What's a Emerson Rhino?

B

bin31z

Joined
Aug 15, 2008
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I just saw someone trying to sell like 10 really nice knives to try buy an Emerson Rhino...did a search and found nothing. Pics? Info?
 
The Rhino is basically a heavily modified Commander.
The blade spine is ground right down leaving it looking a lot like a rhino horn.

They were made for one of those "specific tasks" and is a highly sort after knife for collectors.
 
I have seen semi custom ones go for alot less than 6K.

The full custom ones are far rarer and so cost alot more.
 
lol, i can see $2K or so but $6K is wayyyyyyy outta line thats absurd.

i have seen a couple of them sell thru the yrs and while i dont remember exact prices it wasnt anywhere close to $6K lol & i speak of the custom specwars.

have also seen several commanders mod'ed to look like the rhino (or CQC9 isnt it??).

i suppose they are cool looking, i have no great desire for one, in fact i can think of a lotta things i would buy with a spare $6K but a rhino isnt on the list lol.

FWIW ernie made them for SEAL's to "dispatch sentries" by slashing there throats thus the blade shape.

i have an old tac knives mag that had a sidebar article about the rhinos circa '98 or so.

i dont think ernie made many of them, and also dont know if any were ever in any SEAL's hands or not, probably not.

personally i would prefer a specwar CQC6, '7, or a viper to a rhino anyday, but some folks do like'em.
 
Its a bit obsessive if you ask me. For that kind of dough you could own several awesome Emerson customs.

The Rhino is a VERY specific design, intended for one thing only.

But I guess its all relative. Some people own fleets of Rolls Royces.
 
I wouldn't pay that kind of dough for INFI!!
Well---maybe I would. :D
 
Haze said:
I have seen semi custom ones go for alot less than 6K.

The full custom ones are far rarer and so cost alot more.
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There are NO Emerson semi custom Rhinos. What you have seen is a commander that has been modified by someone into a rhino conversion. A commander pimpped into a Rhino styled knife would be considerably less expensive but it is not a Rhino.



I haven't seen anything about a Rhino selling in a long time. They were under 6K each when 2 of them sold at a knife show several years back.
 
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SIFU1A said:
lol, i can see $2K or so but $6K is wayyyyyyy outta line thats absurd.

i have seen a couple of them sell thru the yrs and while i dont remember exact prices it wasnt anywhere close to $6K lol & i speak of the custom specwars.

have also seen several commanders mod'ed to look like the rhino (or CQC9 isnt it??).

i suppose they are cool looking, i have no great desire for one, in fact i can think of a lotta things i would buy with a spare $6K but a rhino isnt on the list lol.

FWIW ernie made them for SEAL's to "dispatch sentries" by slashing there throats thus the blade shape.

i have an old tac knives mag that had a sidebar article about the rhinos circa '98 or so.

i dont think ernie made many of them, and also dont know if any were ever in any SEAL's hands or not, probably not.

personally i would prefer a specwar CQC6, '7, or a viper to a rhino anyday, but some folks do like'em.
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Check out this link and click 2008 results. There are some Crazy expensive knives out there. The highest one at that auction sold for 45K.

http://www.chicagocustomknifeshow.com/auction.php
 
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chris in mo said:
There are NO Emerson semi custom Rhinos. What you have seen is a commander that has been modified by someone into a rhino conversion. A commander pimpped into a Rhino styled knife would be considerably less expensive but it is not a Rhino.



I haven't seen anything about a Rhino selling in a long time. They were under 6K each when 2 of them sold at a knife show several years back.
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That could well have been the case,

I'm pretty sure it had a true satin blade with a logo, I could easily have imagined that though :p
 
Haze said:
That could well have been the case,

I'm pretty sure it had a true satin blade with a logo, I could easily have imagined that though :p
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Some of the Custom Rhinos were black G10 handles not bolstered with green Micarta. But I have never heard of a Rhino that was not a full custom. If you have a shot at one of the G10 handle ones for significantly less than the above priced Jump at it because it will be a steal provided it is not someone's conversion.
 
AFAIK all the rhinos had black G10 and no bolsters & i have never seen the green micarta on anything not bolstered FWIW..

all kinda knives sell for all kinda money but imho $6K for a rhino isnt a good investment, i dont think any emerson customs are selling for what they were a few yrs ago, sure they still bring $1K or so but i can remember not long ago when CQC6"s sold for nearly $2K and they dont bring that kinda dollar anymore, now me when i buy a knife for over $1K (and yes i have bought more than one at this price) the possiblity of re-sale and not losing too much $$ comes into play and i dont think $6K for a rhino is a good investment at this time. in fact, even back when CQc6's sold for $2K rhinos didnt sell for $6K.

now if ya just have to have one, and ya have the money to spend, go for it, but i dont think its a wise thing to pay that kinda price for any emerson anything & i i love emerson as much as anybody, the last one i saw sell was severasl yrs ago on USN and was IIRC ~ $2500 or so, maybe $3K tops, i dont remember the exact amount as it was a partial cash/partial swap kinda deal, but it wasnt over ~$3K total. and hey if that rhino completes your collection, and ya have the $$ to spare go for it, i'm just saying i wont be spending $6K on a rhino myself, no way.

i also dont think any rhinos were semi's, anything like that is a mod'ed commander.
 
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The Rhinos I saw were black G-10, to me that meant semi custom but you could call them full custom I suppose.

I have seen reground commies and they didnt look quite the same.
I'll try and dig out the pics I saw, I'm pretty sure I saved them on one of my computers.
 
Haze said:
The Rhinos I saw were black G-10, to me that meant semi custom but you could call them full custom I suppose.

I have seen reground commies and they didnt look quite the same.
I'll try and dig out the pics I saw, I'm pretty sure I saved them on one of my computers.
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Semi custom would be a knife with a blade ground by Ernest Emerson then assembled using production parts by others at the Emerson knives company. A Custom is a knife built completely by Ernest himself. There are older customs with the G10 handles that are entirely custom made by Ernest. The CQC 9 and the Rhino are good examples. More recently a Ti bolstered green linen micarta handle is very common on the Custom knives. If it is an Emerson made Rhino it is not a semi custom. Again if you find a Rhino pried cheaply with the Black G10 the seller may not know what they have. They may be under the impression that if it is G10 and not bolstered Micarta they are not custom.

I hope the OP is learning from our conversation. ;)
 
again, AFAIK none of the rhinos had bolsters or micarta they were all G10,

there are old & new customs with G10 & old & new bolstered w/micarta that it has G10 handles and is custom doesnt mean its old, or new, its not an indicator of age is my point, and i also dont think he ever used anything but the green micarta in anything but a few cases, i know i have seen a few with black micarta, IIRC i saw a '6 with black micarta and a toothpick in the handle (like a SAK) but thats not a common thing at all,

as rare as rhinos are i doubt anyone that has one is wondering "what is this" lol, they know what it is.
 
though i'm no expert on throat slashing i suppose its the way the blade is curved?

IIRC ya are supposed to hold it in a reverse grip and attack from behing and grab the head with one hand and slash w/the other, like i said i have a older tac knives mag (~'98 or so) and it had a short sidebar article about the rhinos, IIRC thats what they said in it, in the next few days i'll pull it out and check but i'm sure they said it was designed for killing sentrys via slashing there throats.
 
Will be interested to see what the actual tactic used was and why such an unusual blade shape is better
 
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