Emerson or Benchmade

G

gerry0001

Joined
Oct 19, 2001
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1
I am considering the purchase of one of the following knives, what are your comments on them:
1. EMERSON SPECWAR B-BTS or EMERSON CQC 7B WAVE BTS
2. EMERSON COMMANDER BTS
3. BENCHMADE 942 SBT
4. BENCHMADE 722 SBT or BENCHMADE 910 HSSR
What are the general comments of these knives and which would you purchase if price was not a consideration and why?
Are their other knives of this style the you feel are superior in quality?
 
Both Emerson and Benchmade have become pretty controversial factory- knife makers, particularly because of quality control issues. However, half of the forumites here will rave about the Emersons, especially the Commanders, and the other half will rave about the BM Axis locks, especially the 710s.

Many do not care for liner locks, because they do not trust their reliability. Others will claim that liner lock simplicity is ideal for defense purposes.

I own a BM Axis 710HSSR and it is an awesome cutting tool. You cannot ask for a better, more practical, all-around utility knife. And it is rugged: it has thick liners, M2 steel, and of course the Axis mechanism.

The best liner lock I have is the Al Mar Sere 2000. The lock-up on mine is second to nothing, including my PC Balisong, and it is also an extremely rugged and nice looking knife.
 
i like the emerson designs, in fact i prefer them to benchmade's. Bunch emersons are overpriced and built, well less well, say what you will about benchmade's QC, but its better than emerson's.

The 940 series is awesome, the AFCK, has an incredible handle(although linners could be thicker) The 710 is the personification of a cutting tool, hard to beat at its price point.

as tantos go i like the 910 it feels good in the hand and is a decent medium sized knife, 722 is too small.

emerson has chisel grinds, remember this when buying,i personaly hate chisel grinds.
 
I have owned the 3 Benchmades you mentioned, and have sold all of them. I was initially taken by the 722, but found it not suiting my personal tastes. You might want to look at the Benchmade 730/735, I have owned just about every current production Benchmade, and aside from the AFCK series and balisongs, this is the only one I do/would carry. Don't get me wrong, the Benchmades you listed are nice knives, I just personally prefer the 730 model myself and got rid of the others due to personal preferance. I have been a big fan of Benchmade as long as I have been in knives, and have carried one or another with me almost every day for the last 5 years or so and have never experienced a failure with one.

Onto Emerson, I recieved a CQC7B waved a week or so ago and was initally very impressed, and so far still am. Well designed and well executed. I really, really like this knife:) I also just got an Emerson SOCFK, very nicely designed, feels great in the hand, but the action basically sucks. I am going to give a few more tries to loosen it up, and if that don't work, I'm afraid I'll have to send it in for some work:( Aside from the lack of smoothness, it is a nice little piece. I suggest you look into one of these, as it is quite similar to a Specwar, only with a wave:D I have no comment on the Commander, other than I dislike the blade shape on it.




As far as QC issues go:

Emerson--The SOCFK is the only problem I personally have experienced... simply a tight action. But I only have a little experience with Emerson, so take it for what you will. I did email them on a seperate concern of mine on a knife I would like to purchase, and they were very nice at answering questions and fairly quick about it for email, so I doubt that service will be a problem.

Benchmade--Never have had a problem from them. Maybe an edge is a bit thick for my liking, or something like that, but with my experience in working as a QC/QA inspector for a while on things that cost a lot more than a Benchmade, this doesn't bother me at all as it is quite easily fixed at home. I have dealt with their service department as well as a few other people in their company, and they are absolutely wonderful. Never had a worry when I sent a knife in to be looked at or worked on or whatever.

Reading that it appears that I didn't make much of a choice one way or the other, but I hope the information is at least a little helpful.
 
Gerry, welcome on the Forums!

I have about dozen of benchmades and no one quality problem with them though I use some of them (Nimravus fixed blade, AFCK and 710 folders) pretty hard.

I have played with practically all production emersons at numerous shows, so far I have no one and I'm not going to purchase. Here are the reasons:
  • I do not like their blade designs. The versions with geometrical blades (nothing common with traditional Japanese fighting knives!) are ground from one side, so-called chisel grind, additionally on the blade's improper (for right hander) side. If to cut anything with the chisel would be better than with the knife - all people would do it but they don't. Even the models with seemingly "normal" blades are sharpened from the single side what foils all their usefulness.
  • I do not like their "economical" thin liners.
  • I would never feel myself sure and safe with liner lock knife carried in tip-up position.
  • I don't like "wave" option. If I'll need to open my knife I'll do it. But if the knife pops open directly out of my pocket scarring people around and additionally tearing my pocket - it is something like the gun what shoots are you going to shoot or not.
  • I definitely do not like their prices. Taking into consideration my quite negative opinion on their designs I should be completely silly to pay for them more than for the knives what I do like much more.
  • Last but not least. I have heard so much complaints on their quality that I don't have any desire to try it by myself. Please don't get me wrong here. It' a lot of completely unjustified statements here in taste "XYZ knives sucks!" but they never were anything worth for me. Quite another thing is if someone brings up certain issue like self-falling-out screws or something like.
So I would go with benchmades - more knife for less money. Additionally you can choose innovative Axis Lock models, Mono-Lock one what Emerson Knives don't offer.

Even more, if you definitely prefer geometric blades ground from one side (I don't see any reasons for such preference but this is your business) - you can choose such ground 910 Stryker, but it is ground on the proper side.

Naturally all said is just my humble opinion...
 
[steps out of his emerson shrine]

If you buy a commander you will not be sorry! They are great.

[goes back in his emerson shrine to continue praying to the commander gods]
 
imho out of the ones ya mentioned , get a commander, if nothing else, cuz the wave.......


sifu
 
You'll never catch me buying another Emerson knife. I have a CQC-7 that has a broken tip. The knife was only 2 months old when the tip broke.

I was using the blade to field dress/skin a deer. During the course of the skinning, it hit a piece of the deer's bone and the tip broke. If it would break that easily on deer bone, I shutter at the thought of it breaking on human bone.

Thanks but no thanks! Between your two choices, definitely Benchmade.
 
Hey Son Tao, I'm curious, did you contact Emerson about breaking the tip? What was their response?
 
Those are all very different knives. Get the one with the design, features you want.
Get a knife, not a brand name.
 
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