Ernie Emerson(Jason or Albert please help me to translate)

LP188

Hello Everyone, I am new here and I would like to talk about my own personal views and experiences with Emerson PRODUCTION knives.

As you all can see, my collection is very limited and the CQC-12 is no longer mine, The Comrade is with a true Comrade right now.
I got into Emerson knives or knife collecting in general fairly late, I started in late 2007 and Emerson was one of the first brand that I really liked due to their "tactical cool looking designs".  The first Emerson I got was their Mini Commander, I was so hooked with their quality(I used to judge the quality of a knife by sharpness only) and design, I got 2 more(CQC-8 and 12) the same week after that.  My initial impression was the blade was really thick and the pivot was really easy to adjust, not to mention the "wave" feature was really fun for a knife noob like myself.  At that time, I bought knives mostly based on their looks as I had no knowledge about steel and function, you know the "tech stuff".  As I bought more, I noticed their QC quality was not always there esp considering the price tag they charge.  For example the CQC-8 that I got had a lock failure and got me a huge cut on my left index finger.  I have heard people saying many times that " Go ahead and send it back to EKI and they will take care of you"  That is all good but if I pay $200+ for a production knife, I would at least want some quality to go along with that price tag.  Despite this I still went ahead and bought the CQC-7B waveless and a Persian right before they stopped selling those.  Those two knives are very solid, except the lock is super stiff and the locking liner sticks to the blade tang really badly.



This is their latest stone washed blade option, it looks better than the old satin coating finish and the pivot is a little smoother than the older modles but the lock is still super stiff.  Then again I just love Ernie's designs!

I don't know what it is about Emerson knives but they just got that certain charm and look to them that I am really attracted to.  As far as actual usage for EDC, I think you will be better off buying a Spyderco or Benchmade for half the money and they would both serve you well.   Now I am not here to say that they are "all show, no go" as a lot of spec ops guys swear by Emerson products but as for an average guy like myself, they are mostly just for personal enjoyment.   



I would also like to post a couple pictures from the USN Gathering last weekend in Las Vegas for your viewing pleasures.


The famous Emerson lottery, if you have a chance to go to a knife show in America please visit his lottery just to experience the Emerson craze.  It is truly something else, I have never seen so many faithful and dedicated customers with any brand before.



This is his brand new Snake Commander design hand made by Ernie himself


This is the Black SIX that he brought to the USN gathering, handmade by Ernie himself, there were only 12 pieces made.  I handled them and played around with them, again love the design but the lock/pivot is just too stiff.

因陀罗

welcome the forum .enjoy and have fun!
US mate?

LP188

Yes sir!  I came to America when I was like 9 years old.  My pinyin is really limited I am trying to type Chinese, but it would take forever to write something like that.

jasonp

WOW, the snake commander looks wicked! i'm no fan of the triangular thumb hole though, i'd much prefer a thumb plate.
Thanks for your compliment man {:3_55:} and I think you are absolutely correct about production emersons' design and fit & finish. I wouldn't worry about the edge performance of emerson production knives, and the same thing goes with their ergos, but their fit and finish are rarely right on like Chris Reeves or kershaws or spydercos or benchmades at similar price range.
Ernie is proud about manufacturing knives in his own facility with his own staff, but imo that's not the right way of doing business, he's not making use of the available resoures in the market, nor is he utilizing his own resources efficiently. I bet if he outsource his knife production, profit margin of EKI could go up by at least 20%.

I'd be so willing to buy emerson designed knives if they were manufactured by companies with better QC, per say benchmade.

LP188

No problem Jason, thanks for showing me the ropes, I learned a lot about knives from you.

Yah Ernie is quite stubborn about the way he does business but it is what it is.  Kershaw or someone just came out with the Auto Commander, I am not a fan of spring assisted/automatic knives(too many damn moving parts to worry about) but people have been talking about that.  When I was talking to Ken Onion last weekend, he was telling me his thumblock design is stronger than the Benchmade Axis lock.  One thing is for sure he makes/designs some really top notch knives.   He showed me his EDC knife which was  a small flipper and that thing flips like its got butter in the pivot.

QC wise I think Spyderco is up there, even a little better than Benchmade IMHO.

albertnaoko

Hello and welcome to the knifriend.com Dave!
I am not really a fan but hey man you have really awesome collection of emerson knives!!!
no problem Jason and I will help you with the translation  and   
I just have one thing that I would like you to do for this thread:
could you please introduce yourself to everyone? :)

LP188

Sure Albert, well here goes...

My name is Pang Lei or I go by David in the US.  Grew up in California but was born in Shanxi Province and went to elementary school in Beijing.  Got into knives in late 2007 but I have always had the knife nut DNA.  I tried to make knives when I was kid and have always loved anything with an edge.

I found this site from Momo's website and never registered until last month, but I have been a lurker on this site for a while and liked all the input guys wrote in here, esp how knowledgeable you and JasonP are about knives.  Anyway I will try my best to contribute to this wonderful site with my limited knowledge and pictures.  

Thank you

LP188

PS: Albert and Jason anytime you guys come down to Los Angeles, please have a cold brew on me.

albertnaoko

I agree with u Dave both spyderco and benchmade make excellent knives but I prefer spyderco
first off, spyderco's designs show more creative energy which is the #1 important thing in the knife-making industry. and all spydercos' have incredible cutting power!
BM has the axis lock - very strong, very reliable. But still i feel more comfortable with the linear lock.

LP188

Albert I like Spyderco better than Benchmade for the following reasons.

1.  Knives are sharper out of the box compare to any production companies out there.
2.  The man behind the company, Sal and Eric really put their heart and soul into designing and QC of their knives.  Not to mention they are very humble people too, unlike a lot of corporate snobs out there.
3.  Functional, I used to hate Spyderco knives and thought they were ugly, but when I actually put them in my hands, I instantly understood why they were designed that way.  Their ergo is second to none and that again shows they put in a lot of work into designing.  Brad Southard, a fairly new knifemaker from Colorado told me Sal actually spends a lot of time and money to see how far or how much punishment his knives can really take.

MAXIMUS

你们用英文聊天我就不参与了，今天读了不少英文了。。。。需要休息~~~慢慢翻译。。。。。

第一段大致翻译：
正如大家所看到的，我的收藏是非常有限的，CQC- 12已经不再是我的了，（XXXX这句我不知道怎么翻译，虽然看懂了）
我开始收集爱默森的刀是比较晚的事情了。我开始收集是在2007年底，爱默生是最早的我喜欢的品牌之一，我真的很喜欢，因为它们“很战术很酷”的设计。我所获得的第一把艾默森是迷你指挥官，我非常迷恋爱默生的质量（我判断的刀质量的唯一标准是刀具的开锋（研磨？））和设计。在同一个星期，我又买了2把以上的爱默生刀，分别是CQC-8 和12， .我对他们的初步印象是刀片非常厚，and the pivot was really easy to adjust（刀轴非常容易调整？），更不用说”波浪型“特色的设计让我这个刀痴非常痴迷。当时，我买刀大多根据刀的外表，因为我还没有关于钢铁和功能的知识，你知道的，就是那些“技术知识”。当我越买越多的时候，我发现他们（爱默森）的质量并不总是和他们的价格成正比的。例如CQC-8，我的CQC-8的锁定有问题（还是解锁了？），我的左手食指被割了一个大口子。我曾听到有人说了很多次，“送回厂里，他们会给你修理的”。这当然是好事，但是，我既然为一把刀付出了200+的美刀，我应该得到的是对得起这200多美元的东西。尽管如此，我仍然一意孤行，买了CQC - 7B和Persian right（型号？）在他们不再生产这两个型号之前。这两个刀非常稳固，但是锁定超级僵硬，和锁定非常差。

原文：As you all can see, my collection is very limited and the CQC-12 is no longer mine, The Comrade is with a true Comrade right now.
I got into Emerson knives or knife collecting in general fairly late, I started in late 2007 and Emerson was one of the first brand that I really liked due to their "tactical cool looking designs".  The first Emerson I got was their Mini Commander, I was so hooked with their quality(I used to judge the quality of a knife by sharpness only) and design, I got 2 more(CQC-8 and 12) the same week after that.  My initial impression was the blade was really thick and the pivot was really easy to adjust, not to mention the "wave" feature was really fun for a knife noob like myself.  At that time, I bought knives mostly based on their looks as I had no knowledge about steel and function, you know the "tech stuff".  As I bought more, I noticed their QC quality was not always there esp considering the price tag they charge.  For example the CQC-8 that I got had a lock failure and got me a huge cut on my left index finger.  I have heard people saying many times that " Go ahead and send it back to EKI and they will take care of you"  That is all good but if I pay $200+ for a production knife, I would at least want some quality to go along with that price tag.  Despite this I still went ahead and bought the CQC-7B waveless and a Persian right before they stopped selling those.  Those two knives are very solid, except the lock is super stiff and the locking liner sticks to the blade tang really badly


JASONP你来后面的吧~~~{:3_56:}

刀刀不离后脑勺

呵呵 真牛啊 全外国字啊  看不懂哦 我也吃了没文化的亏啊 哎{:3_52:}

MAXIMUS

第二段。。。。。

原文：

This is their latest stone washed blade option, it looks better than the old satin coating finish and the pivot is a little smoother than the older modles but the lock is still super stiff.  Then again I just love Ernie's designs!

I don't know what it is about Emerson knives but they just got that certain charm and look to them that I am really attracted to.  As far as actual usage for EDC, I think you will be better off buying a Spyderco or Benchmade for half the money and they would both serve you well.   Now I am not here to say that they are "all show, no go" as a lot of spec ops guys swear by Emerson products but as for an average guy like myself, they are mostly just for personal enjoyment.  （最后一句挺有难度的）

这是他们最新的刀片石洗方式，看起来比旧的缎面效果要好，刀轴比旧版本的要顺滑一些，但锁定仍然是超级僵硬（费劲？）。然后，我非常喜欢Ernie's的设计！

我不知道是什么一回事，我只是看着它们，非常期待它们而且被它们的魅力所吸引了。至于平常EDC的实际使用情况，我想你最好买Spyderco（蜘蛛）或Benchmade（蝴蝶）因为他们只花一半的钱，但他们也都做的非常好。我不是在说EMERSON只能看不能使，而是作为一个像我这样的正常人，这些刀大多只为个人喜好。

不玩了。。。。你们来吧~~{:3_56:}

胖大厨

据说Emerson反华,这是大家不喜欢他的第一个原因!
他很战术,几乎是真正战术的代名词,不过太多崇拜硬汉的人质疑他的刀单薄,线锁单薄(楼主觉得他的刀片厚?很多时尚先锋的比他厚多啦),这是大家不喜欢的第二个原因!
但他对刀具的理解和贡献是相当大的!
他的刀就是纯粹的刀,武器和工具,不会给人假象,优点和缺点一目了然!
比那些把刀做成不知道什么玩意靠炒做活着的确实要好很多很多!

LP188

Now I am not here to say that they are "all show, no go" as a lot of spec ops guys swear by Emerson products

“现在，我不会像很多收集爱默森的家伙们一样说“只是给你们看看，不卖“Maximus 这段不对，


“我不是在说EMERSON只能看不能使，因为很特种部队的非常认可 Emerson"

folder

haha good job;操，引来一帮“鸟”{:3_51:}人

albertnaoko

11# MAXIMUS

辛苦辛苦, 加分!

albertnaoko

Dave可以阅读中文但是写中文比较费尽对吧?
能阅读就很好了,不然我还担心你来中文论坛没法看帖子呢:)

MAXIMUS

Now I am not here to say that they are "all show, no go" as a lot of spec ops guys swear by Emerson products

“现在，我不会像很多收集爱默森的家伙们一样说“只是给你们看看，不卖“Maximus 这段不对，
...
LP188 发表于 2009-9-9 08:01

原来是这样翻译，谢谢纠正，看来我托福考不过去是有原因的{:3_63:} ，哈哈哈哈哈{:3_55:} ~~

nut

well done and welcome！bro