The fall of Emerson Knives

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they are also doing exclusives with some shops.
Micarta, steel flame clip, silver hardware and right side chisel grind on a CQC-7B
 
Right side chisel grind on a CQC-7B???? Where can I find this?
They are gone
100 made with satin blade
100 made with black blade
For both the B and BW

I was interested only in the satin B and I manage to get the #50 out of 100
The thickness and the quality of the micarta on these are the best I have seen.
It seems to be the same used on the Emerson customs.
i disassembled the knife to remove the grease from EKI and put some nano oil and it is very smooth.

i know at least 2 shops that offer exclusives.

mon the one that made this CQC 7, their have been Commander, A100, 7B and 7BW made. More are coming.

I think they are not registered dealers here so I cannot advertise , sorry
 
eOr2DJW.jpg

they are also doing exclusives with some shops.
Micarta, steel flame clip, silver hardware and right side chisel grind on a CQC-7B

Man, I wish they'd do all of them in green canvas micarta!!! That looks sweet! I'd be ok with Ernie designing and ZT building!!!!!!!! Love my 640 & would love to see what else they could do!
 

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Wanted an Emerson for years. Picked up a brand new Bowie from an authorized dealer. Had a stripped scale screw, also when waved the liner would slam to the right so hard that you needed a screw driver to un wedge it, and if you thumbed it open the lock slip was horrendous. You could grab the blade and close it with the liner locked in place. Garbage. Emerson Knives was fallen for me years ago. I would never buy another.
 
Wanted an Emerson for years. Picked up a brand new Bowie from an authorized dealer. Had a stripped scale screw, also when waved the liner would slam to the right so hard that you needed a screw driver to un wedge it, and if you thumbed it open the lock slip was horrendous. You could grab the blade and close it with the liner locked in place. Garbage. Emerson Knives was fallen for me years ago. I would never buy another.
I also had two horrible experiences with models that had the double detent.
It was a mess to tune and I sold them for cheap

the 2 I got this year were great
Actually the standard cqc-7b I have is one of my smoother knife
 
Man, I wish they'd do all of them in green canvas micarta!!! That looks sweet! I'd be ok with Ernie designing and ZT building!!!!!!!! Love my 640 & would love to see what else they could do!
QwiWU7z.jpg

i also customised my 0640 ;)
OD micarta and Silver Ti hardware.
Great knife but not sure I will keep it, the cqc-7Bs have spoiled the ZT for me...
 
My CQC7 is a great piece of hardware. They aren’t on the decline and that’s for damn sure. Ya they got plenty of haters but it’s fine.

View attachment 1350238
This made me go look up my own CQC 7v. It had both crazy lock stick, and at the same time, could be closed like a slip joint. It has stayed in a drawer for over a year.

Now it has magically fixed itself: Almost no stick, and the lock feels secure. Strange. Will have to try carry it again, but I am a bit sceptical still
 
I have a few and like 'em just fine. I won't argue with those who feel differently, but I would suggest to others who are curious to try one for themselves and form their own opinion.

I bought my latest one just this year (Journeyman.)

emersons.jpg
Journeyman, A-100, Gentleman Jim, Horseman
 
They are gone
100 made with satin blade
100 made with black blade
For both the B and BW

This is one thing I never understood about Emersons. Chisel grinds have such limited practicality in the first place, and then they compound the issue by grinding it on the wrong side for 90% of the population (and the "lucky" 10% have the lock on the wrong side).

I just remembered, having mentioned this in a different thread, that when I first joined Bladeforums 16 years ago (jeez) I was looking for an upgrade/replacement for my Kershaw Leek because the 440A (this was before they switched to Sandvik) wasn't working out. I had it narrowed down to 3 knives: a Benchmade 921 Switchback, a Camillus Dominator (kinda wish I had gotten one, this was before Camillus went under), and an Emerson of some sort. Emerson had some fans, but they also had their detractors, whose opinions swayed me away from the company. I never bought the Dominator or the Switchback either; it was at this time I learned that autos were legal in Arizona and I bought a Woodard Fer De Lance.

16 years later and Emerson doesn't seem to have evolved whatsoever. Same rough F&F, sticky locks, and 154CM. Gotta give them their propers for the Wave though. I opened more than enough beer bottles with my Endura Wave when I was drinking and it's my knife of choice when wandering around after dark.
 
This made me go look up my own CQC 7v. It had both crazy lock stick, and at the same time, could be closed like a slip joint. It has stayed in a drawer for over a year.

Now it has magically fixed itself: Almost no stick, and the lock feels secure. Strange. Will have to try carry it again, but I am a bit sceptical still
Check the centering of the blade
On m’y Emerson i have noticed that when for a reason or another I had a poor centering, the lock became more sticky.
During the reassembly i first tighten the pivot and after the pivot the body screw.
Usually that gives me a good centering the I have no problem with a pivot getting loose (like on some of my ZTs) or with a lock getting too sticky (Bering assumed that due to the material you will always have some)
On the other end I never had an issue with blade closing with the lock engaged. If that happens it can be due to a damage (or default) on the lock interface... titanium Bering softer than steel you use it (with cautious).
Take some cardboard and cut a good quantity of them.
Sometime the constraints of using the knife fix a lot of small mechanical or edge burning issues
I had the same things with some spyderco and Hinderer and reassembling the knife to get a good centering and a long session of work on cardboard have fixed my issues.
 
This is one thing I never understood about Emersons. Chisel grinds have such limited practicality in the first place, and then they compound the issue by grinding it on the wrong side for 90% of the population (and the "lucky" 10% have the lock on the wrong side).

I just remembered, having mentioned this in a different thread, that when I first joined Bladeforums 16 years ago (jeez) I was looking for an upgrade/replacement for my Kershaw Leek because the 440A (this was before they switched to Sandvik) wasn't working out. I had it narrowed down to 3 knives: a Benchmade 921 Switchback, a Camillus Dominator (kinda wish I had gotten one, this was before Camillus went under), and an Emerson of some sort. Emerson had some fans, but they also had their detractors, whose opinions swayed me away from the company. I never bought the Dominator or the Switchback either; it was at this time I learned that autos were legal in Arizona and I bought a Woodard Fer De Lance.

16 years later and Emerson doesn't seem to have evolved whatsoever. Same rough F&F, sticky locks, and 154CM. Gotta give them their propers for the Wave though. I opened more than enough beer bottles with my Endura Wave when I was drinking and it's my knife of choice when wandering around after dark.
My first Emerson was a CQC-8 and the detent was Bad to say the least and the chisel grind on the wrong side just drove me crazy.
i sold it after 2 months.
That was 3 years ago.

i got a standard CQC-7B this year and now I don’t mind the chisel grind on the « wrong side ».
It cuts, and that the only thing that matters ;)
For sure they are not made to be precision cutters ;)
 
Only one guy got it right when saying it was the Kershaw collaborations that killed it. Same thing is happening now with Ferrum Forge. It dilutes the very brand itself. Very hard to come back from.

If anything old school tactical designs are doing better than ever. Strider is having a huge resurgence, Microtech SOCOM Elite's are flying off the shelves. TAD is still commanding 2x aftermarket markup.

I'm very Emerson curious right now but my utterly poor experience with Kershaw and ZT knives are keeping my wallet at bay. Maybe I'll find the right chisel ground CQC7 on the Swap. Certainly want to try one out.
 
There are people on here who hate on Emerson and are pretty vocal about that. I also think the Emerson fans have a headquarters of sorts at another site, as others above have mentioned. I think it’s worth mentioning that every knife person I’ve met out in the wild (“oh you like knives too?” or “oh if you like knives, you should talk to my friend/dad/etc”) has been a fan of Emerson. Every single one I can think of. That’s why I checked them out. I first got an Emerson knife within the past 2-3 years. I have one that I really like and I’ve had a few others I didn’t like much.
 
The late great Charlie Mike made a suggestion that always stuck with me....EKI should beef up the liners on their knives. I went thru an Emerson phase, and a thin liner that walked across the tang in a matter of months was something that I couldn’t tolerate. I love the ergonomics and grinds were always spot on, but I could not bring myself to trust that liner lock. Maybe a thicker liner would help, I don’t know, but it couldn’t hurt.
 
The late great Charlie Mike made a suggestion that always stuck with me....EKI should beef up the liners on their knives. I went thru an Emerson phase, and a thin liner that walked across the tang in a matter of months was something that I couldn’t tolerate. I love the ergonomics and grinds were always spot on, but I could not bring myself to trust that liner lock. Maybe a thicker liner would help, I don’t know, but it couldn’t hurt.

In the case of the two Emersons I owned that had premature wear, I feel a big factor was the mating surfaces of the blade tangs. Those were ground at a very steep angle, which also contributed to the lock slip. Unless in more recent years EKI has changed the angle of the mating surface to a more gradual, preferably slightly concave one.

Jim
 
i love the designs of emerson but i just hate linerlocks and ive had two emersons whith liner locks that could easily be defeated by applying some pressure to the back of the blade which is why i dont buy them anymore. if emerson were to make some backlocks i would be super interested. a cqc7 or cqc8 with a strong backlock would be an incredible edc.
 
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