EKI's seem to inspire folks to either love them or hate them lol, no matter what the haters say he makes excellent stuff and sells every one of 'em he can make, i can see why he doesnt change the way he makes 'em, why mess with success?
i think a lot of the haters just dont like the grind, and have never bothered to learn to sharpen the correctly/use them correctly, all the baloney about bad liner locks, poor F&F, poor quality is just that, baloney, and thats putting it mildly.
if they were trash i wouldnt have bought dozens of things, lotsa other folks wouldnt have either, i've had a knife or 2 and know what is good and what is junk, and what i like and what i dont, so unless ernie hypnotised me over the 'net to influence my likes/dislikes they are great knives, great designs, made outta good material with pretty good F&F, they all seem to lock up better now too than 10 or 12 yrs ago, though there MIGHT (key word "might") have been some issues, at one time, with EKI LL's all thats in the past now, they are as good (or bad depending on your opinion of LL's) as any other quality LL from any other company, BM, spydie, whoever, just as good, LL's depend on tight tolerances for lockup, and can wear, and inertia'ing them or waving them can accelerate the wear, but thats true of any LL out there be it one by EKI, or one by spydie, or BM, or .....
they are certainly my favorite, production or custom, folders, his designs are hard to beat and would be even with out the wave, add in the wave and imho they are the top dog out there right now.
