in the video embedded below)

Hardware specs of this specific knife

• S30V blade steel
• Aluminum scales
• Closed length: 4.25 in
• Open length: 7.35 in
• Weight: 2.8 oz

Design and features

Creating your knife is fun and easy using Gerber’s online interface that lets you “build” the knife in real-time. In the image above, you can see the interface. Each of the + boxes are areas that can be customized. For example, when you click the Blade box, the window below will show up.

You can choose the blade type and even the color/material.

The front and back of the blade can be customized with a pattern, an image, or text.

There are quite a few patterns to choose from. I should have gone with a pattern, but I left the blade alone except for choosing the type and color.

There are quite a few hardware customization options too.

You can pick the liner color.

Spacer color/material.

And fastener color.

Let’s see the results of my customizations!

Check out that awesome logo! I went with the anodized black aluminum handles so I could take advantage of the laser marking option. Some of the handle options do not allow for laser marking (Machined G-10, Carbon Fiber).

The laser etching of my logo looks really nice. You can barely feel the edges of the graphic, so the etching is pretty shallow.

For the hardware customization, I went with a PVD blue axle. Watch my video below to see a small complaint that I have with this particular option. You can also see that I picked the same PVD blue for the fasteners.

I also went with the same blue for the pocket clip. Again, I have a complaint about the clip which I talk about in the video below. But the clip is strong and you can even change its orientation by moving it to the other end of the handle if you prefer tip down carry.

You will also notice that there’s a hole in the handle that you can use to attach a lanyard.

For the complaints, there are chips or small imperfections in the blue PVD (physical vapor deposition) coating. 🙁

To be consistent, I picked blue for the liner too.

For the backspacer, I thought grey aluminum would look good.

What about the blade?

Regardless of your blade choice, the Fastball has a flipper-style blade. That means that you can deploy the blade with downward pressure on the flipper tab.

The opening action is smooth thanks to the ball bearings. Ha! I just realized that’s where the name comes from. Fastball… fast ball bearings.

For the blade steel, I went with a S30V Wharncliffe CERAKOTE blade in slate.

The Gerber Fastball has a liner lock to keep the blade secured when open. To close the blade, you need to press the lock to the side so the blade can rotate back in place.

While I find it pretty easy to deploy the blade with just one hand, I don’t find it as easy to fold it closed with one hand. After some practice, I am able to do both actions with one hand, but closing the knife that way just doesn’t feel natural to me. This might be because the liner lock is a little tough to flex out of the way with the tip of my thumb.

The Gerber Fastball looks cool, but how well does it cut?

The blade is really sharp, check out the video below where I cut some paper and skin the bark off a tree (ok, a stick).

See it in action

What I like

• One-of-a-kind knife design
• Made in the USA
• Easy flip open
• Sharp blade

What I’d change

• Improve the PVD (physical vapor deposition) coating so there won’t be any scratches or gaps in the finish

Final thoughts

I really like the Gerber Fastball knife, but would I spend $200 on one just so I could have my logo on it? That’s a tough question because I know I can also buy a Gerber Fastball without customization starting at $125.00. If having a knife that you know is completely unique is important to you, then you can do that with a custom Gerber Fastball. And if you do, I definitely want to see pics!

Price: $208.00 as reviewed (price varies depending on custom choices)
Where to buy: Gerber and Amazon
Source: The sample for this review was provided by Gerber.