So, my first attempt at doing a review of sorts
. (apologies for spelling, grammatical errors, I cant get spell check etc to work...) this is really just an odd collection of thoughts, feelings and ramblings lumped together really.
in the few years that I have been using this forum, and others, I have learnt that a lot of what I enjoy when it comes to Knives, Guns, watches etc Well pretty much anything that I want to buy actually . What I enjoy almost as much as the purchase itself, is the research that goes into it.
I love wasting hours reading reviews, watching videos and generally getting other peoples opinions of the product before I buy it. For me, this is half the enjoyment. it may also mean that I seriously need to find another hobby to keep me busy lol, but that's another matter entirely.
So, the main event. The Emerson Mini Commander!
where to begin . well first off this is my first emerson, its a brand that I have never been drawn to before. The tactical designs and black blades of the knife industry have never held much appeal to me, and then the plethora of tanto designs, chisel ground blades and occasional tales of QC issues with Emerson knives have never done anything to convince me to buy one.
now don't ask me why, but about 5-6 weeks ago, for reasons unbeknownst to even myself, I suddenly found myself spending a lot of time looking at some of these knives. The overall look of the cqc7, the flagship of Emerson knives, still to me looked ugly and impractical for anything other than stabbing people. The commander model, and the cqc15 however had begun to catch my attention. looking at the sizes of the various models, I concluded that if I ever needed a folding knife with a 4 blade, then I might as well just be carrying a fixed blade anyway. I then came across what to me was the amusingly named, mini series.
now to me these knives are not particularly mini, as most of them are packing a 3.5 blade, but they had the same great looks as there bigger brothers, in what to me seemed like a much more practical package.
now at this point I could still not tell you what was drawing me to the commander, or more specifically, the mini commander model. I have never had any great affinity with recurve blades, however I just loved the looks of this knife.
Being in the military, I am able to carry a locking blade on a daily basis . that is not to say I necessarily need to, but I do because I can. so last year I concluded that I might as well buy the best, so I bought myself a small crk sebenza. I had spent years reading about how great these knives were. so it came, it was nice, and I could appreciate the engineering behind it and the subtle good looks. and that was that, or so I thought.
now when I bought the sebenza I thought that that was it, I didn't really need any other locking folders. but as im sure many of you can appreciate, need and want are entirely different things!
so where was I, oh yeh, I was looking at emersons online.
and reading the reviews and rantings of some of the seeming disciples of emerson knives.
Many of them seemed to put these knives on a pedestal of somewhat godlike proportions lol.
well after a month or so of constantly looking at these knives, I thought what the hell. time to pull the trigger! now bearing in mind that in the UK the prices on these knives are somewhat higher than in the US, I really wasn't sure how it would measure up for its money.
now when I was ordering it, I had firmly in my head that I would send it off immediately to be reground into a more traditional V grind edge. however with some of the emerson nuts words echoing in my ears, I decided that I would give the chisel grind a go when it arrived.
I must point out that I am also not really a fan of linerlocks. the only one that I have ever felt was really done that well (that I have handled), was a spyderco GB. the lock on that knife inspires confidence (and really makes me wish I hadn't passed that knife on), so again I really wasn't sure how enamoured I would be with the emersons lock.
anyway, the knife arrived.
upon taking the box out of its packaging I was surprised at the weight within it. I took the knife out and wow! what a little piece of bulk lol. I really wasn't expecting the blade and knife as a whole to feel as substantial as it did. this thing was a beast!!!
ergonomics wise, this knife just fitted perfectly. now for my size I have quite small hands. maybe a medium glove size? but that was no issue. the knife just felt like it locked into my hand as if it were an extension of it.
out of the box, the knife had a few cosmetic marks on the clip and the paint of the stop pin.
but I wasn't particularly bothered by this. my main gripe with knives is blade play, it does my head in. anyway, the knife was solid. easily deployable with a solid lockup and a centred blade.  happy me!
and then it began ..
this knife just had, & still has, me absolutely hooked! I cant stop wanting to play with it. and I am constantly looking for stuff to cut. after a few days of constant carry and playing with (the perks of being on leave) I noticed a hint of side to side wobble with the blade. normally I would now be getting rather pi$$ed off, however it just gave me an excuse to take the knife apart. and its at about this point that I really started to appreciate some of the thought that's gone into this. it was just so simple, now I don't mind using torx sets etc on other knives, but not having to fanny around finding my torx set and checking I actually had the right size to do the job, just seemed a real bonus.
it took abut 2 minutes to entirely disassemble the knife. I was quite surprised by how loose the pivot screw was. now having read plenty of other people advice on emerson knives, I had already been out and bought some Loctite, anticipating that it may be needed. upon reassembling the knife it took a few seconds of fiddling to re center the blade. I then set the pivot tension fairly high. I could no longer flick open the blade but it felt incredibly solid and could still be waved. anyway, it would appear that I bought a duff tube of Loctite, as the next day the pivot had loosened back up. a bit more fiddling however and I had it perfect.
the epiphany!!!
I had suddenly begun to have a bit of confidence in the simplicity of the knife. I was quite happy to fiddle with it knowing I could get the results I wanted. I had also started to appreciate the grind. it never really feels that sharp, yet it cuts paper pretty effortlessly, and just feels very capable. there really hasn't been anything that it cant do.
granted so far i had only really used the knife for fairly mundane day to day tasks. food prep, opening packaging, cutting fingernails and shaving bald spots on myself etc, so i decided to try and do something a bit more interesting with it. well i started by whittling numerous pieces of wood to bits, but this wasn't satisfying my easily bored and destructive nature.
and so i began to wander around my grandparents farm looking for inspiration. now i have mentioned that im in the military, and these knives are designed for hard military use, and ultimately use as weapons. however i feel that if im having to rely on a knife to defend myself, im probably having a pretty terrible day.
regardless, i thought i would do some vaguely defense type stuff with it. mainly because i had spotted a thick and manky looking old rope hanging up in a barn, and thought some hanging rope cut type tests would be fun. never having done anything of this ilk before, i really didn't expect to achieve much. i didn't for the life of me expect the results i got. with about 3 cack-handed slashes, i had severed a rope that was about 2 thick. impressive stuff!
Next i found a manky old sheet that for whatever reason was hanging over a rail, so i vandalised that too! a few slashes later and that was suitably sliced up. This was fun!
Both the sheet and rope were old and impregnated with gritty dirt, this hadn't really bothered the edge of the blade, never the less, i decided to touch up the edge in an impromptu fashion. Using a metal gate and then a strop on my jeans, the knife was hair popping sharp again.
a Emersonesque sharpener
I then stabbed it into a fence post, because why not? that was easy too.
Nothing i have done so far has damaged or bothered the knife in any way. the only cosmetic flaws that i can see, is the scuffed clip and the etching on the blade seems to be rubbing off pretty quickly.
now youre probably wondering what the point of this monologue is. I am too to be honest, I guess I just want to share the fact that i absolutely love this knife! I never expected to, and i cant really put my finger on the exact reason that i do, i just know that i do. it has soul of sorts.
im now a bit hooked, and lusting after a cqc 7, theres a lot of hype behind it and i want to see if it tickles me in the same way.
My final thought on the whole thing, is that i have emailed the emerson company from their website, in regards to how there warranty works for international customers an UK knife owners such as myself. so far i have not heard back from them, but if/when i do, if there warranty will honour international customers such as myself, as well as it does its American customers, then i may well have found another favourite brand.
thanks for reading if you have made it this far!
in the few years that I have been using this forum, and others, I have learnt that a lot of what I enjoy when it comes to Knives, Guns, watches etc Well pretty much anything that I want to buy actually . What I enjoy almost as much as the purchase itself, is the research that goes into it.
I love wasting hours reading reviews, watching videos and generally getting other peoples opinions of the product before I buy it. For me, this is half the enjoyment. it may also mean that I seriously need to find another hobby to keep me busy lol, but that's another matter entirely.
So, the main event. The Emerson Mini Commander!
where to begin . well first off this is my first emerson, its a brand that I have never been drawn to before. The tactical designs and black blades of the knife industry have never held much appeal to me, and then the plethora of tanto designs, chisel ground blades and occasional tales of QC issues with Emerson knives have never done anything to convince me to buy one.
now don't ask me why, but about 5-6 weeks ago, for reasons unbeknownst to even myself, I suddenly found myself spending a lot of time looking at some of these knives. The overall look of the cqc7, the flagship of Emerson knives, still to me looked ugly and impractical for anything other than stabbing people. The commander model, and the cqc15 however had begun to catch my attention. looking at the sizes of the various models, I concluded that if I ever needed a folding knife with a 4 blade, then I might as well just be carrying a fixed blade anyway. I then came across what to me was the amusingly named, mini series.
now to me these knives are not particularly mini, as most of them are packing a 3.5 blade, but they had the same great looks as there bigger brothers, in what to me seemed like a much more practical package.
now at this point I could still not tell you what was drawing me to the commander, or more specifically, the mini commander model. I have never had any great affinity with recurve blades, however I just loved the looks of this knife.
Being in the military, I am able to carry a locking blade on a daily basis . that is not to say I necessarily need to, but I do because I can. so last year I concluded that I might as well buy the best, so I bought myself a small crk sebenza. I had spent years reading about how great these knives were. so it came, it was nice, and I could appreciate the engineering behind it and the subtle good looks. and that was that, or so I thought.
now when I bought the sebenza I thought that that was it, I didn't really need any other locking folders. but as im sure many of you can appreciate, need and want are entirely different things!
so where was I, oh yeh, I was looking at emersons online.
and reading the reviews and rantings of some of the seeming disciples of emerson knives.
Many of them seemed to put these knives on a pedestal of somewhat godlike proportions lol.
well after a month or so of constantly looking at these knives, I thought what the hell. time to pull the trigger! now bearing in mind that in the UK the prices on these knives are somewhat higher than in the US, I really wasn't sure how it would measure up for its money.
now when I was ordering it, I had firmly in my head that I would send it off immediately to be reground into a more traditional V grind edge. however with some of the emerson nuts words echoing in my ears, I decided that I would give the chisel grind a go when it arrived.
I must point out that I am also not really a fan of linerlocks. the only one that I have ever felt was really done that well (that I have handled), was a spyderco GB. the lock on that knife inspires confidence (and really makes me wish I hadn't passed that knife on), so again I really wasn't sure how enamoured I would be with the emersons lock.
anyway, the knife arrived.
upon taking the box out of its packaging I was surprised at the weight within it. I took the knife out and wow! what a little piece of bulk lol. I really wasn't expecting the blade and knife as a whole to feel as substantial as it did. this thing was a beast!!!
ergonomics wise, this knife just fitted perfectly. now for my size I have quite small hands. maybe a medium glove size? but that was no issue. the knife just felt like it locked into my hand as if it were an extension of it.
out of the box, the knife had a few cosmetic marks on the clip and the paint of the stop pin.
but I wasn't particularly bothered by this. my main gripe with knives is blade play, it does my head in. anyway, the knife was solid. easily deployable with a solid lockup and a centred blade.  happy me!
and then it began ..
this knife just had, & still has, me absolutely hooked! I cant stop wanting to play with it. and I am constantly looking for stuff to cut. after a few days of constant carry and playing with (the perks of being on leave) I noticed a hint of side to side wobble with the blade. normally I would now be getting rather pi$$ed off, however it just gave me an excuse to take the knife apart. and its at about this point that I really started to appreciate some of the thought that's gone into this. it was just so simple, now I don't mind using torx sets etc on other knives, but not having to fanny around finding my torx set and checking I actually had the right size to do the job, just seemed a real bonus.
it took abut 2 minutes to entirely disassemble the knife. I was quite surprised by how loose the pivot screw was. now having read plenty of other people advice on emerson knives, I had already been out and bought some Loctite, anticipating that it may be needed. upon reassembling the knife it took a few seconds of fiddling to re center the blade. I then set the pivot tension fairly high. I could no longer flick open the blade but it felt incredibly solid and could still be waved. anyway, it would appear that I bought a duff tube of Loctite, as the next day the pivot had loosened back up. a bit more fiddling however and I had it perfect.
the epiphany!!!
I had suddenly begun to have a bit of confidence in the simplicity of the knife. I was quite happy to fiddle with it knowing I could get the results I wanted. I had also started to appreciate the grind. it never really feels that sharp, yet it cuts paper pretty effortlessly, and just feels very capable. there really hasn't been anything that it cant do.
granted so far i had only really used the knife for fairly mundane day to day tasks. food prep, opening packaging, cutting fingernails and shaving bald spots on myself etc, so i decided to try and do something a bit more interesting with it. well i started by whittling numerous pieces of wood to bits, but this wasn't satisfying my easily bored and destructive nature.
and so i began to wander around my grandparents farm looking for inspiration. now i have mentioned that im in the military, and these knives are designed for hard military use, and ultimately use as weapons. however i feel that if im having to rely on a knife to defend myself, im probably having a pretty terrible day.
regardless, i thought i would do some vaguely defense type stuff with it. mainly because i had spotted a thick and manky looking old rope hanging up in a barn, and thought some hanging rope cut type tests would be fun. never having done anything of this ilk before, i really didn't expect to achieve much. i didn't for the life of me expect the results i got. with about 3 cack-handed slashes, i had severed a rope that was about 2 thick. impressive stuff!
Next i found a manky old sheet that for whatever reason was hanging over a rail, so i vandalised that too! a few slashes later and that was suitably sliced up. This was fun!
Both the sheet and rope were old and impregnated with gritty dirt, this hadn't really bothered the edge of the blade, never the less, i decided to touch up the edge in an impromptu fashion. Using a metal gate and then a strop on my jeans, the knife was hair popping sharp again.
a Emersonesque sharpener
I then stabbed it into a fence post, because why not? that was easy too.
Nothing i have done so far has damaged or bothered the knife in any way. the only cosmetic flaws that i can see, is the scuffed clip and the etching on the blade seems to be rubbing off pretty quickly.
now youre probably wondering what the point of this monologue is. I am too to be honest, I guess I just want to share the fact that i absolutely love this knife! I never expected to, and i cant really put my finger on the exact reason that i do, i just know that i do. it has soul of sorts.
im now a bit hooked, and lusting after a cqc 7, theres a lot of hype behind it and i want to see if it tickles me in the same way.
My final thought on the whole thing, is that i have emailed the emerson company from their website, in regards to how there warranty works for international customers an UK knife owners such as myself. so far i have not heard back from them, but if/when i do, if there warranty will honour international customers such as myself, as well as it does its American customers, then i may well have found another favourite brand.
thanks for reading if you have made it this far!
enjoy it!
