I bought my nephew one of the Kershaw Emerson designs for christmas last year. Not a bad little knife, and seemed to do well what I have seen. Not sure if he still carrying it though since the knives and phones he carries seem to find their ways either through lawn mowers or under bulldozers. My only two gripes were, one it was a chinese made knife, and two, which isn’t a huge gripe, but the one I bought him, which was one of the larger models that Kershaw had at the time with the Emerson wave feature, was heavier than my CQC-13, while being significantly smaller. Just was shocked at how heavy it felt.
What? You don’t? Amateur!
:jester:
The price of trying to make the pics look cool, everyone misses what you are trying to focus on. Lol.
That was an informative review, Voodoo. I have a seen a review or two of yours, but I went ahead and subscribed so I can stay on top of them. It is an awesome knife, for sure. I agree with you, that it is overkill for EDC, since I carry a fixed blade along with a folder. However, it has replaced my ZT0350 on my outdoor excursions. I went with Elmax.
Of all the knives I have carried, it seems to me that the knives around $100 have served me the best. Spyderco, Benchmade, and ZT have made up this group of knives for me.
When we were on vacation my 10 year old son saw some novelty knife in a tourist shop. I told him that I never spend less than $100 on a knife or a flashlight- maybe a bit of an exaggeration, but not by much. I’ve grown quite fond of Benchmade 940 series with the Axis lock and Surefire flashlights. I rarely leave the house with out an EB2 and a Benchmade in the front pockets. I haven’t really strayed from The 940s in the past 8 years or so. You can find them on sale for low $100 from time to time.
I don’t ‘loose’ my knives, but I misplace them, so I have four 940s that I cycle thru till I find the missing one somewhere in my bedroom.
The 940 is a great EDC knife. That’s what I carry more than anything. The Axis lock is smooth and secure, and the S30V blade holds an edge very well, yet is still very easy to sharpen. Its size and shape carries very well, even with an EB1 in the same pocket. Pic below: (Top to Bottom) Zero Tolerance 0350 (~$140), DPx Hest/F, Spyderco PM2 (~$130), Benchmade 940 (~$190). Excluding the DPx, the others can be purchased for around $100 on the secondary market (ie. Equipment Exchanges). The 940 and PM2 are my top choices for EDC, currently. It is vitally important to maintain the retention of the clip on a knife to help prevent loss.
Strider’s run $400 and up, but they will ruin your jeans pockets before they’ll fall out without your knowing. The jazz of owning a higher-end knife is the art, design, durability of that oh-so-snobby steel, and cool factor. It likely won’t matter to anybody else but you, or the rare fellow knife enthusiast.
You can build an AR from perfectly good parts on a budget, or you can build your dream AR from grail parts. Its an individual thing and the only person that has to care is you.
Off topic.
How is DVOR? I think I have like $40 in store credit there since I signed up and never bought anything and they keep giving me like $5 every year on my birthday.
If you don’t know DVOR is a clearance website for optics-planet. A lot of their stuff is 5-15% cheaper then optics-planet because they can’t sell it at the normal price so they want to make some kind of money off it - genius to make it seem like a “sale!” type of thing.
Interesting, I did not know that.
I’m probably not the demographic that they are selling to though. I have entirely too much self control, unless it is a really good. Have never fallen for the “it’s a sale!” line. If the price isn’t right, I walk. It is a rare day that I just has to have it NOW! My first BCM upper was that way though, it is why I ended up with a BFH, lol.
That said, I am now looking more seriously at one of the ZTs that DVOR has on their site.
My most expensive knife is a Puma Master I bought for $85 back in the 1980’s, today it is about $170. I don’t often carry it because it doesn’t have a pocket clip. My daily carry is a Gerber Airframe.
Back before the higher end knives were really de rigueur, I was told that any knife I brought with me on deployment stood at least a chance of being lost and HRM wasn’t paying for it’s replacement. To this end I went and bought a 420 stainless dagger for 10 bob at one of the head shops local to my station and threw that on my webbing. I had that POS for over twenty two years and never once even lost sight of the bugger. A mate of mine went and bought some disco “commando” knife for 100 quid (not a F-S) and lost it the first time we had to cross a river sans bridge. Poor toss lost two days pay in that bit of current…
That “point of diminishing returns” issue brought up is pretty much where I’ve got to with all my stuff.
Knives, especially for an EDC, pretty much boils down to “is it a good knife” and intended use.
Now if a couple hundred bucks of knife falls out of my pocket and some walmart mutant gets it I will be blind pissed and crying like a little baby.
Also, I’ve had a Gerber Paraframe that has functioned just wonderfully in this role for the last, what has it been, like ten years? And is finally getting replaced due to screws falling out.
To that end, there will be a baby RAT or two making it’s nest in my pocket soon. Best I can tell, excellent knife, stupid cheap. If I lose one or bust it, I’ll be upset to be sure, but then I’ll have another around somewhere, so…it won’t be so bad.
Now, I tend to differ a little between an EDC “go to town” knife and a “serious use” knife or fixed blade.
If I needed a folder deploying to [insert favorite dunghill here] or the end of the world, I would grab a BM or ZT and never think twice.
Fixed blades are outdoor/survival/bush/SHTF knives and need to hold up to that use so… no el-cheapo specials there, BUT… since there’s apparently nothing wrong with awell priced knife that just so happens to have a decent quality pedigree… I’ve got an ESEE, even thought I’d rather have a cooler and perhaps slightly better knife. Point of diminishing returns and all that.
YMMV
