Will a stonewashed blade give away a reflection?

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Jan 10, 2017
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Hello.

I am thinking about buying a Emerson etak B with stonewashed blade.

ETAK means Emerson tactical assult knife. But i was thinking - how tactical is a knife if it gives away a reflection?

So my question is simply: will this blade give away a reflection or not?

Thank you for answers.
 
Stone washed blade is not going to be that reflective. Who are you going to sneak up one anyway?
 
Hello.

I am thinking about buying a Emerson etak B with stonewashed blade.

ETAK means Emerson tactical assult knife. But i was thinking - how tactical is a knife if it gives away a reflection?

So my question is simply: will this blade give away a reflection or not?

Thank you for answers.

If you trust Emerson products and trust Ernie Emerson enough to buy one of his products, knowing that they are, by their very nature, "tactical," wouldn't you assume that the finish of one of his knives isn't going to give away your position by reflecting light?

Seems kinda like asking "I'm thinking of buying an Emerson tactical assault knife...do you know if you can hurt somebody with it?"
 
I think I'll refrain from commenting in any more Emerson elite operator threads for a while. But before I do that, let me just enjoy sharing that I laughed out loud when I read this one.

Don't hurt me Emerson commandos . . .
 
LOL greg, you crack me up.
 
What's more worrisome with the ETAK is the wind noise, tbh. It's long been understood that flat grinds don't slice through the air as effectively as chisel grinds, causing additional and unnecessary wind noise. It's basically why none of the SOCOM guys will carry the ETAK any more.

YMMV.
 
It will totally glint in the light of the full moon. You have to go full black.

so will that exposed edge.:)

i was gonna poke at this thread, but i know better and so i won't.
 
Im afraid the sound of the linerlock engaging, not the mention the thwack due to the wave opening, would compromise your tactical stealthiness. Perhaps a fricition folder would suit your needs better?

Sent from my MHA-L29 using Tapatalk
 
What's more worrisome with the ETAK is the wind noise, tbh. It's long been understood that flat grinds don't slice through the air as effectively as chisel grinds, causing additional and unnecessary wind noise. It's basically why none of the SOCOM guys will carry the ETAK any more.

YMMV.

Stop, stop, this thread is killing me (from laughter, not from uncle Ernie's elite Emerson Internet operator commando hit team murdering me). ;)
 
We're going to do it with scissors too so you get in the papers as an ironic Darwin Award style passing.

The scissors will be non-reflective.

Do not run with them.
 
If you trust Emerson products and trust Ernie Emerson enough to buy one of his products, knowing that they are, by their very nature, "tactical," wouldn't you assume that the finish of one of his knives isn't going to give away your position by reflecting light?

Seems kinda like asking "I'm thinking of buying an Emerson tactical assault knife...do you know if you can hurt somebody with it?"

:) I dont know anything about Ernie Emerson or his products. I just really liked the handle and bladeshape of this knife so i think i am going to buy one.

So are you saying that this blade wont give away a reflection? English is not my first language and i dont speak ironi eather so i canot really find an answer to my question in this thread so far.

Thank you for your answer.
 
If you trust Emerson products and trust Ernie Emerson enough to buy one of his products, knowing that they are, by their very nature, "tactical," wouldn't you assume that the finish of one of his knives isn't going to give away your position by reflecting light?

Seems kinda like asking "I'm thinking of buying an Emerson tactical assault knife...do you know if you can hurt somebody with it?"

I know for a fact you can hurt someone's feelings with it.
 
To answer your question, it all depends. I have 2 stonewashed blades and they're on the lighter side. They don't reflect light the way a satin or polished blade does, but they still do shine in sunlight. If the stonewash is really dark it'll dampen it much more than a lighter stonewash. I don't own any Emersons so I couldn't give you a good answer on how dark or light their process tends to be.

Any coated/DLC blade will cut out a ton more reflection than most stonewashed blades. If that's one thing you're worried about you can try to see if they have one with a DLC blade, I honestly couldn't tell you if that's an option or not.


^Zero Tolerance 0566cf stonewashed blade.
 
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We're going to do it with scissors too so you get in the papers as an ironic Darwin Award style passing.

The scissors will be non-reflective.

Do not run with them.

Nobody expects death by tactical stealth scissors . . .
 
To answer your question, it all depends. I have 2 stonewashed blades and they're on the lighter side. They don't reflect light the way a satin or polished blade does, but they still do shine in sunlight.
That's all well and good but how do they look at Zero Dark Thirty? That's what matters.

EDIT:

For example, here's a pic of me carrying my Microtech OTF. However, it's DLC coated so it doesn't really help this conversation:

black_rectangle.jpg
 
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