Gerber is discontinuing the venerable Applegate-Fairbairn Covert. Why you should get the AUTO now.

The Applegate-Fairbairn fighting knife has seen many iterations from many different manufacturers. There have been fixed blade and folding versions, in different sizes. Al Mar, Randall, Blackjack and Böker have all produced their own iterations, but by far the most common has been the folding, assisted-opening model from Gerber, which is being discontinued after 26 years. Most of the Gerber models have plastic handles and bargain-basement steel. The auto version is a significant step up, with S30V blade steel and aluminum handles, but there’s one caveat: the safety mechanism works in the opposite orientation from the assisted-opening variant (which will take some getting used to if you’ve already developed muscle memory for that one).

I suspect the Applegate-Fairbairn folder will appear again, perhaps from a different manufacturer, but now’s the time to get this premium Gerber model.