Opinions of Viper 3?? ALL COMMENTS WELCOME!

Al,
Your assumption is correct. All of the Vipers I have owned ALL were/are Single Bevel, cheisel grind. Addionally, my CQC 9,
CQC 6, CQC 8's, ES1-M's, Rhino, all Fixed blades are as well.
Hope that helps !

------------------
"This is the law:
There is no possible victory in defense, The Sword is more important than the shield, And skill is more important than either, The final weapon is the brain. All else is supplemental."

 
Suspects,

Since Ernie is still enjoying sunny Hawaii, I will offer my own semi-educated opinion on this knife. Most of you guys (who actually own them
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) know more on the subject of customs than I do so take it with a grain of salt.

I would say that Jackstraws Viper 3 is somewhat of an oddity. It could represent either a very early rendition of the pattern or a particular customers request. The viper logo seems to indicate that is is a few years older.

Cool find. Hope this helps out some.

Derek
 
OK . . . . here are more pages from the '94 Emerson Catalog.

Reference the Chisel grind, see the second paragraph:

Page

Reference the Viper, bottom right hand column:

Page

Just to add fuel to the fire:

Page

John Hollister
 
John,
Excellent contribution. The last page which featured the "Stealth" was particularly interesting. At first glance I thought it to be a fixed blade, but looking more carefully, there seems to be a thumb disk on the blade for one-hand opening. If it is in fact a folder, has anybody ever seen one? Cool looking knife.
 
Actually in the picture it looks like a diamond shaped thumb stud.

Never heard of it before myself. That's the only reference I've seen.

John Hollister
 
The Stealth was, as the catalogue states, supposed to be the first in a series of unique knives that Ernie would make ten or so of each year, and then never make again. As it turned out, they took up alot of time and the idea died stillborn. In Ernies words, he could make a week's worth of tacticals - his true forte - in the time it took to make one stealth. The most accurate guess as to how many were made is five, since serial #005 exists. They were arty sort of knives: double grind, satin, radical tanto shape blade; diamond shaped, cross hatched thumb stud; anodized titanium bolster with integral finger guards (purple-ish in color); polished black micarta handles; fancy titanium liners; and obviously, no clip. Everything, as the drawing shows, was angular and there wasn't a curve on the whole knife. They sold new for $1000, and that was back in the early '90s. They are the ne plus ultra of art knives by Emerson. If I can find them, I'll post a photo of one.
 
Hello Suspects,
A friend of mine was kind enough to allow me to examine his Viper 3. After spending some quality time with it, I have to say it is my all time favorite Emerson folder. The quality of construction on the sample I handled was the best I have seen on any of Ernie's stuff. This one has a zero ground chisel edge and a half moon logo.
I fell in love with the blade grind immediately, it is VERY sharp and yet keeps it's full thickness to within 1/8" of the tip! Also the blade is heavy, it feels almost as weighty as a commander's blade but is ground much sexier. Overlall, the impression of this knife is that it is a solid and heavy duty folder. In fact, I could only find one thing about this knife that I might change. The handle lacks the well defined guards that all the new models have. But it definitely was a very comfortable knife to hold and feels better to me than any of his other customs except maybe the CQC8. Once again, I echo my sentiment that Ernie should revisit this knife for production!

A subtle detail I noticed on the knife I handled was that Ernie bead blasted the blade spine for a non glare appearence when the knife is closed. I have seen this on some of his other customs and he is the only maker I have ever seen do this. I think that is a nice touch. It kind of hints at the single mindedness of his designs. Also I was surprised to note that the knife I handled was fastened with allen head screws instead of the flat head screws I had always seen on the custom stuff.

Anyway, if my friend should read this I want to thank him for his time and efforts in letting me handle his baby!

JBravo,
I sure hope you can locate a pic of the Stealth, I would love to see that.

Take Care,
Al

 
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