I just received a new Emerson Knives cqc13 bowie. It has a four inch combo edge beadblast blade with a nice bowie clip point. The handle as with most Emersons is slightly gritty g10. The knife also features the wave opener.
My experience with Emerson knives has been mixed. I have had a few that were very well designed and executed and others whose quality and detail seemed lacking for a knife in the 120.00 to 200.00 dollar pice range.
The bowie is one of the good ones. The design is very cool, I like it better then the chinook bowie and feel they share a number of positive characteristics. The blade is long and wide and came with an excellent level of sharpness right out of the box. I think there is a long enough section of serratons to be useful but I would probably have breffered a plain edge. The handle is fabulous, its long and well curved to maintain grip but its narrow enough for my fairly small hands to grip easily and securely and manipulate comfotably and quickly after only about half an hour of handling. It feel very comfortable in forward and reverse grip though not so much in edge in reverse. The wave is great, this is my first emerson that I have liked that had the wave opener, the only other model I handled was a karambit that did not suit me design wise and was one of the knives which did not have the fit and finish I expected. The wave opens the large blade very fast and securely with almost no practiceand the liner locks up securely. The liner lock is probably the thing I like least about Emerson knives, between the couple rather shoddy ones I have seen and a number of threads and comments about liner strength and as I usually carry lock backs or compression locks, liners just don't seem as solid. I think that is mostly a false worry with this knife, the liner seems good and solid and the blade has no play whatsoever. Oh yeah the clip holds tight yet releases easily too.
Bottom line is I love the mix of classic bowie style and modern bowie. The handle is great and the blade is big and pointy and deploys fast. I like it very much and I am sure it will see regular pocket time though I don't think it will replace my para-mili for every day.. Thats cool, different designs for different purposes and this knife is a nice design with enough utility to carry and use.
My experience with Emerson knives has been mixed. I have had a few that were very well designed and executed and others whose quality and detail seemed lacking for a knife in the 120.00 to 200.00 dollar pice range.
The bowie is one of the good ones. The design is very cool, I like it better then the chinook bowie and feel they share a number of positive characteristics. The blade is long and wide and came with an excellent level of sharpness right out of the box. I think there is a long enough section of serratons to be useful but I would probably have breffered a plain edge. The handle is fabulous, its long and well curved to maintain grip but its narrow enough for my fairly small hands to grip easily and securely and manipulate comfotably and quickly after only about half an hour of handling. It feel very comfortable in forward and reverse grip though not so much in edge in reverse. The wave is great, this is my first emerson that I have liked that had the wave opener, the only other model I handled was a karambit that did not suit me design wise and was one of the knives which did not have the fit and finish I expected. The wave opens the large blade very fast and securely with almost no practiceand the liner locks up securely. The liner lock is probably the thing I like least about Emerson knives, between the couple rather shoddy ones I have seen and a number of threads and comments about liner strength and as I usually carry lock backs or compression locks, liners just don't seem as solid. I think that is mostly a false worry with this knife, the liner seems good and solid and the blade has no play whatsoever. Oh yeah the clip holds tight yet releases easily too.
Bottom line is I love the mix of classic bowie style and modern bowie. The handle is great and the blade is big and pointy and deploys fast. I like it very much and I am sure it will see regular pocket time though I don't think it will replace my para-mili for every day.. Thats cool, different designs for different purposes and this knife is a nice design with enough utility to carry and use.