What Happened to Gerber? The Military Knife America Handed to Foreign Owners

What Happened to Gerber? The Military Knife America Handed to Foreign Owners In 1966, a retired Army captain walked into a Portland, Oregon knife company with a drawing of a Roman gladius. That design became the Gerber Mark II — the second most famous fighting knife of the Vietnam War. But the real story isn't the knife. It's what happened to the company behind it: sold to a Finnish corporation in 1987, its manufacturing quietly moved overseas over two decades, and its most legendary blade discontinued so many times that no one ever recorded how many were actually made. This is how an American military icon became foreign property — and why nobody noticed when it happened. #Gerber #GerberKnives #GerberMarkII #MilitaryKnife #CombatKnife #KnifeHistory #FightingKnife #VietnamWar #TacticalKnife #KnifeCollector #MadeInUSA #AmericanManufacturing #Fiskars #PortlandOregon #KnifeCommunity #EDCKnife #MilitaryHistory #GunHistory #WhatHappenedTo #ForgottenBrands #KnifeMaking #VintageKnives #ArmyHistory #TacticalGear #ManufacturingHistory #IndustrialHistory #BladeSmith #SurvivalGear #KnifeEnthusiast #americanhistory