Utterly Disappointed with New Kershaw/Emerson Line's Construction

[EZhotshot511]

So I bought a Kershaw/Emerson CQC-8K the other day because I liked the idea of a very affordable tactical knife with Emerson features. I got the CQC-8K because I wanted a large "self-defense" type blade, I'm partial to tantos and I liked the idea of G10 on both sides of the handle (I don't mind liner locks). Overall fit and finish of this knife is good. Love the Emerson Wave feature and the design fits my hand really well. Unfortunately I went to disassemble the knife (Who doesn't want to disassemble their knife right out of the box just to clean it up, lube it and get familiar with its construction?) and ran into huge problems. The supposed "convenience" of the phillips head hardware turned out to be a complete nightmare when paired with the inordinate amount of Kershaw's VERY PERMANENT thread locker that bathed each of the eight handle screws. I tried every screwdriver, vise, and fiber of my being I could muster to get these screws separated from the handle and their stand-offs with terrible results. After myriad expletives and a life's worth of patience expended, I ended up with five completely destroyed/torn-up/stripped, albeit disassembled, screws as well as three screws that utterly refused to separate from their free turning stand-offs with scales and liners sandwiched in between. Thus, I was able to get the knife separated into two halves, but still nowhere near being fully disassembled, and I was left with hardware that was 100% unusable. I have run into this problem with Kershaw's thread locker before but luckily on a knife with torx head screws that were not destroyed in the process. Overall great design, cool looking, fast deploying, cheap (for a 3.5" blade with G10 scales and Emerson features), tactical knife...unfortunately the execution gets a big fat F-. Please share your thoughts or experiences with this line and/or tell me I'm and idiot for trying to disassemble this knife.

 

[Morrow]

So after the first one stripped, you just kept right on going....did I read that right?

 

[Nomo4me]

So after the first one stripped, you just kept right on going....did I read that right?

Some folks yearn for disappointment. Kershaw should know that knives aren't tools for cutting. They are erector sets for fetishists.

 

[Sosa]

I heard the screws are soft. You can replace with torx.

 

[Krissig12]

Some folks yearn for disappointment. Kershaw should know that knives aren't tools for cutting. They are erector sets for fetishists.

Hahahaha! Exactly

OPs all like:
Oh noes! I was trying to disassemble my knife right out of box for no reason other than I wanted to, and I managed to mess it up! Kershaws suck!

Really dude? Sure the screws might not be the best quality, but theres proabably a reason they use so much loctite........ The target market for these knives is not the high end collectors/knife aficionados who get off on being able to take their knives apart, tweak, lube, pimp, etc them.

You have to remember that kershaw is catering to the majority, and very few people outside of this community would consider a knife dysfunctional because they couldn't take it apart.......

 

[EZhotshot511]

That's not exactly how it happened. Only one of the screws is completely stripped, but one is enough to make disassembly impossible. The others just look like absolute crap now and are not tight (I reassembled the knife...as much as possible) because I didn't want to strip them completely trying to reassemble the knife. My main gripe is that the stand-offs are made so that they are double threaded so that one screw on each side goes into each stand-off. There is really no issue with this design except for when there is so much thread locker holding it together that it is impossible even with two people and two screwdrivers holding each side's screw to overcome the thread locker without stripping the heads. If there was a different way I should have approached this please advise.

--EZ

 

[Monofletch]

If they didn't use thread locker this post would read..."The DAMN thing just came apart! I No thread locker--Kershaw sucks......"

The Kershaw/Emersons are a great knife at that price point. I do understand you frustrations, however, I bet Kershaw doesn't expect people to be taking the inexpensive knives apart in the first place. I believe it voids the warranty.

 

[Morrow]

moving this to MT&E.

 

[J_kocaj]

So your dissipointed in the KNIFE because kershaw used too much lock tight, and you striped the bolts. Im sure you can replace them with some cool anodized hardware

 

[EZhotshot511]

Please cool it. I own several Kershaws and love them...all except this one. The phillips head screws were not a good choice.
Also, I am an engineering student...everything worth taking apart in my house gets tinkered with. If you are too apathetic to care what goes into a knife's workings then wheres the fun in your collection?

 

[johnnytoxin]

You are sending back a knife that you ruined? How does that make sense to you? I really am trying to understand the logic here.

 

[Krissig12]

Please cool it. I own several Kershaws and love them...all except this one. The phillips head screws were not a good choice.
Also, I am an engineering student...everything worth taking apart in my house gets tinkered with. If you all are too apathetic to care what goes into a quality knife's workings then wheres the fun in your collection?

The knife is around 30 bucks IIRC. This ain't a sebenza buddy.

And most of the fun in my collection comes from being able to USE my knives. You know, to CUT things.....

 

[Noswad0208]

Please cool it. I own several Kershaws and love them...all except this one. The phillips head screws were not a good choice.
Also, I am an engineering student...everything worth taking apart in my house gets tinkered with. If you are too apathetic to care what goes into a knife's workings then wheres the fun in your collection?

The phillips head screws aren't the problem, it's the fact that you weren't bright enough to just own the knife and use it, you had to mess with it. Not Kershaw's fault at all.

Did they not teach you in your engineering school not to be an idiot with your tools?

 

[EZhotshot511]

Ok well I guess I'm an exception to the rule then? I like to be able to take apart my knives and clean them up/tinker with them. Whether they are cheap or expensive makes no difference to me. I have a Kershaw Zing Tanto that I stripped of all its thread locker, never put more on, and it has been performing just fine for years, so I just see no reason for them to use such a strong thread locker and so much of it on their knives. I guess that's true that they are marketing it to people who will never ever bother to even care what kind of stand-offs are being used, or want to thoroughly clean it every once in a while.

 

[josephrogers]

After myriad expletives and a life's worth of patience expended, I ended up with five completely destroyed/torn-up/stripped, albeit disassembled, screws as well as three screws that utterly refused to separate from their free turning stand-offs with scales and liners sandwiched in between. Thus, I was able to get the knife separated into two halves, but still nowhere near being fully disassembled, and I was left with hardware that was 100% unusable. I have run into this problem with Kershaw's thread locker before but luckily on a knife with torx head screws that were not destroyed in the process. Overall great design, cool looking, fast deploying, cheap (for a 3.5" blade with G10 scales and Emerson features), tactical knife...unfortunately the execution gets a big fat F-. I will be returning this knife and am really disappointed about it because it is such a cool design.

My question is, how do you return a knife that you damaged? If I could just return all of the knives that I tried to take a part and damaged in some way, shape or form, I would have a bunch of knives that were in seemingly perfect condition.

 

[Noswad0208]

I guess that's true that they are marketing it to people who will never ever bother to even care what kind of stand-offs are being used, or want to thoroughly clean it every once in a while.

That's pretty typical of a 30 dollar knife. If you want to tinker get a ZT.

 

[EZhotshot511]

The phillips head screws aren't the problem, it's the fact that you weren't bright enough to just own the knife and use it, you had to mess with it. Not Kershaw's fault at all.

Did they not teach you in your engineering school not to be an idiot with your tools?

No need for harsh words, all of this is solely my opinion and I just wanted other's thoughts (which I have now in excess). Please explain to me why almost all folding knives have the option to be taken apart at all if they are solely meant to be used? Why even screw them together? Why not just use rivets?

 

[EZhotshot511]

That's pretty typical of a 30 dollar knife. If you want to tinker get a ZT.

Yes unfortunately that's the situation I am in. College Student = no ZT.

 

[mqqn]

I was able to get my Kershaw Emerson 8k apart, and when some of the barrel spacers would not come off of a screw, I just left it on the screw.

I did not booger up the hardware either; I learned many years ago not to force something.

There are proper ways to overcome loctite blue threadlocker, and there are improper ways.

You used improper ways and now are disappointed with yourself, you just don't know it yet.

If I boogered up a knife there is no way I could try to return it for a refund with a clear conscious.

best

mqqn

 

[josephrogers]

Yes unfortunately that's the situation I am in. College Student = no ZT.

I am in college as well, you just need to compromise to get a ZT... one less book won't kill you

But... I have two of the Kershaw Emersons, and I think they are fantastic little knives. I got them both apart pretty easily, but it required some heat to break the thread locker down.