What is the sharpest Emerson out of the box ? Commander ?

[chipdouglas]

I used to have many Emerson knives - I no longer have any, though I can recall that my Commander was the one with the sharpest edge. Keep in mind that sharp is relative. I've had a boat load of Spyderco knives as well as Benchmade's. IIRC, the Commander was even sharper than most Spyderco knives.
The primary grind on it + the fact that it's chisel ground, means the edge gets very thin, hence why it is so sharp, which I like a LOT.

FWIW, from the looks of it, the CQC15 should have the same level of sharpness as the Commander, since it had more or less the same grind.

I gave my opinion based on my recollection of what it was like. Now, I'd like to hear what you have to say.

 

[dr_fosg8]

All my recent Emersons have been pretty darn sharp out of the box. The one with the stand out edge of all of them though was the Iron Dragon.

 

[chipdouglas]

All my recent Emersons have been pretty darn sharp out of the box. The one with the stand out edge of all of them though was the Iron Dragon.

The Iron dragon has a similar grind to the Commander, so that doesn't surprise me - pretty nice knife !

Btw, by sharpest I really meant crazy sharp.

 

[chipdouglas]

While all knives are sharp, I'm sure some of you have noticed differences in the level of sharpness. Some are sharp, very sharp and scary sharp.

 

[EChoil]

The sharpest out of the box for me was a CQC-7. The least sharp, a micro-Commander.

 

[RevDevil]

Gentleman Jim

 

[chipdouglas]

The sharpest out of the box for me was a CQC-7. The least sharp, a micro-Commander.

I'm surprised at this, but I'm glad you commented.

 

[chipdouglas]

Gentleman Jim

When I had Emerson knives, the Gentleman Jim was the least sharp of mine. I thought because of the grind that the Commander had an edge so to speak, but it doesn't look like it.

 

[bobnery]

Ummm I think in the end it comes down more to the guy doing the sharpening before it leaves the factory. Any one of them could be sharper or duller than the rest. That goes for any knife.

 

[chipdouglas]

Ummm I think in the end it comes down more to the guy doing the sharpening before it leaves the factory. Any one of them could be sharper or duller than the rest. That goes for any knife.

Yes, there's no doubt that I agree with what you're saying. However, I thought the Commander (and other Emerson knives with similar grinds) once properly sharpened would have an edge - my point is (and I might be wrong about this as I don't have a Commander to check this out) I thought grinds similar to the Commander would lead to a thinner blade at the edge - add to that a chisel edge and I'd think you have a noticeably sharper knife, than what is considered sharp.

 

[S.T.R.]

I bought a cqc-11 here in exchange a few years ago, it was a BT model. It came without the box and had the factory edge on it. It was the sharpest one I had. When I would wipe down the blade, a lot of the time it would cut through the cleaning cloth and his is lightly wiping down the blade.

 

[bobnery]

Oh I see what you are dying now. I consider "sharp" a term that describes edge, and less material behind that edge, like I think you're are referring to, to be usually a predictor(not always mind you it is just one of the variables) on how well something will slice. You usually need both sharp edge and thinness behind edge along with some other things to slice well too, but I can even think of extreme cases where you can have a duller edge that doesn't have a lot of material behind it out slice a sharp edge with a lot of material behind it. Take a dullish Opinel and slice say a potato, it will still outperform say a sharp SMF in that task.

 

[Officer's Match]

I'm gonna' go with my Custom Super Roadhouse on this one.







Second place:

 

[chipdouglas]

Oh I see what you are dying now. I consider "sharp" a term that describes edge, and less material behind that edge, like I think you're are referring to, to be usually a predictor(not always mind you it is just one of the variables) on how well something will slice. You usually need both sharp edge and thinness behind edge along with some other things to slice well too, but I can even think of extreme cases where you can have a duller edge that doesn't have a lot of material behind it out slice a sharp edge with a lot of material behind it. Take a dullish Opinel and slice say a potato, it will still outperform say a sharp SMF in that task.

Definitely !

 

[Lycosa]

HD7. Insane!

 

[Ttran778]

I found my Combat Karambit to be the sharpest out of the box.

 

[asdf12345]

My first gen Benchmade CQC-7 is the sharpest Emerson I have owned.

The level of sharpness will vary among models and even among different knives of the same model, because they are sharpened individually by hand.

Any zero-edge customs are likely to be extra sharp over production models, although even this is not an absolute guarantee.

 

[ebidis]

Ummm I think in the end it comes down more to the guy doing the sharpening before it leaves the factory. Any one of them could be sharper or duller than the rest. That goes for any knife.

I agree with this.

All my recent Emersons have been pretty darn sharp out of the box. The one with the stand out edge of all of them though was the Iron Dragon.

My ETAC B was the stupid sharp out of box champ until I got my Iron Dragon. The Dragon is crazy stupid sharp. I was just looking at it the other night and it cut my eyeball.

That being said, (and I'm not fan boying, or trying to start something, just calling it like I see it.) I have generally found all of my Emerson's to be sharper than any other production knives out of box. Emerson's are usually the only knives I don't sharpen straight out of the box. The only exception was my new Specwar.. I actually had to reprofile that one.

IMHO, the factory edges on Spydies, ZT, and Benchmade's, are for the most part, not even what I would consider sharp. The factory edges on my CRK's were a joke. YMMV

 

[dr_fosg8]

I agree with this.

My ETAC B was the stupid sharp out of box champ until I got my Iron Dragon. The Dragon is crazy stupid sharp. I was just looking at it the other night and it cut my eyeball.

That being said, (and I'm not fan boying, or trying to start something, just calling it like I see it.) I have generally found all of my Emerson's to be sharper than any other production knives out of box. Emerson's are usually the only knives I don't sharpen straight out of the box. The only exception was my new Specwar.. I actually had to reprofile that one.

IMHO, the factory edges on Spydies, ZT, and Benchmade's, are for the most part, not even what I would consider sharp. The factory edges on my CRK's were a joke. YMMV

Agreed. CRK and ZT factory edges were sub par IMO. Never bought a new BM and the only Spydie I ever bought that I considered sharp was made overseas, and it was a budget model!

 

[ebidis]

Agreed. CRK and ZT factory edges were sub par IMO. Never bought a new BM and the only Spydie I ever bought that I considered sharp was made overseas, and it was a budget model!

Yea, I think my tenacious was the sharpest Spyderco OOB I ever bought.

Funny thing is, I used to think that factory edges were super sharp. Then I learned how to sharpen a knife properly. LOL