Carbite edge comments please?

[keninshiro]

Hi all! I'm about to get a BM CQC-7 with carbite edge, can anyone tell me the pros and cons of it? (thanks rfrost) Thanks all.

 

[Walt Welch]

Perhaps someone would be kind enough to fill me in as well, as this is a very confusing post for me.

The CQC series of knives is made by Ernie Emerson. The difference between the CQC6 and CQC7 was that the 7 had a slightly larger handle. These have ATS-34 blades and are chisel ground.

For a time, BM made licensed versions of these knives, the BM970 and BM975 series. The license lapsed about a year and a half ago, and BM stopped production of these models at that time. The difference in these was that the blade of the BM975 was longer.

One of these knives was offered with a Ti blade, which had a Tantalum carbide coating on the blade to help prolong wear, as the Ti is pretty soft.

I was unaware that BM had reacquired the rights to manufacture Emerson knives, let alone to call them 'CQC.' I think that there is either some incredible news, or a really bad misunderstanding here. Walt

 

[yoda4561]

Walt it is probably a second hand model or some old inventory some dealer still had left over... just my guess..

 

[keninshiro]

Walt Welch;
The BM CQC-7 i'm getting indeed is THE one with Ti blade hance the carbite edge. And Yes, they aquired license sometime back from Emerson and produced them. So i don't see why they shouldn't use the same name, why would you name a knife differently with the exact same design? Trouble you'll get into, yes?
Yoda;
I'm getting it from a 'FRIEND'.....I don't think there are anymore 'left-over' from dealers.

Cheers.

 

[Walt Welch]

Keninshiro; your point is well taken; if a liscensee makes an identical product, it may deserve the same name; consider the Argentine M1927 Colts, made under license from Colt. These were identical to Colt 1911A1s.

This was NOT the case with BM. The knives they made were not of the same quality, nor made of the same materials as the Emerson knives. What was linen micarta on the Emersons, was some sort of fiberglass or plastic on the BM's. The Ti bolsters of the Emersons were not to be found on the BM's. Further, the workmanship was much cruder on the BM's, which, to be fair, were designed to be about 1/3 to 1/2 the price of the Emerson. The action of the liner lock was more variable on these BM models (970 and 975) than on any other BM models I have ever examined.

BM was allowed, IIRC, to use the name Emerson in their advertising. They were NEVER allowed to use the CQC designation. Therefore, what you have is a BM 970 (I forget the alphabetical designation for the Ti blade).

The Tantalum Carbide (carbides are molecules composed of a metal and carbon) is applied along the entire side of the blade, not just on the edge. The idea is for the harder TaC to prolong the wear of the edge.

The knife you have is of a rather specialized nature; it is designed for use around magnetically discharged ordnance, as Ti tends to generate negligable eddy currents when moved in a magnetic field. The only other advantage is corrosion resistance.

As a general purpose knife, it suffers from the softness of the Ti blade, despite the TaC coating. Its' magnetic properties would make it difficult to detect by metal detectors, but I cannot mention such things on this forum, so disregard the above.

I still have about half a dozen BM 970/975s, if anyone cares for one.

Hope this helps, Walt

 

[keninshiro]

Welch,
Whooaarr.. Is it that bad? Tell me more via my email (and your offers of the rest you have...);
fastjudy@hotmail.com

[This message has been edited by keninshiro (edited 19 September 1999).]