How are Emerson Knives

[Mike-Mike]

I just don't get why all the bashing. The knife works and works well and yes the g10 overlaps the liner by 1/64 of an inch. Big deal. If you don't like it, don't buy one. But this thread was about someone who was asking about Emerson.

Here is your answer.

They are good knives that don't have the most perfect F&F they work well they are pricey.

 

[HuntBomb]

No other opinions necessary...lord Mike-Mike has spoken. ha

 

[Tostig]

My take on Emerson knives.... ?

My take on My Emerson Knives.

I own three.
An old 2001 SARK , a newer CQC7 and a customized Mini CQC7.
The SARK is from 2001 as stated , it has rough grind marks on the outside of the frame , the Ti liner is very thin , thinner than what I would consider comfortable to trust a linerlock. After testing my teast on linerlocks to make sure - in my mind- that the lock wont bend and fail , I feel confiedent that the lock will hold. Although bought used the linerlock is @ %50 , plenty of life left.
I ground off the round puncture proof deal on the tip to make it a wicked Hawkbill but have come to find it is not suitable for daily or semi-daily use as an EDC knife because a Chisel ground , semi-serrated Hawkbill is a total PITA to sharpen. The handle ergos are wonderful, the Wave , wonderful. Blade coating and overall fit are
perfect so aside from rough machining on the liners, it is on good shape.
All in all a great knife to carry in your truck emergency bag that would eat a seatbelt like an eel drinks water but not recommended for EDC - also , it would make a nasty defense to boot. Since I bought it used and at a bargain price , I have no complaints there.


CQC7 - 2011
Great backup knife for self defense. After carrying it solely for a few months as an EDC it will perform chores I need such as scraping wire, cutting boxes , cutting comm cable , zip ties ( thick ones ) , cleaning various parts by scraping with tanto edge , to name a few. However for extended use in those types of chores I recommend something a little less self defense oriented than the CQC7 - while it did perform those chores well , other knives may be better suited. Fit and Finish was excellent , pivot was perfect and Wave functioned perfectly.
My biggest concern with this knife was how fast the locking liner traveld from %90 to %55-%50. I know Ti wears faster than steel , especially thinner Ti but it seemd to travel a little too fast to that point. I have read though that if it does travel that far it will remain there for quite some time.
Very solid knife with great ergomomics , if nothing else Mr. Emerson knows how to make a very , very comfortable handle.
I bought this new. It was pretty expensive IMO for what it is.. Worth the cost ? Sure , why not. I've spent more on knives that I wound up hating , the CQC7 is a keeper.

Customized mini CQC7.
notice I said customized , not custom.
I bought this second hand and in mint shape. Phillip Dobson did the work in paper micarta and carbon fiber. This is my first experience with paper micarta and let me say it is a crappy choice for handle material , it is brittle as can be , but it does look very handsome. The customization process is Mr. dobson , I did the rest of the work which I will post soon enough in the Customized blades thread.
The Mini is a great little knife , I would love to have a stock version , non serrated and non coated. The blade is short ! and since this is in pristine pimped shape it has not been used other than to admire and fiddle with while I watch boring chick flicks with my fiance. (thank God for pocket knives ).
It is a small yet comfortable knife that like it's big brother is more suited to self defense than EDC chores , although in a pinch it would surely work.

Overall my experience with EKI has been great. I would say tha their knives are not for everyone. Picky folks need not apply. Folks looking for office carry/slacks knives , need not apply. Folks looking for a knife to carve a sailboat or peel an apple for the grandkids... need not apply.
If you are looking for a killer little backup blade , most of which are in one of my favorite steels 154CM then EKI is a good place to look. Bear in mind they can be hard on the wallet but unlike some knives these -if left in mint - can often fetch a decent resale price if you find it's not your cup of tea.

Like it or not Emerson knives are hot ! And very much in high demand. Love them or hate them EKI is not going anywhere and is a very potent force in the knife world.


Tostig

 

[RandomAyes]

That burn is unacceptable to me. It's right in the lockup area.

At best it's a cosmetic fail. At worst it's a softened zone that'll wear quicker. It's a fail either way. Sorry to bust chops.

 

[Jester60]

That burn is unacceptable to me. It's right in the lockup area.

At best it's a cosmetic fail. At worst it's a softened zone that'll wear quicker. It's a fail either way. Sorry to bust chops.

How many Emersons do you own, Random? And if none, how many do you plan to buy in the future?? And if the answer to both questions is none, congratulations!! Never buying an Emerson insures you are 100% guaranteed to get a knife with 0% defects from a company with 100% customer service. (Of course it's 100% customer service, company 'XYZ' only makes and sells perfect knives, hell, they don't even need a customer service dept.) That's right, RIGHT??

At best it's a cosmetic fail, and if you just can't live with a knife with a cosmetic flaw then don't buy an Emerson. At worst it's a softened zone that'll wear quicker, and without sending it out to an independent lab you have absolutely no idea how much, if any damage to the steel there is. Thank God it's not even your knife your worried about.

PS,

Let me know what company is that makes those perfect knives cause I'm gonna sell all my Emersons and buy all my knives from them in the future too.

 

[sh00ter01]

...The other knives you mentioned are no doubt great blades but yes they are missing the wave...

Your ignorance is again showing. The thumb plate acts a wave, all the knives he listed will wave open just like an Emerson.


As for my opinion of them, I can get better steel and construction for less money elsewhere, so unless they drop the price considerably, I wont be purchasing anytime soon.

-sh00ter

 

[mblackfu]

In MY OPINION, they are over priced . I own the sark and the cqc7 and love them, but wouldnt buy another for the price they are listed for.

 

[6leafdom]

This works for Glocks, not Emersons.
Listen up:
-rough edged liners do NOTHING to enhance (or hinder) function.
-there is no "gap" around the pivot of an Emerson knife. Some people leave their pivot loose, but all that does is create blade play AND let in dirt and sand, which hinders function. Keeping the pivot tight is correct on folding knives.

if u look closely, emerson knives have thicker washers than other knives (ie spyderco, crk), so when the pivot is fully tighten, that leaves a wider gap between blade and the liners. and that gap allows sand and other crap to escape easily (just give a quick blow or hit) vs if this happens to a knife with very tight tolarence, the sand would get stuck between the blade and liner and start scratching the blade when you open it. try putting a spyderco and an emerson into sand and u'll know what i mean.

rough liners also decrease the surface area of the lock contacting the blade, therefore make it harder to disengage. and if sand and other stuff gets inbetween the blade and lock bar, it can still lock.

that's why ak47 can survive so many abuse (buried under mud and sand, submerge in water, getting driven over by tanks) and it still functions...because it has loose tolerance, simple parts, and rough finishes......unlike the ar15 it will not function even with a little sand inside the gun.

 

[RevDevil]

if u look closely, emerson knives have thicker washers than other knives (ie spyderco, crk), so when the pivot is fully tighten, that leaves a wider gap between blade and the liners. and that gap allows sand and other crap to escape easily (just give a quick blow or hit) vs if this happens to a knife with very tight tolarence, the sand would get stuck between the blade and liner and start scratching the blade when you open it. try putting a spyderco and an emerson into sand and u'll know what i mean.

rough liners also decrease the surface area of the lock contacting the blade, therefore make it harder to disengage. and if sand and other stuff gets inbetween the blade and lock bar, it can still lock.

^Whot?
So, the smaller the opening, the more sand enters? Rough liners decrease surface area? That is actually backwards. Think about it.

 

[sh00ter01]

if u look closely, emerson knives have thicker washers than other knives (ie spyderco, crk), so when the pivot is fully tighten, that leaves a wider gap between blade and the liners. and that gap allows sand and other crap to escape easily (just give a quick blow or hit) vs if this happens to a knife with very tight tolarence, the sand would get stuck between the blade and liner and start scratching the blade when you open it. try putting a spyderco and an emerson into sand and u'll know what i mean.

rough liners also decrease the surface area of the lock contacting the blade, therefore make it harder to disengage. and if sand and other stuff gets inbetween the blade and lock bar, it can still lock.

Umm... WHAT?!?

So, you're saying that Emerson purposely grinds their liners rough to LIMIT contact between the lock bar and blade I'm just trying to understand you here?

And as far as tolerances being looser for more reliability, come on, it's a knife, not a firearm.

-sh00ter

that's why ak47 can survive so many abuse (buried under mud and sand, submerge in water, getting driven over by tanks) and it still functions...because it has loose tolerance, simple parts, and rough finishes......unlike the ar15 it will not function even with a little sand inside the gun.

Just a quick question, how much firearms experience do you have?

 

[kawr]

if u look closely, emerson knives have thicker washers than other knives (ie spyderco, crk), so when the pivot is fully tighten, that leaves a wider gap between blade and the liners. and that gap allows sand and other crap to escape easily (just give a quick blow or hit) vs if this happens to a knife with very tight tolarence, the sand would get stuck between the blade and liner and start scratching the blade when you open it. try putting a spyderco and an emerson into sand and u'll know what i mean.

rough liners also decrease the surface area of the lock contacting the blade, therefore make it harder to disengage. and if sand and other stuff gets inbetween the blade and lock bar, it can still lock.

that's why ak47 can survive so many abuse (buried under mud and sand, submerge in water, getting driven over by tanks) and it still functions...because it has loose tolerance, simple parts, and rough finishes......unlike the ar15 it will not function even with a little sand inside the gun.

If theres a bigger gap, that just lets in even bigger particles to jack up your pivot... Its simple parts and good engineering, not terrible tolerances, that makes something function under abuse.

 

[Jester60]

In MY OPINION, they are over priced . I own the sark and the cqc7 and love them, but wouldnt buy another for the price they are listed for.

That's what I'm talking about!! Someone who has tried them and for whatever ACTUAL reason, doesn't want to buy them anymore.

No matter what your feelings towards Emerson knives, the facts are that they sell and they sell at a price that the market will bear. It's economics. If there weren't enough people out there who thought that they WERE worth the price, they wouldn't sell and the price would drop. Go on the For Sale forum and put a standard (not a custom job, just a regular, off the line) ZT0200 up for sale and list it at $300 and see how fast it sells. (I'm not picking on ZT, I think my next purchase will be the 0200 or the 0300).

If you don't think they are worth it, don't buy it. Like I said go get that new knife from The Perfect Knife Co. You know the one with the Super XYZ steel and the Ti screws in the side with the frame lock that will support 15 train cars without failing. Take it home, but it in a clear plexiglass case with an alarm monitored 24/7/365 and invite all your friends over to show them the one and only Perfect Knife ever made. I think the two of you will be very happy.

Me, I'll be happy with my crappy old, $100 beater CQC-13 that rattles a bit when I shake the hell out of it. Well, the 13, and the 11 and the Commander, and the Super Commander.

For all the detractors of Emersons in this thread, I'd love to know what YOUR favorite knife is, you know, the one that's never had QC or Cust. Service issues.

 

[Jester60]

Here we go ... AK vs AR. Many CURRENT ARs can withstand much if not all of the same treatment that an AK can, but I think that anyone with any knowledge will have to admit that it's taken the AR platform much longer to get to that level of reliability. The failures in the field in Nam due to dirty weapons was pretty well documented and it's only been recently with the introduction of the piston driven system that the AR is really making big strides in reliability.

This is an Emerson bashfest, lets not change the subject, ok

 

[Heiheit]

That's what I'm talking about!! Someone who has tried them and for whatever ACTUAL reason, doesn't want to buy them anymore.

No matter what your feelings towards Emerson knives, the facts are that they sell and they sell at a price that the market will bear. It's economics. If there weren't enough people out there who thought that they WERE worth the price, they wouldn't sell and the price would drop. Go on the For Sale forum and put a standard (not a custom job, just a regular, off the line) ZT0200 up for sale and list it at $300 and see how fast it sells. (I'm not picking on ZT, I think my next purchase will be the 0200 or the 0300).

If you don't think they are worth it, don't buy it. Like I said go get that new knife from The Perfect Knife Co. You know the one with the Super XYZ steel and the Ti screws in the side with the frame lock that will support 15 train cars without failing. Take it home, but it in a clear plexiglass case with an alarm monitored 24/7/365 and invite all your friends over to show them the one and only Perfect Knife ever made. I think the two of you will be very happy.

Me, I'll be happy with my crappy old, $100 beater CQC-13 that rattles a bit when I shake the hell out of it. Well, the 13, and the 11 and the Commander, and the Super Commander.

For all the detractors of Emersons in this thread, I'd love to know what YOUR favorite knife is, you know, the one that's never had QC or Cust. Service issues.

Hey!! What about my post??

I'll tl;dr it for you. Owned an emerson; Pros: super comfortable, sharp, nice blade shape, looks sick, easy to disassemble. Cons: terrible lockup after a day, expensive (i traded for it though), rough F&F, soft steel (low rc), and of course black t coating.

I've played with probably ten other Emersons; some were like mine, others weren't.

Overall, for the price I don't like them. Maybe if they were $50 or even more cheaper, their quality would match the price.

Again, I found the Cold Steel recon 1 to be a vastly superior knife to the cqc-13. It might not look as cool though.

Edit: I didn't say it rattles a little when I shook the hell out of it, I said it rattles like hell when I shake it a little. You silly person you.

 

[Buck_110]

The failures in the field in Nam due to dirty weapons was pretty well documented and it's only been recently with the introduction of the piston driven system that the AR is really making big strides in reliability.

Actually, the chambers rusted because they weren't chromed; which of course resulted in feeding and ejection problems.

This is an Emerson bashfest, lets not change the subject, ok

Grow up!!!

 

[Mike-Mike]

I was referring to the list of knives he posted in post #82. You stated "Again" Please point me to when I showed my ignorance the first time?

Your ignorance is again showing. The thumb plate acts a wave, all the knives he listed will wave open just like an Emerson.


As for my opinion of them, I can get better steel and construction for less money elsewhere, so unless they drop the price considerably, I wont be purchasing anytime soon.

-sh00ter

 

[Noctis3880]

That's what I'm talking about!! Someone who has tried them and for whatever ACTUAL reason, doesn't want to buy them anymore.

No matter what your feelings towards Emerson knives, the facts are that they sell and they sell at a price that the market will bear. It's economics. If there weren't enough people out there who thought that they WERE worth the price, they wouldn't sell and the price would drop. Go on the For Sale forum and put a standard (not a custom job, just a regular, off the line) ZT0200 up for sale and list it at $300 and see how fast it sells. (I'm not picking on ZT, I think my next purchase will be the 0200 or the 0300).

If you don't think they are worth it, don't buy it. Like I said go get that new knife from The Perfect Knife Co. You know the one with the Super XYZ steel and the Ti screws in the side with the frame lock that will support 15 train cars without failing. Take it home, but it in a clear plexiglass case with an alarm monitored 24/7/365 and invite all your friends over to show them the one and only Perfect Knife ever made. I think the two of you will be very happy.

Me, I'll be happy with my crappy old, $100 beater CQC-13 that rattles a bit when I shake the hell out of it. Well, the 13, and the 11 and the Commander, and the Super Commander.

For all the detractors of Emersons in this thread, I'd love to know what YOUR favorite knife is, you know, the one that's never had QC or Cust. Service issues.

Uhh, what? I thought the 0200 was in the neighborhood of $140? Maybe $175 at suggested retail. The 030X seems to be $260. The suggested retail is about $325, which doesn't quite reach the suggested retail of the super karambit at $338.

And there were a stupid amount of YouTube videos showing owners hammering their ZT 030X through a metal bolt, with a hammer. Made me want to facepalm several times.

Though I certainly like that the Emerson knives feel great in hand and are light given their size, I find I don't have to fight off ninjas often and the cardboard I tend to cut will blunt that soft edge in seconds, so I opted for an Umnumzaan with Rc 58-59 and have yet to find anything wrong with the knife.

I'd like to think I didn't baby the thing in a clear plexiglass case:

To be honest though, I don't go out into desert warfare all that often, and my folders don't end up in the dirt, so I may not be qualified to speak on this matter. Though if I expected to be exposed to a lot of dirt in the foreseeable future, I think I might sidestep the possibility of mechanical failure entirely by spending $60 on a USMC Ka-Bar:thumbup:. I think it's been well accepted that fixed blades are less likely to fail, in strength, in simplicity, and in combat(use against another living being) than a folding knife.

 

[TEFL0N_D0N_81]

Thats not a bad one. Onlt took 18 hours for someone to come up with a knife that needed to be ghetto modified to fit the description I outlined. Oh and the Mantix never had a lock problem....lol

Wow, so paying $150 to $200 for an Emerson knife and then using pencil lead, sharpie and sandpaper to tweak it gets a pass on your radar, but a great quality knife at half it's price gets the "ghetto" label from you because of a cleverly used zip tie?

 

[Noctis3880]

Wow, so paying $150 to $200 for an Emerson knife and then using pencil lead, sharpie and sandpaper to tweak it gets a pass on your radar, but a better made Manix 2 with a stronger lock and better F&F is a ghetto rig because of a zip tie on it? At half it's price? That EKI Kool-aid you're drinking is definitely spiked.

Actually I had to do the pencil, sharpie, and polish(used Mother's Mag & Aluminum Polish) thing for my ZT 0551 as well. Not really that big of a hassle, and it's smooth as butter afterwards. I suspect Mike didn't need to spend as much time doing that given that my 0551 framelock is thick even among framelocks, whereas the Emerson liner is thinner than almost all framelocks(except perhaps my CRKT Eros). My only real complaint with the 0551 is that the blade is too damn thick, though that has more to do with me being personally incompatible with the design than a flaw of the knife itself.

And my complaint with my Manix 2 in CTS-XHP is that the lock is very difficult to disengage. Impossible with just the thumb, fairly stiff with thumb and pointer. It almost needs two hands to close. Kind of makes me wonder if I need to also "break in" that spring to loosen the thing up over time(though it might take a very long time).

Aside from my R.J. Martin Overkill, my Umnumzaan, my Para2, and my Phil Wilson custom fixed blade, few knives have ever come by to me where I could not complain about one thing or another. Though I might also give Benchmade points for the 806-111 Gold Class Torrent as well, as I believe it was their cheapest gold class knife, the liner was not sticky at all, doesn't seem to travel much given how hard that AO must slam the blade open, and could not find any fault in fit and finish. Only thing was, no jimping and the scales are fairly slippery.

 

[timberweasel]

I don't have any Emerson's (not really a 'tactical' kind of guy) but I've been curious about a few of their offerings: the Mini A100, the Gentleman Jim and maybe the CQC 10. Just wondering if there's much of a difference in build quality between models or are they all much the same?