Emerson Sheepdog

ron finkbeiner jr said:
Sir, just a suggestion but, have you considered having it customized? Nathawut Customized on Facebook can do some crazy cool stuff and give you a tank of a bolster framelock. He's not cheap and there's a bit of a wait but, from what I've seen he is one of the best I've seen.
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Good to know that there is someone out there we can go to for custom work.

But you would customize a knife that doesn't work properly? That sounds like another gamble. And, really, how much $$ is he supposed to spend to make a production knife work as it should?
 
In regards to Rivers' Edge: Great folks indeed. Yes, I'm talking about the store in Hilliard, OH. I live up north near Findlay, but get down to Columbus for business reasons often enough and like to stop in when I do.

Regarding the Emerson: I'm once bitten, 4 times shy on this one.

I know they have a die-hard fan base, and plenty of people swear by them.

Similarly, I read plenty of comments from people that are supremely frustrated with them. I find myself in the Frustrated-to-the-point-of-Avoidance camp.

I had a custom scale maker lined up to make some scales for the Sheepdog. I was really in love with this knife once the lock stick subsided, but before it wore all the way out. When I cancelled my place in line with the scale maker, and explained the situation, he said (paraphrasing): "I basically had the same thing happen to a Roadhouse. Twice. Had to send it in back-to-back. I'd return it if I was you."

(which is exactly what I'm going to do when I can get back down to Hilliard)

Now. All of that said.

I really think Emerson has got a what-should-be-TREMENDOUS knife in this Sheepdog. Heck, I'd venture to say it COULD be the best production flipper on the market.

COULD.

If they'd ditch the hype and marketing BS and produce this knife with milled stainless steel liners - with everything else being the same - I'll buy it. But going with a Ti frame and lock with no inserts or anything is an inexcuseably fatal flaw from a company marketing themselves as "The best hard use knives in the world" (or whatever that line is in the headers here or on their website.)

The Ti is a terrible choice. Terrible.

I'll *never* purchase another Emerson unless it has stainless liners. And I can't believe anyone else in their right mind would either.

Hopefully, Emerson will listen to some constructive feedback and not blow it off like I got a lemon or some malarky that they'd gladly repair.

I DON'T WANT A FRAME AND LOCKUP REPAIR ON A $225 KNIFE AFTER 2 DAYS OF OWNERSHIP. That's indicative of a tremendously substantial and fatal design FLAW.

Maybe they'll release the design to Zero Tolerance, who would undoubtedly make it correctly. I'd buy that. But never, never, never again will I buy an Emerson - unless it has stainless liners/lock or stainless inserts on the lock.

Never again.
 
^ I don't know what happened with your knife and I would be disappointed too to say the least. However, to say Titanium is a poor choice for a lockbar will come as quite a surprise to the vast majority of midtech's as well as Strider, CRK, Hinderer, etc.
 
Those midtechs are primarily using more robust framelocks that have at least been carbidized (at least with Hinderer, and I think CRK. Not sure about Strider - but I've seen a number of videos and read a lot of angry rants about worn out Striders, lock rock, trying to fix them, etc) But that's not really the point - Emerson is marketed as a "hard use" knife. This design, with a thin Ti lockbar is not robust. At all.

On this knife, I'm convinced that the choice of Ti for the frame and lock is almost entirely the problem.

I consider some other knives I have with stainless liner locks that are perfectly fine. I could rattle off a long list. None of them had lock stick, none of them show any wear to note, and they all perform flawlessly. Some of them cost less than half of what I paid for the Sheepdog.

Mind you: The only real use the sheepdog had was opening and closing it a bunch.

*shrugs*
 
OmarShablotnik said:
I really think Emerson has got a what-should-be-TREMENDOUS knife in this Sheepdog. Heck, I'd venture to say it COULD be the best production flipper on the market.

COULD.

If they'd ditch the hype and marketing BS and produce this knife with milled stainless steel liners - with everything else being the same - I'll buy it. But going with a Ti frame and lock with no inserts or anything is an inexcuseably fatal flaw from a company marketing themselves as "The best hard use knives in the world" (or whatever that line is in the headers here or on their website.)

The Ti is a terrible choice. Terrible.

I'll *never* purchase another Emerson unless it has stainless liners. And I can't believe anyone else in their right mind would either.

Hopefully, Emerson will listen to some constructive feedback and not blow it off like I got a lemon or some malarky that they'd gladly repair.

I DON'T WANT A FRAME AND LOCKUP REPAIR ON A $225 KNIFE AFTER 2 DAYS OF OWNERSHIP. That's indicative of a tremendously substantial and fatal design FLAW.

Maybe they'll release the design to Zero Tolerance, who would undoubtedly make it correctly. I'd buy that. But never, never, never again will I buy an Emerson - unless it has stainless liners/lock or stainless inserts on the lock.

Never again.
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It's a 200 dollar knife, darn skippy I'm looking for titanium. The strength is superior to steel, and Emerson has used it fine for many many years. The insert is not necessary on the Emerson lock, they will replace it free down the road at any time, which is more than other manufacturers will do. There are plenty of great designed Titanium locks with no insert, Spyderco Southard for example, and IT'S NOT EVEN CARBIDIZED! :) So it's not a fatal flaw, if it was Emerson would be out of business.


No one is saying send back to Emerson, go ahead and send back to where you bought and they will take care of you. I have had to send a knife here and there back because of different problems, I've always ended up with one that works. It's frustrating because you spend your hard earned money, but it happens.

ZT has their own problems, look up some of the recent ones, plenty of good reading there.
 
Ok. Not looking to start arguments or anything. Just stating where I am with it and my opinion.

I do wish for everyone who is having positive experiences with their Emersons and Ti framelocks of any brand to enjoy the use of their knives for many years and in good health.
 
OmarShablotnik said:
Ok. Not looking to start arguments or anything. Just stating where I am with it and my opinion.

I do wish for everyone who is having positive experiences with their Emersons and Ti framelocks of any brand to enjoy the use of their knives for many years and in good health.
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I hear you Brother, no argument here, I'd be pissed also, it sucks to get a dud
 
You can make titanium liner locks that don't suffer from stickiness or early wear and provide solid lockup. For example, Fantoni HB01-HB02, Olamic Wayfarer and Spyderco Rubicon.
 
They used SS liner material for a time, with the non locking side still Ti. The explanation was that Titanium was becoming too expensive.

The Ti liner lock has been around for 20+ years. It isn't new, but subjected to the opening force of a flipper, it may not be the best material for a liner lock design, and as the flipper craze progresses (the first Flipper I remember is CRKT's M16 which is almost a 15 year old design, but has SS liners), the liner lock may not be the optimum design to use with them.

Combine poor lock geometry, loose tolerances, and material issues, something is bound to give way.
 
dano said:
They used SS liner material for a time, with the non locking side still Ti. The explanation was that Titanium was becoming too expensive.

The Ti liner lock has been around for 20+ years. It isn't new, but subjected to the opening force of a flipper, it may not be the best material for a liner lock design, and as the flipper craze progresses (the first Flipper I remember is CRKT's M16 which is almost a 15 year old design, but has SS liners), the liner lock may not be the optimum design to use with them.

Combine poor lock geometry, loose tolerances, and material issues, something is bound to give way.
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I hear you, but at least the 2 Sheepdogs I played with have a smooth, and easy opening when using the flipper. The wave causes much more pressure on the lock then the flipper in use.

I do agree there are better locks out there to use, but I'm in the minority and also like the Benchmade 300sn with the Axis lock. :)

Or better yet the Buck Marksman with the Strong Lock.
 
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I'm bummed to hear about these set of problems. I stopped by the Emerson booth at Blade and played around with a few knives, but unfortunately, it was not until after Blade that I found out about the Sheepdog. I have two Emerson-designed Kershaws that are my hacking knives, and I love the way they deploy upon removing from my pocket. I had this knife on a list of possible candidates, but I'm having second thoughts now. Since this is still a fairly new knife, maybe Emerson will look into and fix the problem? I'd love to have this knife, but would be highly displeased if I dropped 2+ bills on a knife, only for it to be a sharp paperweight.
 
Yeah, it is unfortunate that a few have gone out the door and developed issues. I have one that was decent. I also know a few other folks have have purchased them without issues. So far IIRC, it's been only 4 cases with issues given how many they have sold. Not that bad in my opinion as I have seen worst from other companies (though not pocketknife related) products but as a 1st year run type of thing. I feel EKI needs to make their lock geometry a little bit more consistently on the blade.
 
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My sheepdog spear point has also been super sticky...the tip of my thumb is pretty worn out..sometimes takes two hands and quite a bit of force to unstick it..
the lock used to be early, now it's at more than 60% after lots of flips over hte past 2 weeks...still stickier than ever

I used to be against the whole idea of Emerson knives..then I tried them just to realize my initial prejudice was right on...
 
does anyone have any inside info on when these might be available for sale again?
They have been delayed from the manufacturer for quite some time now.
 
Last guy I spoke with that got one ordered straight from Emerson, it's a bit more, but they have them.
 
Leon. said:
My sheepdog spear point has also been super sticky...the tip of my thumb is pretty worn out..sometimes takes two hands and quite a bit of force to unstick it..
the lock used to be early, now it's at more than 60% after lots of flips over hte past 2 weeks...still stickier than ever

I used to be against the whole idea of Emerson knives..then I tried them just to realize my initial prejudice was right on...
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Leon, I've owned a number of new Emersons over the years and, admittedly, had two folders that acted like yours. It was frustrating.

The good news is that each time -- I contacted EKI and they fixed each knife to perfection. And it didn't cost me a penny, not even in shipping.

Again, I understand your frustration. I'd simply encourage you to let EKI demonstrate their customer service to you, and allow them to tweak your Sheepdog to perfection.
 
Leon. said:
My sheepdog spear point has also been super sticky...the tip of my thumb is pretty worn out..sometimes takes two hands and quite a bit of force to unstick it..
the lock used to be early, now it's at more than 60% after lots of flips over hte past 2 weeks...still stickier than ever

I used to be against the whole idea of Emerson knives..then I tried them just to realize my initial prejudice was right on...
Click to expand...

Indiana Joe said:
Leon, I've owned a number of new Emersons over the years and, admittedly, had two folders that acted like yours. It was frustrating.

The good news is that each time -- I contacted EKI and they fixed each knife to perfection. And it didn't cost me a penny, not even in shipping.

Again, I understand your frustration. I'd simply encourage you to let EKI demonstrate their customer service to you, and allow them to tweak your Sheepdog to perfection.
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Thanks for your advice Indiana Joe.
Not sure if you noticed, but that post was from back in June..I ended up sending it in like you also suggested. It took a while but it came back much much better! Excellent communication and customer service. Great thanks to Ernesto to be specific!

So anyway my Sheepdog came back with the lock-stick pretty much completely gone..with an added bonus of a letter from Mr. Emerson himself saying that he personally inspected the knife and approves that it's good to go!

Top notch experience overall...Total opposite of my experience with Strider's customer service..
 
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