First Look: Gerber Gear Versafix Pro Machete

Alongside the company's new Center Drive multitool and Fastball EDC knife, Gerber Gear also rolled out a new, fixed-blade machete in 2019, designed to give outdoor enthusiasts a solid, affordable tool that can cut through brush with ease. The new Versafix Pro Machete is a hybrid design that, in addition to offering a brush-clearing tool to consumers, also provides a number of other uses for those in the field.

“Versatility was paramount in the design of the Versafix Pro. Sooner or later, most users find a need to cut, chop, and split while in the field. Our drive was to produce a single product to replace three in a sportsman’s pack,” says Karrson Koivisto, Gerber product manager. “The Versafix Pro’s design and durability empowers users to cut like a knife, chop like a machete and split like a hatchet. This is all maintained in a compact and pack-­friendly footprint with a single-­finger deployment. Every feature of the Versafix Pro provides added value without the extra weight.”

Each Gerber Versafix Pro Machete is constructed from stainless steel and features full-tang construction complete with an overmolded rubber handle available in both red and gray colors. The blade itself features a weight-forward design that provides added momentum on a forward swing, as well as enhanced chopping abilities for splitting firewood, kindling and other camp fuel. At the top end of the blade, consumers will notice jimping along the forward edge, which provides users with the ability to "baton" the blade on thicker pieces of wood, which involves striking this top edge with a thicker piece of wood to aid in slicing through logs.

Also included with the Gerber Versafix Pro is a molded sheath complete with a paddle-style retention mechanism that can be actuated with a single finger, allowing for one-handed operation. The sheath features attachment points for lashing the blade to a pack, and the handle on the tool features a lanyard-loop hole for added retention. The overall length of the machete is 14.3 inches, and 9 inches of that length is the blade itself. The suggested retail price on the Versafix Pro is $45.