Zoom in to see the corrosion on the Gerber shears (lower one)
top to bottom: Rapala Game Shears, Gerber Take Apart Shears
I’ve been using the Gerber Vital Take-Apart-Shears for about 5 months now, mainly in the kitchen and had once opened up a nabeta and cut away the gills with it. It’s small and lightweight but the thumb hole is less comfortable than the school scissors it resembles. It’s great for trimming meats and chunking small baits and has been holding its edge. I really like Gerber products but my one complaint is that it’s beginning to show rust spots on the blade and the screw turned brown right away since it’s not made out of Stainless Steel. I’ve even cleaned it with Corrosion Block but it continues to slowly show corrosion/rust spots. Gerber is coming out with salt water versions of their fishing tools in 2018 and I believe these shears will be updated to stainless steel. These shears are currently about $18 on Amazon Prime.
I got the Rapala Fish and Game Shears about 3 months ago and haven’t cleaned a fish with it, but have used it in the kitchen more than the Gerber, to catch up on testing it. It’s marketed as kind of a multi-tool take apart shears with features like a straight knife, serrated knife/fish scaler, bottle opener/bone cracker and vegetable peeler although I’ve just used it as kitchen shears. It’s larger and heavier than the Gerber shears but is actually more comfortable to use due to the oversized finger holes. There’s no mention of what the blade is made out of but it isn’t showing signs of rust like the Gerber is. The Rapala Shears feel sturdier than the Gerber due to the thickness of the materials used and can cut through a thicker piece meat than the Gerber can. At less than $13 on Amazon Prime I’m actually pleasantly surprised how well they are holding up.
Both the Gerber and the Rapala shears are very easy to take apart and clean. I’ll update this review after cleaning fish with the two shears. For kitchen shear use, I would recommend the Rapala shears so far.
Update 9/23/18: I used the Rapala Fish and Game Shears to clean an omilu. Read about that here.
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