- Joined
- Feb 17, 2002
- Messages
- 182
my emerson la griffe arrived in the mail on saturday, i know its wednesday but ive been playing with it and experimenting with different wraps. i got my LG for $50 shipped from ssknives, his email is ssknives@swbell.net, btw he's got a really good price on spyderco plain edged massad ayoobs, if your interested.
its smaller than i thought it would be, all the pictures i saw gave me the impression that it was larger, maybe because im used to larger knives. (i own a MT L-UDT, MT option, Spyderco Massad Ayoob folder, mirror polished Spydercard, and a BM42). don't get me wrong thogh, its the perfect blade for its purpose, as my last ditch holdout knife. lets face it this knife could be used to stab maybe, but not very effectively, i'll use my spyderco ayoob for that.
i wrapped the handle much like K.C. Collucci did,(great guy to deal with btw, i'll post something in GB&U later) but in OD green 550 paracord from the local military surplus store, instead of red. i even matched the paracord-chain. i did some cut tests with a beater la griffe i purchased from K.C. Collucci because i didn't want to mess up the tip of my good one, i can't believe how hard it is to sharpen this tiny hawkbill blade, or the fact that EKi charges $15 for sharpening with return shipping. on a couple of old car magazines i had laying around i made some crude swinging forward slashes, the knife tip and 1/4 of the front of the blade penetrated and sliced cleanly about 3/8 inch in from the cover, about 75 pages. and this is the dull la griffe, im sure the factory sharp la griffe cuts much better. theres no doubt in my mind about how effective the la griffe would be against a person.
the cord wrapped handle is much more comfortable and hand filling than the la griffe that comes from emerson. the cord doesn't make the knife more noticeable like i thought it would. i added a length of flattened paracord with knots for grip like don rearic did on his site (www.drearic.com)
OH YAH, i almost forgot, here's the best part. emerson now sells the la griffe with a new sheath design than that pos, folded, one eyelet, hamfisted, .090 kydex sheath it used to offer. the new sheath is a 2 piece design looks like .60 kydex/concealex on top, and the thicker .90 kydex/concealex on the bottom. the top piece is heat treated and molded to the knife, and the bottom piece is flat and unshaped. the new sheath is assymmetrical for easy blind orientation and this is the good part, THE LOCK UP ON THE NEW SHEATHS IS PERFECT, NO MORE RATTLING. asthetically the sheath looks 100% better compared to the old one. if youlook carefully you can tell the sheath was molded with the WWR, white water rescue model because you can see the serrations through the top piece of kydex. the sheath applies pressure to the front part of the index finger hole to keep the knife in, instead of rubbing along the left side of the blade where the emerson logo is, like the old sheaths do, the newer sheath rubs on the right side where it has mr. perrin's name.
i think emerson is asking for $18 for the new one which is well worth it. or you could go to ssknives and buy one a whole new la griffe from him, you figure $18 for a new sheath, and $15 for a sharpening job, at $33 already might as well just buy a new la griffe for that much.
if you want to see a picture of the new sheath, its up at bladeart.com under the emerson production knives.
along with my polished spydercard (so so not to scare anyone, people actually are more afraid of the MT option, wierd) the la griffe is in regular rotation as my EDC.
its smaller than i thought it would be, all the pictures i saw gave me the impression that it was larger, maybe because im used to larger knives. (i own a MT L-UDT, MT option, Spyderco Massad Ayoob folder, mirror polished Spydercard, and a BM42). don't get me wrong thogh, its the perfect blade for its purpose, as my last ditch holdout knife. lets face it this knife could be used to stab maybe, but not very effectively, i'll use my spyderco ayoob for that.
i wrapped the handle much like K.C. Collucci did,(great guy to deal with btw, i'll post something in GB&U later) but in OD green 550 paracord from the local military surplus store, instead of red. i even matched the paracord-chain. i did some cut tests with a beater la griffe i purchased from K.C. Collucci because i didn't want to mess up the tip of my good one, i can't believe how hard it is to sharpen this tiny hawkbill blade, or the fact that EKi charges $15 for sharpening with return shipping. on a couple of old car magazines i had laying around i made some crude swinging forward slashes, the knife tip and 1/4 of the front of the blade penetrated and sliced cleanly about 3/8 inch in from the cover, about 75 pages. and this is the dull la griffe, im sure the factory sharp la griffe cuts much better. theres no doubt in my mind about how effective the la griffe would be against a person.
the cord wrapped handle is much more comfortable and hand filling than the la griffe that comes from emerson. the cord doesn't make the knife more noticeable like i thought it would. i added a length of flattened paracord with knots for grip like don rearic did on his site (www.drearic.com)
OH YAH, i almost forgot, here's the best part. emerson now sells the la griffe with a new sheath design than that pos, folded, one eyelet, hamfisted, .090 kydex sheath it used to offer. the new sheath is a 2 piece design looks like .60 kydex/concealex on top, and the thicker .90 kydex/concealex on the bottom. the top piece is heat treated and molded to the knife, and the bottom piece is flat and unshaped. the new sheath is assymmetrical for easy blind orientation and this is the good part, THE LOCK UP ON THE NEW SHEATHS IS PERFECT, NO MORE RATTLING. asthetically the sheath looks 100% better compared to the old one. if youlook carefully you can tell the sheath was molded with the WWR, white water rescue model because you can see the serrations through the top piece of kydex. the sheath applies pressure to the front part of the index finger hole to keep the knife in, instead of rubbing along the left side of the blade where the emerson logo is, like the old sheaths do, the newer sheath rubs on the right side where it has mr. perrin's name.
i think emerson is asking for $18 for the new one which is well worth it. or you could go to ssknives and buy one a whole new la griffe from him, you figure $18 for a new sheath, and $15 for a sharpening job, at $33 already might as well just buy a new la griffe for that much.
if you want to see a picture of the new sheath, its up at bladeart.com under the emerson production knives.
along with my polished spydercard (so so not to scare anyone, people actually are more afraid of the MT option, wierd) the la griffe is in regular rotation as my EDC.
