Emerson Knives Commander

Reviewed 01/03/2012 by luke nukem

-Price Paid: $170.00
-Used for Light Duty/General
-Owned for Greater than 1 year

Comments:

I have used my Emerson commander for something like 8 years give or take. I think the "wave" is the greatest thing ever. A lot of people like the assisted knives out there.. and that's fine for those people. However in the span I've owned my knife I have become absolutely confident in this knife.. I can deploy it faster than anyone I've ever personally seen deploy a knife.. period. I imagine that would be worth any and everything in a defensive situation. The wave clip does make it difficult to take out of my pocket without partially opening but that's rather irrelevant to me since its my knife and I have learned how to handle knives. For some people I guess they need a course or two. The commanders carry is very nice to me being that its slender enough yet has a nice weight to know that its there. The size of it is a large folder but not bulky. The clip on it is very stout and has been so since I've owned it. I have no idea what one would have to do to mess this clip up without abuse. Also the length of the clip is nearly ideal. The handle ergonomics are excellent for my hand size. It's become preference over all my benchmades, zt, tops, and spydercos. For me its like a custom 1911 knife.. there's just an uncanny balance and fit for me that I don't get with most others. The g 10 scales are still great to this day. Some guy complained about the liner being thin, which I disagree with. It's titanium folks.. its light its strong has never failed me and its fairly an easy press to move the liner like a nice light trigger. I guess I kind of feel slightly bad for anyone who gets a counterfeit one. It's a shame you spent almost the amount of money I did and get a piece of junk. With that being said I think that when making a purchase like that demands a little research and follow the advice of Emerson's web site. Buy from reputable sources and make sure the piece is in stock. I want to get a police sark and a cqc 15 but it seems with Emerson that Ernest makes what Ernest wants. So when you do see the knife available out there.. you better just suck it up and deal with the price. They are not very easy to get on most sites for whatever reason/reasons. The price is the biggest setback for Emerson's in general to me, and that the linen micarta version is stupid expensive. Those things are just bad a$$ lookin. At the end of the day the commander is a proven knive. People wouldn't be paying 130 bucks for a fake one if the blade wasn't a spectacular piece of equipment to begin with. If you are in to knives, especially tactical folders I would definitely recommend buying at least one Emerson. You only live once.. the money spent you likely won't remember, but the knife itself you will remember forever

Reviewed 06/02/2011 by bo

-Price Paid: $138.00
-Used for Every Day Carry
-Owned for Less than 1 Month

Comments:

i bought my first Emerson, a Mini Commander SF, from a reputable on-line dealer. I intended to EDC it, but after ten minutes with this one, I googled "Emerson quality issues" and found myself here. Normally I wouldn't take the time to review a knife, but am so irritated by how abysmally bad this thing is I feel I have to.

All I can say is: "What a disappointment."

Where do I start?

First, the build quality is pathetic. My 30 dollar Walmart blister pack Kershaw is finished -so- much better than this hunk of junk. It's bloody awful. Here's a list of my issues:

- The scales don't lie flush to the liner on the back of the non-locking side.

- The liner's perimeter is practically unfinished - file or tooling marks ALL THE WAY AROUND the edges of both liners.

- The edges of the liners and scales are not flush in multiple places, and this isn't "catch a fingernail" uneven, it's better than a two millimeters at the front/bolster area.

- The blade's not centered (and by not centered, i mean it's off by 20%).

- The thumb wheel is not perpendicular to the blade. Not perpendicular meaning canted at > 15 degrees.

- The knife's sharp, but when whomever put this together and stropped the back of the blade to remove the burr, they were drunk or high, it's so wavy and uneven as to be comical.

- The inner surface of the "Wave" on the blade looks like a 5 year old with a file hacked at it. So does the back of the "Wave". I wish I could attach pictures.

- The jimping on the thumb ramp at the back of the blade is not even and has an unfinished appearance.

- When open, the jimping on the thumb ramp and the liners aren't even close to matching.

What a bitter pill this is to swallow, the much-ballyhoo'ed and vaunted Emerson is junk straight out of the box!

The ONE good thing I can immediately say about this is that the re-curve grind is BEAUTIFULLY executed and the only reason I'm willing to give this a chance - otherwise,, it's -so- bad that I'm wondering if I got a fake? The dealer I purchased this from is a well known entity whose anonymity I'm protecting (as build quality isn't their problem), so I can't imagine that's it.

Literally 5 minutes into looking at it and I was thinking to myself "what the heck is this"???!!!??? C'mon, boys and girls, a knife that retails for $195 should NEVER have as many quality issues as this one does.

I'm not expecting Sebenza here, just be as good as a 30 dollar Walmart Kershaw. The Emerson Mini Commander I received IS NOT.

I'm sending it back to Emerson and asking for a do-over, hopefully they take care of it and earn a customer by providing a knife worthy of the Emerson name.

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Reviewed 04/25/2011 by Clinton De Abreu

-Price Paid: N/A
-Used for Every Day Carry
-Owned for Greater than 1 year

Comments:

I've owned my Emerson Commander for over a year and disagee with a lot of the comments on this page. My blade was purchased to be a daily carry blade & for use in my AMOK training. This blade has proven to be well built & tough.

I enjoy the wave system which really cuts seconds off the blades draw. It's heft is great, a constant reminder of you companion & there isn't a better looking blade, simply put it's beatiful.

The grip on it is made to be non-slip, regardless of moisture levels. The grip is finished off into a tip, making it a great defensive tool in a hammer type swing situation. The grip is made of steel versus plastic, which has a reassuring feel to it. The locking mechanism is simple, straightforward thumb catch type & it's proven to be very strong. The click, which some one complained about earlier, is well built, strong & one of the better construct ones that I've seen.

In closing, I have several knives & I admit that as a full utulity knife this blade fulls short, which is it's only short coming, but this blade wasn't built to be a utulity blade. This blade was constructed to be a daily carry self defence knife you will find it hard to find anything else better on the market. In short I absolutely love my Emerson Commando.

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Reviewed 02/18/2011 by jake1

-Price Paid: N/A
-Used for Light Duty/General
-Owned for Less than 1 Month

Comments:

I was very let down when I received this knife. very poor quality as far as blade play and the edge was a joke. I don't know how it got out of the factory like this. The edge was not sharp at all. The pocket clip is of poor material, it bent on my Winter coat... I don't understand how they can promote such a knife as "battle proven" when it is pure junk at best. I feel like leaving it at Emersons door step. Better yet it might make a good weight for surf fishing. Yea thats it...

Reviewed 11/16/2010 by dragonram7

-Price Paid: $135.00
-Used for Every Day Carry
-Owned for 3 months

Comments:

I actually own a few Emerson knives. I guess my appeal to authority is I'm a retired cop. I am very active in the Boy Scouts of America as a Varsity Scoutmaster. I had a ZT 200 that I wasn't carrying. It was a great knife but too big to EDC at my white collar PC job. I returned to Blade HQ and I traded the ZT in for the Kershaw-Emerson Auto Commander plus $15 ($135 out the door). I immediately began to carry it full time. It's narrow enough to EDC with low profile G10 handles that won't chew up your slacks. The clip is strong and actually says Kershaw on it. The size is about the size of a Super Commander. The blade steel is S30V. I purchased a plain edge version. A combo edge exists as well.

The grind on this version is not the characteristic Emerson chisel grind. The blade is sharpened on both sides in a hallow grind. I have been very impressed with the ergonomics of the handle. I have large hands and the knife is easy to hold in the saber and reverse grip. Due to the handle shape, my younger sons find it is easy to hold onto and use. The lock is call the cross fire locking system designed by Grant and Gavin Hawk. The lock up is secure without any blade play. The firing button is moved to the spine and then pressed downwards to fire. You can fire it with gloves on. It opens with a "thunk". The cool thing about the lock is I ca lock it open or closed.

I took the knife camping for a Boy Scout winter camp out. It performed flawlessly. The quality is exceptional and it is an outstanding value. Be careful, it might be your last knife.

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Reviewed 05/05/2010 by Ben Thomas

-Price Paid: N/A
-Used for Self Defense
-Owned for Greater than 1 year

Comments:

The production Commander has got to be one of the most overrated knives around. The craftmanship is very shoddy. The liner is very thin. The only good thing about this knife is its silhouette.

Reviewed 02/21/2010 by Jason

-Price Paid: N/A
-Used for Every Day Carry
-Owned for 1 year

Comments:

I have always had an EDC knife for the last 20 years, and I USE my knifes, so I need a heavy duty knife. I've mainly carried Spydercos along with a couple Kershaw's thrown in from time to time. Never had any issues with either knife, both makes have held up very very well for the use I have put them through. I always wanted an Emerson Commander, so I picked up a Mini Com. I first received the knife was really excited, looked great and felt heavy duty. The wave feature became easier the more the blade was opened and closed. Time went on I did notice the blade has some side to side movement, so I tightened the large side screw just a tad, the more you tighten the screw the harder it is to open, so you have to compromise between the blade movement and how hard it is to open/close. The next thing is the clip; the clip is the WORST clip I have ever seen in my life. I don't know if it's made from soda can aluminum or what, but very, very weak. As soon as this clip catches on anything for the first time, it's done. The more you fix it the weaker it gets. I contacted Emerson and spoke to the secretary of Ernest Emerson. First she stated that they do not replace clips, and then said "oh wait a minute, hold on a second". She spoke to Emerson and he said "You are too hard on your knife! I will replace your clip only this one time, screws are not included. After this one time you will have to buy them yourself" I said well I read these are strong, robust, "Battle proven" knives. He said again, you are using your knife too hard. I just kind of chuckled and said ok. By this time, I was ready to ask for his mailing address and say you can have my knife back. I replaced the clip and about 3 weeks later same thing. The clip is so weak, (no exaturation) as I lifted my shirt to get it tucked in my pants, the bottom of the shirt caught on the clip tip and bent it out about an 1/8th". So now of course its bent just far enough that it does not clip securely to my pocket, so I have to press it in and re bend it back. I have to unscrew the clip about every 2 weeks because it's bent out so far now.

Another issue is the blade grind. When it comes from the factory it is indeed very sharp as it should be. However it is a chisel grind and is not as easy to sharpen as other knives. If you want the factory to sharpen it for you, well of course it will cost you. On the other hand, Kershaw and Spyderco sharpens for free, for life.

I have one time on a Kershaw bent the clip because I was in a tight confined space for work, I contacted them, told them I bent my clip while working, no questions asked, sent me 2 clips and 2 sets of screws.

Other than that, yes I have snagged the clips on things, here and there, never once did they ever bend.

I was just amazed that Emerson has all this hype on his website as well as in advertising about his "fighting knifes" and "battle proven" knifes. Just as I said all hype, if I had this so called battle proven knife while I was serving in the sand box, I probably would have thrown it away.

Other than the issues listed above, it was a decent knife, but a bit over priced for what they are. The customer service and warranty is bottom of the barrel in my opinion.

I only carried it about 10-11 months; I just couldn't take it anymore and went back to Spyderco. Paid half of what I did for the Emerson and got twice the quality along with awesome customer service. The Spydercos do last, as I still have a few knives that are 7-10 years old, the others get retired to camping gear and tool box use.

Sorry if this sounds like a boast for Spyderco, but this is the knife I know best since I carried this brand 95% of the time. No I don't work for or sell their merchandise. I was just disappointed in this knife, and when Emerson said that I'm too hard on my knife just sealed the deal. I don't consider Kershaw as a heavy duty knife like I do Spyderco or the Emerson (thought anyway) but my Kershaw held up better than the Emerson did. Go figure.

I'm too hard on my knife, that's just funny right there LOL.

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