Duty Knife: Emerson Commander vs ZT 300

scsu74 said:
The emerson wave feature seems like it would have the advantage, but the speed safe seems fast also.
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Best of both.
 
GuinnessSynd said:
For duty use with the ease of deployment i can tell you that nothing and i mean NOTHING beats a wave feature. The spring assist is fast, but in order to activate it you need to remove the knife from your pocket completely, then open it. With the emerson ya pull it out and its open. the chisel ground is not that big of a deal imo. if the chisel is something you will not like there are many a people here who could change that for you. search in the knifemaker services offered. good luck in your search, welcome to the forums and be safe out there
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All you need to reprofile an edge is some kind of edge guide sharpener. I've reprofiled a lot of edges with my lansky sharpener with great results.
 
GuinnessSynd said:
For duty use with the ease of deployment i can tell you that nothing and i mean NOTHING beats a wave feature. The spring assist is fast, but in order to activate it you need to remove the knife from your pocket completely, then open it. With the emerson ya pull it out and its open. the chisel ground is not that big of a deal imo. if the chisel is something you will not like there are many a people here who could change that for you. search in the knifemaker services offered. good luck in your search, welcome to the forums and be safe out there
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The wave feature is really all the emerson has going for it, and this advantage is lost if carried outside the pocket. The ZT 0300 is just stronger, it's titanium framelock vs. thin linerlock. Also, the ZT's S30V should preform better than emersons 154CM. If the wave is something you definitely want you can try to modify the 0300 like a few of us have or send it to FTWCM to cut the wave.
 
brandonc said:
The wave feature is really all the emerson has going for it, and this advantage is lost if carried outside the pocket. The ZT 0300 is just stronger, it's titanium framelock vs. thin linerlock. Also, the ZT's S30V should preform better than emersons 154CM. If the wave is something you definitely want you can try to modify the 0300 like a few of us have or send it to FTWCM to cut the wave.
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IMO Emerson is a genius tactical knife designer. But IMO it seems like you paying for the ergo and the fact that the blade is an original emerson wave.

The ZT's S30V do perform better
 
brandonc said:
The wave feature is really all the emerson has going for it, and this advantage is lost if carried outside the pocket. The ZT 0300 is just stronger, it's titanium framelock vs. thin linerlock. Also, the ZT's S30V should preform better than emersons 154CM. If the wave is something you definitely want you can try to modify the 0300 like a few of us have or send it to FTWCM to cut the wave.
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A framelock is strong as hell, but a titanium liner lock is nothing to shy at. Especially in the concept of a tactical knife, and you also have to remember that a typical emerson is going to be $60-70 less than the ZT. ZT and kershaw only run S30v to the same hardness as emerson 154 too, so it's probably not going to perform leaps and bounds over it.
 
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I'll wave mod pretty much anything possible.
 
Thank you everyone for the help. I'm going to go with a zt 301st, found one for $175. Hard to say no to that haha
 
Send it to me and I can square it away.
 
For my duty knife i chose the ZT over the emerson. For me i just felt like i was getting more for my money going with the ZT.
 
Tsujigiri said:
The operation is very smooth with the thumbstuds or flipper, so it shouldn't be a problem to get it out fast. Yes, the wave will open your knife faster out of the pocket, but it will also tear up your pants, so you won't want to do that a lot.
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The 0200 can be waved with zero modification and proper technique. Just pull downward and/or away from the edge of the pocket and the thumb ramp/thumb studs will catch on the pocket edge, thereby opening the blade very quickly. I think the 0200 is the best way to go and it also happens to save about $60 compared to the other two options.
 
I would go with a ZT product for sure, but I'm a huge Kershaw fanboy. I have never handled an Emerson, so this may be attributed to my ignorance, but why are Emerson's always assumed to be tougher than any other liner lock folder? Their pivots are a pretty standard size, their blades are not super beefy (.125 thickness like every Spyderco), and their liners are not massive either. On paper, they don't seem stronger than any other liner lock, and that combined with their F&F issues makes their claim of supreme toughness to seem dubious at best.
 
Being a cop, thought you would have known, fastest deployment, get a fixed blade like a Ka Bar TDI. Carry on your weak side.
 
Have a buddy who is a cop in the Dallas area and his edc is an esee 3 and he refuses to carry a folder. He says if he needs a knife he needs it right now and needs to be able to do anything and everything with it. As much as I think ZT folders can take a esee 3 can take it all and more.
 
The ZT is overall a higher quality knife, in my opinion. If you are concerned about weight, go with the ZT 560.

I love the ZT line. Great knives.

I've had two Emersons: sold one and returned the other. I felt they were way overpriced for the quality of the knife vs. how much I'd paid for it. I don't think they are terrible knives by any means; but I do feel their price points, and I'm talking at retail, are 40-60% higher than they ought to be for what the materials are, the fit and finish, the overall knife, etc.

You're paying for the Emerson name, in most cases, or so it seems to me to be the case.
 
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