How are Emerson Knives

The A100s I own have good fit and finish in my opinion. The grinds are even, the lockup is solid, super sharp out of the box too. The design is just about perfect.
 
To tell the truth, Emerson knives aren't too bad (just a tad overpriced).
The fanboys who try to "defend" the company though, well, they are enough to make one hesitate to buy another.
Whatever happened to the idea that "the knives speak for themselves"?
 
Jester60 said:
How many Emersons do you own, Random? And if none, how many do you plan to buy in the future?? And if the answer to both questions is none, congratulations!! Never buying an Emerson insures you are 100% guaranteed to get a knife with 0% defects from a company with 100% customer service. (Of course it's 100% customer service, company 'XYZ' only makes and sells perfect knives, hell, they don't even need a customer service dept.) That's right, RIGHT??

At best it's a cosmetic fail, and if you just can't live with a knife with a cosmetic flaw then don't buy an Emerson. At worst it's a softened zone that'll wear quicker, and without sending it out to an independent lab you have absolutely no idea how much, if any damage to the steel there is. Thank God it's not even your knife your worried about.

PS,

Let me know what company is that makes those perfect knives cause I'm gonna sell all my Emersons and buy all my knives from them in the future too.
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I already said I won't buy any until quality improves. But what are you saying? Do I have to spend good money and be disappointed before I have a right to be wary of Emerson? :confused:
 
My opinion is going to be based on the fact that I've never paid more than $145 for a NIB Emerson knife....

I've bought 4 over the years , 3 I still have. All 4 were perfect out of the box , the later production knives are made better ( the fit of all the parts is better). The Horseman that I posted the picture of is my favorite, my second favorite is a SOCFK .

Comparing liner locking knives in the 100 - 145 range , Emerson knives are competitively priced.

When I purchased my EKI's. I picked them over similarly priced brands because....

- The open design ( easy to clean)
- Decent steel
- Titanium liners ( corrosion resistance / cuts weight)
- Rough G10 as opposed to smooth.
- Standard Hardware ( no torx)
- Excellent cust service
- In reading on line reviews , most professionals that own them ( LEO, EMT , Firefighters, etc) rave about them.
- Simple design.

EKI makes up only 3 out of roughly 150 folding knives that I own, yet the Horseman is one of my favorites. It fits my hand like a glove and that's important in a hand tool. There are some knives that are just a joy to use....

As far as qc issues... the last problem I had was with a $150 Spyderco knife that was assembled incorrectly ( a spacer was tightened without the frame halves lining up) The handle was popping up on one side with a huge gap, I fixed it ... things happen , I won't write an entire company off because of one mistake .
 
TEFL0N_D0N_81 said:
Wow, so paying $150 to $200 for an Emerson knife and then using pencil lead, sharpie and sandpaper to tweak it gets a pass on your radar, but a great quality knife at half it's price gets the "ghetto" label from you because of a cleverly used zip tie?
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Please point me to a the post when I was referring to such modifications on an Emerson? And yes you know its commonly called the "Ghetto Wave" Drop it in google and you'll see all your favorite knives with a stupid wire tie in them.
 
I own two emersons currently and I have owned atleast four others over the past few years. I think that while the finish may be a little lacking the designs, function and ergonomics are top notch. They're users and they use great IMO.
 
No, I don't expect anyone to buy something they don't want, that's the whole point. What I really find amusing is that, unless I missed it, the OP hasn't posted to this thread since I think page 3. lol

All I'm saying is that have Emerson knives had issues, yea. Do they still sometimes have issues, yea. Can anyone tell me the name of any man made product that hasn't had issues, I sure can't think or any. I have never owned a CR knife, or a Strider for that matter and just from what I read on this and other forums they each have thier own fan club. Can anyone honestly tell me that they have NEVER seen or heard of a CR or a Strider getting past the QC dept and going out with some sort of problem? Just a quick search shows me that at one time some ppl were complaining about soft steel in CR knives (I don't know if it was one model or in general). I don't know if those complaints were valid, but to some ppl, there were perceived issues.

If a human being made it, it's prone to having an error every so often, even Emersons.

As to my comment on trying to sell a ZT0200 for 300. That was a poor attempt at showing that everyone who makes a product for profit tries to sell that product for as much as they can to max their profit. Everyone says that Emersons are too pricey, and maybe they are, for YOU. If the price on their knives were perceived to be too high by the majority of ppl interested, then their knives wouldn't sell. If you really wanted to sell that ZT, you'd be forced to keep dropping your asking price until someone thought it was reasonable and bought it from you.

As to being a fanboy, I don't think so. I have no stake in EKI other than the knives I own. I just don't understand why there are some who seem so eager to bash. If you tried it and don't like it, great, wonderful, fantastic, don't give them any more of your money.

Anyway, I'm done. Have fun
 
Jester60 said:
If the price on their knives were perceived to be too high by the majority of ppl interested, then their knives wouldn't sell.
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Not really.
Striders truly are about $150 overpriced, due to past fraudulent claims of military heroics. Even after the truth came out, the price remained.
Yet I bought 3 of them (one of which got scammed by a modifier as far as I can tell:mad:).
I paid more than the knives were actually worth--based on materials, labour, and comparisons to other similar knives--because the design was rather cool.:)
Same with Emersons.
The designs are often rather unique, so if you want one you end up sucking up the fact that you're paying $50 too much.
And then you buy some sandpaper and fix the issues yourself.
 
I have had a mini CQC-7 for about a year now (really hard to get, always seem to be sold out) and I carry it every day. I have been really happy with the quality, finish, and function. I highly recommend them
 
Metal Made Fox said:
I like Emerson knives. Sure, they might be overpriced but you can't beat the beauty of their designs.
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Yep, the designs are very cool.
And the ergonomics are spot on too.

I think every knife knut should at least go handle one to make up their mind for themselves.
They are a rather iconic line of knives.
 
timberweasel said:
Thanks, Rev! Good to know... :thumbup:
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You are welcome. Actually, the A100 was the first knife of all the Emersons that really caught my attention. It just looks like a great knife, the handle shape and skinny profile won me over. No fancy bells and whistles on that one, just an honest knife. I bought mine for under $145, that was a fair price for that knife I thought. If not, I would have passed.
 
Realistically, Emersons have two main things going for them. -The Wave, and their designs. Beyond that, there's not much there, but to many people, that's enough. I also think there's lots of people who buy these knives for the name and association. But, the steel is average, the locks are out-dated especially for "The number one hard use knives in the world", and the finish is generally low. To me, the wave and designs don't make these knives worth what they cost, and I'd take several other companies knives first for the price.
I respect Emerson as an American company and wish them well, but I don't expect to have another any time soon.
 
I don't think liner locks will ever be outdated, I just think it could be better executed. If the non-locking liner side is now stainless steel(though I don't think prices went any lower with the reduction of titanium components in the knife) in more recent models, may as well go full stainless on the other side as well to further improve lock strength and slow down the lockbar travel. I also think the interface at least could be somewhat more polished, as I suspect that is typically what causes the sticky lock and the fast travel. With a rough finish that leaves high and low spots, the lock will stick and lock up earlier than it really would after breaking in.
 
Is this thread really still going? Emerson knives are awesome because Ernie is cooler than Chuck Norris. End of story. But if you really don't like them feel free to send them to me.

Seriously, I've owned a lot of emersons, are they a little expensive for what they are? Yes, but that also up's the resale value.
 
Nimick said:
Seriously, I've owned a lot of emersons, are they a little expensive for what they are? Yes, but that also up's the resale value.
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Only if it's a CQC-12 or HD-7, custom, or some other highly sought discontinued model. Any other model I've seen experiences the same secondhand markdowns as everything else from other makers.
 
Let me clarify, the money you get from reselling is a propotionally larger chunk of money you can use to buy other knives. Also, because they cost more, you could (or you should) be able to offer less of a markdown and keep the price attractive.

Also IDK if they've fixed this, but it use to be that emerson runs were notoriously far apart. Often times, not a single retailer would have a knife that was supposedly "in production".
 
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