Not pleased with Emerson

If it opened so easy in pocket just by running, I believe the pivot screw could use some tightening and some loctite.. That should have fixed the issue.. I coach/play baseball, basketball and run all the time with my Super 7 in pocket and it has never opened on me..
 
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You can't delete your account here, or your posts... but deleting the content you contributed, well, that's easy to fix.

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The Wave is a problem for me. I have stabbed myself a few times because the Wave opens the knife when I pull it out of my pants pocket at the end of the day.

When it happened again recently with my new CQC-13 I took the clip off and decided to try sheath carry. That sucker is needle sharp!

Yeah it defeats the object but it kinda smarts to get stabbed and you kind of feel like an idiot to get cut by your own knife.

This has not happened with any of my other knives although admittedly I once put a nice hole in my shorts when I seated my Para-Millie and it wasnt closed properly.

Then there was the time I sliced into my finger applying oil to the blade of a S90V Manix.....

I could go on....... :D
 
Wow... you guys think these little nicks are bad? Try spending 10 years flipping balisongs... ;)
 
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You can't delete your account here, or your posts... but deleting the content you contributed, well, that's easy to fix.

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WOW, lots of opinions. GOOD! A good businessman, and I believe Ernie is just that, will read this and take it back to the factory. For those of you that have only been buying and/or collecting his knives just within the past few years, Ernie's production and custom knives have evolved. Some for the better, some for the worse.

For example, for the better- he thickened the locking side of his custom knives. On the bad side, he now has stainless steel on one side of the liner instead of all titanium (however, I have heard he went back to all titanium, but I cannot confirm).

I have also seen his early production knives go from being rather rough to being more standardized in fit and finish. However, he has thinned the liners a bit since his early start in the production realm.

Additionally, for the price, the fit and finish of his knives (custom and production) is not the greatest. But, to be fair, Striders are downright crude compared to Ernie's knives, and those guys get away with charging 2 and 3 times more than Ernie.

Bottom line, EKI has a LIFETIME warranty on their knives. If you don't like something about them, send them back or don't buy them anymore. We fans, take the production issues with a grain of salt. For me, it's about the grind and the design. I am not knocking anyone who has a complaint about EKI. This is the correct place to vent. But also consider this, if you have not contacted EKI and explained the issues you are having, you are doing a disservice to EKI by not getting them resolved first.

Just my $.02.

Sean
 
Wow, someone relays a bad experience and the business owner tells him not to run with the said knife which is advertised as a hard use knife, the person relaying the story is a whiner? I actually do go in harms way and explained to Ernie(in person not via e-mail) that I did like his products and explained what my dilemma was hoping to solve this and he blew me off.
I was going to just read these post and hold any comments until I saw that showing any unhappiness with a product on this forum is labeled a whiner by some really dedicated fans.
In some peoples world occasionally slicing your hand (due to equipment failures) is acceptable. Not in mine. Sorry I'm a whiner.
Note: I did try to adjust the tension screw to cure the problem, when that did not work customer service squared me away with a new one explaining it was an issue with the detent. I later read that this style knife to include other brands has these issues.
I have found other folders that work for me. I really wanted the Commander to.
Bill
 
WJC01 said:
Wow, someone relays a bad experience and the business owner tells him not to run with the said knife which is advertised as a hard use knife, the person relaying the story is a whiner? I actually do go in harms way and explained to Ernie(in person not via e-mail) that I did like his products and explained what my dilemma was hoping to solve this and he blew me off.
I was going to just read these post and hold any comments until I saw that showing any unhappiness with a product on this forum is labeled a whiner by some really dedicated fans.
In some peoples world occasionally slicing your hand (due to equipment failures) is acceptable. Not in mine. Sorry I'm a whiner.
Note: I did try to adjust the tension screw to cure the problem, when that did not work customer service squared me away with a new one explaining it was an issue with the detent. I later read that this style knife to include other brands has these issues.
I have found other folders that work for me. I really wanted the Commander to.
Bill
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It is customary to read the entire thread before characterizing people in order to make baseless attempts at patronization.

No one in here called him a "whiner". Most of us sympathized with his misfortune and understand his frustration. But it has also been made clear that he hasn't yet pursued the issue to its fullest extent by calling EKI and giving them an opportunity to fix the problem.

We're a community here, and we are receptive to anyone's problems or issues.
 
I carry mine in a "sap" pocket on my pants at work. It used to open from the momentum of walking. I tightened the screw - problem solved. I can still flip the knife out with the flick of the wrist.
 
He obviously doesn't care about the embarrassment.
Will all the negativity that his knives bring. Like screws coming loose, tight locks, blades moving to the side when opening sometimes rubbing the liner.
You would think he would start doing something.
I guess as long as he gets paid that's all that matters to him
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I certainly wouldn't presume to know Mr. Emerson's motives. I don't know him. I've never met him. I buy his products strictly on the merit of my own experience with them. I own most of his models (not all), and have yet to find one that rubbed, that came loose, that had play, or that opened in my pocket. Other posters have found that every single knife they owned did this. While I find that hard to believe, I don't know those posters either, and won't attack their credibility. If they say it happened, it happened. I can say for myself that my knives have certainly seem some abuse and have y definitely been put in some difficult places, with a lot of physical activity, and I've never seen any of the problems that other posters here describe. Ever.

I don't think Mr. Emerson has a lot to worry about with respect to reputation; his knives have a good reputation in the places that count, and it's not by rumor, it's by proven service. I didn't rely upon reputation when I bought my first Emerson; I bought it, tried it, and used it all over the world without any babying or consideration for whether the knife could handle the abuse. It did, and I bought more. I wish his pocket clips held up a little better, but the problems thus far have only included a few clips; these can be replaced. They didn't affect the function of the knife itself, and represented more of an inconvenience.

I'll very soon get rid of all of my Emerson knives--I'll get something else to replace them--I can't collect knives from someone who doesn't care about his customers.
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If that were a valid criteria, then one would never buy an HK firearm, either.

I own a number of HK's. They work for me. I suspect I'll own more.

I own a number of Emerson knives. They also work for me, and I know I'll own more.

In Iraq I carried backup emersons, both in my gear and on my person. Not because I was concerned about failure, but because they're important enough to me that I was more concerned about being without one in the event of a loss at an inopportune time.
 
I own many Emersons and I think IMHO the problems come from the price. I own customs like a XM18 and when you buy a Hinderer you expect for the price you are getting a flawless knife, which you do. An Emerson is probably the most expensive production knife you can buy (excluding say Chris Reeve and Strider which I consider more of a semi custom anyway). Knives like a Spyderco Military have strong retention, solid lockup, and deploy with speed, made in the USA, all on top of being not to expensive. I love my Emersons but they really should look at lower pricing if they put out knives that have poor blade retention or have blades that rub up against the liners (common problems for me). Out of the twenty or so I own I have had at least 5 or 6 with retention problems and rub against the liners when opening. If I am going to shell out $170 for a CQC8 then I want these simple problems to be fixed. I don't want fit and finish like a custom but I want a knife that works properly and one that I don't have to send back to the factory to get fixed.
 
One problem I had with my CQC 10 was the pivot coming loose, but at least I could turn the screw with my thumb and rectify it to a point where it could flick/open without much play when locked. However, the pivot was quite squeaky.

The bigger issue though was, when I opened it with the wave feature, on occasion the blade would click and bounce off the stop pin without locking up. I haven't cut myself yet since I always inspect my knife before use, but this failure to lock up is definitely dangerous.
 
Apec said:
The bigger issue though was, when I opened it with the wave feature, on occasion the blade would click and bounce off the stop pin without locking up. I haven't cut myself yet since I always inspect my knife before use, but this failure to lock up is definitely dangerous.
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Well, it should have been sent back to Emerson to be taken care of.......pretty dumb to keep using it and worrying about it when they WILL fix it for you.......
 
as far as tip up/tip down, i only carry tip up myself, and other than a time or 2 with knives with bad detents or weird designs(ie spyderco gunting and joht sing kalsa-both tip down IIRC FWIW) i have never ever had problems with them opening in my pocket, the last 4 or 5 yrs i have carried nothing but a emerson CQC12, a custom '13, or a spydie Ti ATR (all tip up), never had a problem, i guess i know not to carry a bunch of other stuff in that pocket, to carry it towards the seam/etc, but i dont think just because its tip up its gonna open up any easier than tip down, not with the detent set correctly. FWIW i wont carry anything BUT tip up.

and yes, if its waved, some care and practice is required to edc it, i didnt think that would even require saying, if ya think waved stuff can be finicky try carrying an auto sometimes, and have a auto MT SOCOM elite open in your pocket.

sure, EKI can have lemons, i have had problems with BM, spyderco, kershaw, MT, etc et al, problems ranging from F&F issues to liner lock issues to detent issues, and more, if its made by man it can fail.

if EKI is too expensive for ya, buy something else, buck, gerber, spyderco byrd is good for the $$, but to get on the EKI forum and gripe about the price is imho silly, he sells an awfull lotta knives to be overpriced doesnt he lol, hes laughing all the way to the bank..

if ya have a defective EKI product, send it back & they will fix it i wager, they stand behing there stuff.

and if ya have problems with the pivot getting loose a nickles worth of teflon tape or loctite will solve it FWIW.
 
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cevtv said:
Well, it should have been sent back to Emerson to be taken care of.......pretty dumb to keep using it and worrying about it when they WILL fix it for you.......
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IIRC the warranty is non-transferable. I got mine in a trade.
 
Well, as the OP I'll elaborate a little. Im a Marine, currently having been deployed 2x to Iraq and will see my third and final deployment to Afg (thank God for EAS) at the end of this year. If anyone has ever been in the military and has spent range time with explosives, they would know that the training rounds come in wooden crates with tin seals. These seals are almost easy enough to cut with kiddie scissors but I use my knives because I never found a reason to EDC som Fiskars lol. Thats what the CQC 11 chipped on. I figured that if it chipped on something so simple, I can not trust it outside of the wire. Spend enough time in a remote FOB and youll see that when something breaks its very hard to get a replacement.

I didnt come here to warn others, I didnt come here to troll, and i certainly didnt come here to flame Emerson knives. I may very well be the unlucky SOB who struck out 3 times, but, thats enough for me.

When I contacted Emerson Knives about this issue, they said that if they cant sharpen the chips out of the edge, I will need to pay for a replacement blade. Nope. I promptly sold it for $80 less than I paid, but this is just one man's experience.

This is a blade forum is it not? A place for us to discuss knives right? Dont be defensive when someone posts something that you havent experienced. And yes, I got banned for trying to sell i n my post, I hadnt read the rules, now I know, no big deal.
 
SIFU1A said:
if EKI is too expensive for ya, buy something else, buck, gerber, spyderco byrd is good for the $$, but to get on the EKI forum and gripe about the price is imho silly, he sells an awfull lotta knives to be overpriced doesnt he lol, hes laughing all the way to the bank..
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I never complained about the price, but for the price I should expect quality. My BMs, Spyderco Millies, and the like have been in the same price range but Ive enevr had a problem.
 
well, i, personally, have had liner lock issues with a millie(and other spydies too, FWIW, you mentioned the millie, a lotta the early Ti and SS ATR's had detent issues to name another model i have had issues with and had to send back, & i can go on with others if ya want to know about 'em?), which spydie fixed, and have also had the same with BM and others(for many yrs the only emerson i ever had liner lock issues with was a BM 975, made by BM but designed by emerson FWIW), just because you didnt have any problems with yours doesnt mean others havent had issues with theres, and while i have not had a lotta issues with EKI, i can see how ya could get one, 2 or even 3 lemons, point being nobody is perfect & EKI is no worse than any others ya care to name, i have had a lot of knives and a lot of different brands, and have learned that just because its brand "X" or "Y" doesnt mean its fail proof, price doesnt matter either. i have had probs with cheapies and expensive stuff too, even a few customs, like i said no ones perfect, if they were spyderco, BM, etc would have no need of warranty departments lol, imho ya would have to have bad luck to get 3 bad examples in a row of any major brand, but its possible no doubt.

if i didnt think (know?) EKI F&F, design, material, and quality was good (great?) i wouldnt have purchased and swapped for dozens of the things thru the yrs, & spent the kinda dollar it takes to get custom emersons, so obviously i cant agree with ya, imho they are a damned fine knife, and worth the $$, even the customs which run over $1000 unless ya get them from him, i also expect quality and imho EKI has delivered, sure, i have gotten a lemon or 2 thru the yrs, had some LL issues/etc, but like i said i have seen bad ..........................(fill in the blank with whoever ya want to mention) too, nobody is perfect.

i have sent knives to EKI, which i didnt buy from EKI, or a EKI dealer, and they have never asked me where i purchased it/etc when it came to warranty issues, unless things have changed that simply doesnt matter, if its an EKI they will warranty it.
 
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glockfire said:
When I contacted Emerson Knives about this issue, they said that if they cant sharpen the chips out of the edge, I will need to pay for a replacement blade. Nope. I promptly sold it for $80 less than I paid, but this is just one man's experience.
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You should have had them replace the blade. I contacted Emerson a few months ago regarding some servicing on some of my knives, and the blade replacement fee was $90. You could have had a new blade for an extra $10 instead of taking an $80 loss.
 
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