I have carried strap cutters in my vehicle for many years, and luckily I have never had to use one to actually extract someone for a vehicle. I've cut plenty of jammed tie downs, small ropes, backpack straps, etc. I typically end up throwing them out after they rust up after getting wet. This Gerber strap cutter is made of stainless, and while it is rust resistant keep it away from salt water. Recommend drying it off right away if it gets wet, and if exposed to salt water, wash it off with fresh water and they dry it. I firefighter friend of mine was given a bunch of these and was nice enough to pass one on to me to use in my Jeep offroad. My first impression was that it looked like a praying mantis ready to strike, and that the mouth for the cutter was much wider than the other ones that I typically had. I figured you might be able to get a small finger in there and give yourself a nice cut. I did like the fact that it had a nice grip, and that you could resharpen the cutting edge when it dulled out. The wide mouth while a concern about fingers would definately make it easier to get a hold of a seatbelt and slice it away. With most of the others you needed to get it just right in the slot and if the belt bunched up it would jam before it actually cut, wasteing precious time.
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About this item
Cuts through nylon straps and seat belts in seconds
Single Bevel Knife Edge with Blunt Hook
Stainless Steel Construction, Black Oxide Coating
Textured Back Edge
Injection Molded Rubber Grip
Glass Breaker/Lanyard Hole
Finger Hook
Extra Large Finger Hole
Made in USA
Limited lifetime warranty
Comes in 3 different colors:
Coyote Brown - 30-000132
Green - 22-01934
Black - 22-01944
Additional
Parts:
Tools
Needed:
The Gerber strap cutter comes with the cutter, holster, belt clip, molle strap and instructions.
The strap cutter is a metal tool with a molded rubber grip covering one end. One side has a seratted edge for a better grip. There is a large hole in the center and an indent near the end so you can get a good grip on the tool when cutting a strap.
The Gerber has a hooked shaped cutting edge. The blade is really sharp and since it's not just a razor blade imbedded in a piece of plastic you can take a rattail file and restore the edge if you damage it or it dulls out. Hopefully you don't need to cut that many straps to cause it to dull quickly.
The other end has a point on it that is supposed to be used as a glass breaker. I really wouldn't try to use this except in a dire emergency, a rock would probably be a little safer. I tried it a couple different ways with the strap cutter positioned in the hand and either a finger slipped into the cutting area, or web between the thumb and finger did. It would probably work better if I had gloves on, but in an emergency your probably not going to stop and dig out a pair of work gloves. This side also has a hole for you to attach a lanyard
The strap cutter fits into the holster with just a friction fit. While it hasn't fallen out of the holster, I do check to see if it's pushed all the way in ever so often.
Belt Clip:
Molle Strap:
Instructions and holding:
You can see that it's fairly easy to get the cutter around a seatbelt to cut it.
