Hi all,
First review, please take it easy on me.
I got my 2012 Emerson CQC-7 four years ago. In those four years, I've put it through hell and back, and it survived.
The CQC-7 I have is the CQC-7b, with the tanto chisel grind and wave opener. I've used it for things most people would cringe at. I've hammered it into thick hard plastic. I've hammered the edge to break the head off a screw. I've slammed the tip into ice and concrete clearing a frozen step. I've pried open paint cans, stuck doors, and pieces of wood to break them in half. Used it to plane the top of a door that wouldn't fit into the frame. Used it as a screwdriver, a scraping tool, you name it, I've done it all.
Why would I use a knife for these tasks? Easy. It's all I was carrying at the time. I'm wiser now, I carry a multi-tool (more on this later), but the knife is (generally) tough as hell. The tip only broke once when I used it as an icepick against frozen ice and concrete (I reprofiled it with my dremel in 10 min, so not a problem at all), and the only problem really with using it hard is the edge chips easily even when opening a can. I've opened cans with some Ganzos and the edge rolled over, it didn't chip. The heat treat might be too hard on this knife even though Emerson says he lowers the heat treat, so maybe it's a 154 steel characteristic but I don't know so I won't make a judgement on that.
After these 4 years of abuse, the liner lock is almost to the end (only 80%, surprisingly, after getting a beatdown for years) but it has NEVER failed on me and has been a breeze to maintain with the flathead/phillips screws and simple mechanism of the liner lock. The chisel grind is dead easy to sharpen, sharpen the bevel till you raise a burr and knock it off on the chisel side. That's it. So when it chips it's easy to reprofile, at least.
Three major cons, though:
1) The chisel grind. Love sharpening it, hate using it. Yes, it veers to one side but that's the least of the problem. The blade cuts like SHIT. Even when moderately sharp it struggles. You end up with a lot of wrist and hand pain after a while struggling to get it in to simple materials like paracord and cable cause it's so thick. My Douk-Douk cuts paracord even when dull as it;s so thin and the ergos aren't even half as good as the CQC-7. It's just the enormous pressure you have to use.
2) It's heavy. At 5 ounces, I'll rather carry a mid-sized multi-tool instead. Lots of multitools exist that have blades and flatheads I can use for prying.
3) I hate the wave. It's not 100% reliable and sometimes no matter how much you think you got it this time the knife ends up half open. It's very hit and miss. And yes, I've been waving it daily for 4 years. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. With loose, open pockets and loose pivots the odds are up there. In jeans with standard pockets, not really. I would rather have gotten the non-wave version but at least I got to test it out.
Carrying a multi-tool is going to be the better option for most people. A good multitool from Leatherman costs less than a new CQC-7 and can take the same if not more abuse. My leatherman sidekick I got for $35 has also been through hell and back. And if you feel you have no use for a multi-tool, and want to carry a folding knife, the RAT-1 is a better, cheaper option that can be worked just as hard (trust me, I abuse the hell out of everything I own).
Still, for what it is, it performed the job admirably, an I have to admit the knife has a lot of soul!
Thanks guys.
First review, please take it easy on me.
I got my 2012 Emerson CQC-7 four years ago. In those four years, I've put it through hell and back, and it survived.
The CQC-7 I have is the CQC-7b, with the tanto chisel grind and wave opener. I've used it for things most people would cringe at. I've hammered it into thick hard plastic. I've hammered the edge to break the head off a screw. I've slammed the tip into ice and concrete clearing a frozen step. I've pried open paint cans, stuck doors, and pieces of wood to break them in half. Used it to plane the top of a door that wouldn't fit into the frame. Used it as a screwdriver, a scraping tool, you name it, I've done it all.
Why would I use a knife for these tasks? Easy. It's all I was carrying at the time. I'm wiser now, I carry a multi-tool (more on this later), but the knife is (generally) tough as hell. The tip only broke once when I used it as an icepick against frozen ice and concrete (I reprofiled it with my dremel in 10 min, so not a problem at all), and the only problem really with using it hard is the edge chips easily even when opening a can. I've opened cans with some Ganzos and the edge rolled over, it didn't chip. The heat treat might be too hard on this knife even though Emerson says he lowers the heat treat, so maybe it's a 154 steel characteristic but I don't know so I won't make a judgement on that.
After these 4 years of abuse, the liner lock is almost to the end (only 80%, surprisingly, after getting a beatdown for years) but it has NEVER failed on me and has been a breeze to maintain with the flathead/phillips screws and simple mechanism of the liner lock. The chisel grind is dead easy to sharpen, sharpen the bevel till you raise a burr and knock it off on the chisel side. That's it. So when it chips it's easy to reprofile, at least.
Three major cons, though:
1) The chisel grind. Love sharpening it, hate using it. Yes, it veers to one side but that's the least of the problem. The blade cuts like SHIT. Even when moderately sharp it struggles. You end up with a lot of wrist and hand pain after a while struggling to get it in to simple materials like paracord and cable cause it's so thick. My Douk-Douk cuts paracord even when dull as it;s so thin and the ergos aren't even half as good as the CQC-7. It's just the enormous pressure you have to use.
2) It's heavy. At 5 ounces, I'll rather carry a mid-sized multi-tool instead. Lots of multitools exist that have blades and flatheads I can use for prying.
3) I hate the wave. It's not 100% reliable and sometimes no matter how much you think you got it this time the knife ends up half open. It's very hit and miss. And yes, I've been waving it daily for 4 years. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. With loose, open pockets and loose pivots the odds are up there. In jeans with standard pockets, not really. I would rather have gotten the non-wave version but at least I got to test it out.
Carrying a multi-tool is going to be the better option for most people. A good multitool from Leatherman costs less than a new CQC-7 and can take the same if not more abuse. My leatherman sidekick I got for $35 has also been through hell and back. And if you feel you have no use for a multi-tool, and want to carry a folding knife, the RAT-1 is a better, cheaper option that can be worked just as hard (trust me, I abuse the hell out of everything I own).
Still, for what it is, it performed the job admirably, an I have to admit the knife has a lot of soul!
Thanks guys.
