Hello Corbon et al,
Like Sal said, Ernie and I do post here, sometimes not as much as we would like.
There are many factors regarding Emerson Knives that simply are not the norm with most custom knifemakers or knife companies for that matter.
Besides Ernests' custom knives, we have as you know, a full scale production company to run. Besides our regular consumer division, we have our military division that is working with allied forces around the world.
We have our Law Enforcement Division that is currently in contact with 100+ Police and Sherriff's departments around the country. This program involves departmental policy generation, training - in some cases for well over 200 individuals, and of course, knives.
There is our training division, Emerson Combat Systems which in addition to being involved in all of the aforementioned projects, has it's own unique schedule. We currently have training scheduled in Great Britain, Germany, Hungary, and Japan as well as our regularly scheduled classes for the U.S. We run classes for civillians, law enforcement, and the military, all with curriculum unique to each segment.
Under the heading of the Training Division, we are also working on a series of books and videos.
Ernest writes article for publication in several magazines including Black Belt, Police, Blade, Tactical Knives, etc. This doesn't even factor in the number of international publications requesting articles.
E-mail; Since June 11th. of this year, I have received 1173 email as of this date.
I personally work about 55-60 hours a week in the shop and an additional hour or two at home most days. There are shows I go to that keep me out of the office for days or even weeks at a time. Unlike when I was in the military ,where whatever you were doing at the time was whatever you were doing at the time, at Emerson Knives, nothing stops or even slows down while I am not here so, every time I get off the road, I have X number of "catch-up days" to deal with. Recently, I went 21 straight days with out a single day off, including weekends.
Ernests' schedule is even more demanding. I guarantee that he spends 99% of his waking tme actively working on some aspect of this company.
This brief run down is not a complaint. I have the greatest job in the world. I have a great Boss and represent a great company. This is simply meant to inform everyone as to just how we spend our time.
I hope that this will help everyone understand why we simply cannot spend much more time than we are currently addressing issues on all the forums.
