Kershaw - Emerson CQC-4KXL - poor mans gentleman jim

Velitrius said:
Angus, I am also in the Wet, Green PNW. You must be on the Peninsula?

At any rate, I had an Emerson CQC7 that came with the wave feature. I had to try it after all of the "usual suspects" ranting and raving about it. I even read one guy's post where he insisted that if one were to buy a knife for self defense, it had BETTER HAVE A WAVE.

I found it to be more of a gimmick than anything useful. I don't wear jeans very often, and I will not conform to one method of deployment just to accommodate a wave on my knife. Sometimes it's in a jacket pocket, sometimes it gets picked up off the workbench or pulled out of the truck jockey box.... wave is then useless. Wouldn't even open a bottle of microbrew. Instead of just grinding it off, I got rid of the knife. I hated it that much.

You'll find countless others who will shout down my blasphemous disdain of this bottle-opener-gone-awry, and given time, you could become one of those Wavy Gravy Faithful. Because this knife here offers you a very economical opportunity to give it a go. Knifedude802 is right, it's cheap enough just to get one and start waving it open.

And if you can't open your bottle of Rogue Dead Guy Ale with your wave, swing by the house and I'll pop it open for you.
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you know i actually like emerson designed knives a lot, but i hate the wave. i still buy the knives if i like the design, but i just use them without the wave feature and open them manually with the thumbdisk. you can still enjoy a knife with a wave design without using the wave, it does make a good thumb ramp.

great pics in this thread btw guys
 
Velitrius said:
Angus, I am also in the Wet, Green PNW. You must be on the Peninsula?

At any rate, I had an Emerson CQC7 that came with the wave feature. I had to try it after all of the "usual suspects" ranting and raving about it. I even read one guy's post where he insisted that if one were to buy a knife for self defense, it had BETTER HAVE A WAVE.

I found it to be more of a gimmick than anything useful. I don't wear jeans very often, and I will not conform to one method of deployment just to accommodate a wave on my knife. Sometimes it's in a jacket pocket, sometimes it gets picked up off the workbench or pulled out of the truck jockey box.... wave is then useless. Wouldn't even open a bottle of microbrew. Instead of just grinding it off, I got rid of the knife. I hated it that much.

You'll find countless others who will shout down my blasphemous disdain of this bottle-opener-gone-awry, and given time, you could become one of those Wavy Gravy Faithful. Because this knife here offers you a very economical opportunity to give it a go. Knifedude802 is right, it's cheap enough just to get one and start waving it open.

And if you can't open your bottle of Rogue Dead Guy Ale with your wave, swing by the house and I'll pop it open for you.
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Thanks for the reply. It is probably a fine feature, but it looks to me like it could catch things.
I do,live in thins beautiful place. A place where you have to clean gutters a lot, battle the moss each year, scrub the north side of the house every year.......then there are days like today......😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎 !!!!!
But don't tell anyone....let them believe it is ALWAYS 51 degrees and raining !!!!!,
And beer from a can is good....Hilliard's Blonde.....
 
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knifedude802 said:
Grind it away?? I find it useful, fun too. Its a cheap enough investment to get one of these Kershaw/Emersons and try it out for yourself. Yes it could easily be ground off, but it would likely be ugly and you're ruining what in my mind is a main feature of the knife.
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Well...lots of fans of this knife and I believe I will order one soon.
Thanks for the info.
 
Angus McGunnigle said:
Thanks for the reply. It is probably a fine feature, but it looks to me like it could catch things.
I do,live in thins beautiful place. A place where you have to clean gutters a lot, battle the moss each year, scrub the north side of the house every year.......then there are days like today......😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎 !!!!!
But don't tell anyone....let them believe it is ALWAYS 51 degrees and raining !!!!!,
And beer from a can is good....Hilliard's Blonde.....
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51 and raining, not today! Your post is very accurate. :)
 
Hilliard's makes the only beer I'll drink from a can.... it's the 12th Can Pale Ale they make during Seahawks Football Season.

I've heard people before say that the wave makes a good thumb ramp... folks have said that about Spyderco as well, that the "hump" made by the hole also forms a good ramp. I'm not that desperate for a thumb ramp that I'll allow a "hook" or a "hump" or a "hole" in my blade to get one. But hey, if it's there, use it to your advantage.

Anthony Cheeseboro brings up another good point... this thing is cheap enough that a guy should just about buy 3 of them to scatter around the house and the shop. The 8CR doesn't scare me, I'm no steel snob. It won't corrode any easier than the pieces around here that are made of 1095.

Maybe it ain't so much a "Poor Man's" Gentleman Jim that it is a "Cost Effective Man's" GJ. I wouldn't feel poor if I had this piece to carry around.
 
Velitrius said:
Hilliard's makes the only beer I'll drink from a can.... it's the 12th Can Pale Ale they make during Seahawks Football Season.

I've heard people before say that the wave makes a good thumb ramp... folks have said that about Spyderco as well, that the "hump" made by the hole also forms a good ramp. I'm not that desperate for a thumb ramp that I'll allow a "hook" or a "hump" or a "hole" in my blade to get one. But hey, if it's there, use it to your advantage.

Anthony Cheeseboro brings up another good point... this thing is cheap enough that a guy should just about buy 3 of them to scatter around the house and the shop. The 8CR doesn't scare me, I'm no steel snob. It won't corrode any easier than the pieces around here that are made of 1095.

Maybe it ain't so much a "Poor Man's" Gentleman Jim that it is a "Cost Effective Man's" GJ. I wouldn't feel poor if I had this piece to carry around.
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"Cost effective" is a much more accurate way of describing this knife than cheap. I can see myself buying at least one more, now that you mentioned it.:thumbup:
 
So, while this is on the front page again, I guess I'll do a follow-up:

I have one in my pocket currently, and have been carrying mine so much I think it might actually be my favorite knife. Super smooth, tight lockup, great blade shape, comfy in the hand, great dual-tone satin/stonewash finish... I wish I had pictures handy, but it's generally too busy being used to get put on my fancy faux-marble $100 table from Amazon for beauty shots.
 
Just got mine last week,have the smaller CQC-4K in coyote brown.The things I liked - a two tone blade finish,a stone washed frame lock side,a nice smooth blade action,and an incredibly sharp 8Cr14MoV.

The things,I did not like was how I waved the knife a couple of times hard, that the blade became off centered and was scraping the liner on the G-10 side and how the pivot hole on the frame lock side is counter sunk which is a departure from the norm where they are usually a round hole with a flat recess for the pivot to sit.

IMHO,the budget china made kershaw emerson knives are a somewhat weird beast as I have taken both my knives apart and had function or lockup issues which need adjustment to get right.As I used the hinderer centering method to get the blade on my CQC-4KXL right again and the lockup has also improved,from where it was 75% before to 50% now
 
I have the 4KXL and the 6K and have found them both to be excellent knives. Both are perfectly centered, open smoothly, have solid early lockup, and are good cutters. Combine that with ambidextrous carry options and quality materials and it's a winning combination especially for their low cost. Good job KAI.
 
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