Kershaw Emerson CQC-K Pocket Knives, Manual Opening Folding Knife with Wave Shaped Feature, Multiple Styles

This Kershaw 6034T Emerson Designed CQC-7K caught my eye when a saw the announcement from the shot show and a snatched one up as soon as it came out. At a sub $30 knife I admittedly wasn't expecting much; I was surprised. When I received in from Amazon, and opened it, I was pleasantly surprised by not only the weight but the fit and finish was also surprisingly good. It wasn't up to the fit and finish of their own USA made Zero Tolerance nor that of a good Spyderco but for a $30 knife, it was good. Top this off with the fact that it had an Emerson opener and you have a winner in my book.BLADEThe 3.25 inch blade on this knife is made of 8Cr14MoV steel. 8Cr14MoV is a common steel coming out of of China and in the same class more or less as AUS-8. It sharpens easily but edge retention is no where near that of VG-10, S30V, CPM-154, etc. While this one came with a Tanto blade which in theory is better for stabbing out of control car doors and angry car hoods, in my opinion, it's not as utilitarian as a regular clip point blade that comes with the Kershaw CQC-6K . The thumb disk and Emerson Wave for opening is familiar from Emerson's own knives and work just like they do. I've never been a fan of the disk for opening and think Spyderco's hole or thumb studs work better but the disk works none-the-less. The wave on this knife works great! It works so good in fact, I'd venture to say it works better and smoother than my real Emerson. Throw in a few Emerson graphics and the blade looks pretty good and functions pretty good as well. It did not however hold and edge as good as some of my other higher priced knives with better steel; but that was expected. Fortunately it sharpened very easy. The blade thickness of 0.11 inches made it sufficiently thick for most EDC tasks.LOCKThe lock on this knife is a Chris Reeve Style frame lock without the over travel disk. The frame by the way is made of 410 stainless steel. This alleviates the concern that some folks have had about Titanium frame locks locking against a stainless blade. The concern I've heard and read is eventual lock wear. I own several Titanium Frame locks and have never seen this issue so I don't know that I subscribe to it. Either way, the concern has caused many knife companies to place a stainless steel cover or shim over the lock face on many titanium framed knives. Since this knife frame is made of 410 stainless, there should be no concern with this issue. It locked up tight with no play in up and down and minimal play side to side. Again, pretty good for a $30 Chinese made knife.FIT AND FINISHFit and finish was pretty dang good for a knife of this price. This IS NOT your typical $10 Chinese made junk you find at your local convenience store. This is a real, usable knife with slight blade play but otherwise F&F was very good.ERGONOMICSAgain, possibly because this knife had to be signed off on by both Kershaw and Emerson, the ergo's on this knife were pretty dang good for a 7.75" (opened) knife. The rounded edges and soft jimping are a pleasure to hold and use. I'm impressed.EMERSON OPENERThe Emerson opener on this little knife was is in my opinion as good as or (dare I say) better in some respects than my actual Emerson. Combine that with the smoothness of opening and you can open this little knife reliably every time with a proper draw from the pocket.POCKET CLIPThe pocket clip is well done on this knife. It is long enough to allow for sufficient flex to make insertion into the pocket easy. Combine the clip with the smooth 410 stainless frame and you have an easy knife to draw from the pocket while staying in place when and where you want it to. The only ding is that it is only reversible not the four positions like some knives.SMOOTHNESS OF OPENINGFrom the pocket utilizing the Emerson Wave, this knife pops open like a champ and locks solidly into place. Opening with the thumb disk can be done easily but no were near as flickable as a Spyderco's spyderhole or even a thumb stud.USESThe uses of this knife are pretty much limitless. There are some tasks that a clip point such as the Kershaw 6034 Emerson Designed CQC-6K could accomplish better but this blade will accomplish most of your day to day chores. Unfortunately, the 8Cr14MoV blade steel limits its use as a survival or even a camp knife. It's somewhat soft for those tasks which require sharpening and sharpening in those scenarios isn't always an option. I think you'd want something that holds and edge a bit better.CONCLUSIONFor what this little knife is, I really liked it. Amazon has it at a very good price, it has decent steel, has an Emerson Opener, good frame lock, opens extremely smoothly, FAST from the pocket and the fit and finish is decent. The dings are the steel, slight blade play and made in China. If you can live with the small dings against it, I think it's a pretty good little knife. You won't find a better looking, faster opening or useful knife in the $30 price range. If this is your price range, get one!

Love these knives.

One of my favorite knives I own

Keep this on me at work to cut boxes, tape etc. Very useful, and feels sturdy. I would recommend anyone who buys it sharpen it regularly.

Love this it's my daily

Well im impressed. Tidy little package. Good looking. Sharp blade.Smooth operation. Excellent ergonomics. Well made. A home run IMO. A definite best buy and must have. Read on for those that want details.The knife has excellent,grippy ,attractive G-10 scale over nice thick stainless liner. Thick.strong,bead blasted stainless frame lock and smooth G-10 back spacer. Put together with 3) fairly small build screws tapped into stainless standoffs themselves loosely pressed into the backspacer. Incidentally the spacer can be removed and leaving just standoffs for those that prefer open construction.The blade is 1/8" thick by 3 1/4" long and is made from 8cr13mov as i understand tho its not marked on the blade. As delivered its fairly sharp and is perfectly centered. It has nice even grinds. Its hollow ground to the edge which is quite sharp. The flats have a brushed finish while the hollow grinds have a nice stonewash. Very attractive finishing. The blade opens via a nicely placed thumb disc or the Emerson wave feature. Both methods work very well tho i prefer more texture on the thumb disc for a more reliable purchase and blade opening. The wave feature also forms a really great jimped thumb ramp besides being a lightning fast means of blade deployment.The blade pivots on a good sized pivot and has nylon or teflon washers. It pivots very smoothly after lubrication but was a bit course and noisy as delivered. There is a small to medium sized blade stop and the framelock locks securely to a depth of about 40%. There is zero blade play in any direction. Blade retention in the closed position is very good. No danger of it opening by accident.A very solid action and lockup.Ergonomics are fantastic with the handle shape ,jimped thumb ramp and deep finger groove positively locking itself into my grasp. And does so with complete comfort. Extremely secure.extremely comfortable and offers a variety of grip styles. Excellent! It is a solid feeling knife being made of steel rather than the titanium thats so popular(and expensive),but its not too heavy at all. Its reassuring weight IMO.The pocket clip is tip up only and reversible for left or right hand carry. It has excellent tension and retains the knife in pocket reliably. Its not super deep carry however,with about 3/4" exposed.Overall an exceptional knife and an incredible value. I consider it a must have and intend to check out a couple other Kershaw/Emerson collaboration models. Extremely highly recommended to anyone in need of a versatile utility or EDC blade that can definitely handle being pressed into a tactical/defensive role in an emergency. A very impressive knife.Update:A quick update to cover a couple things i didnt cover above.First,after a light stropping,the factory edge went from sticky sharp to downright frightening! It was deceptively sharp as delivered but is now one of the sharpest factory edges in my collection. Very nice!And second,a word about the Emerson wave feature. For those that dont know,this is a wave shaped appendage on top of the blade spine which catches on the pocket seam as its withdrawn and quickly opens the blade in one swift motion. With a bit of practice its practically 100% reliable and blazing fast. You have to grip the knife very far to the rear of handle to keep from interfering with the opening blade and possibly cutting yourself ,and then reaquire a proper grip so actual blade presentation may not be as fast as first thought. Im sure with enough practice it is a useful option though.However,get very familiar with it and be consciously aware when carrying this knife as its easy to forget about the wave deployment and receive a nasty bite upon removal from your pocket. It has almost gotten me several times already. Just be careful and be sure of which knife your reaching for especially if you carry more than one knife at a time. Youll only need to learn that lesson the hard way once before the Emerson wave becomes more of a "thud" in the garbage can.Anyway,this is a great high value knife. Excellent all around if a little weighty. A solidly built,high quality ,low cost introduction for those that want to try out an Emerson without spending nearly $200. Highly recommended.

The best knife on Amazon. Carried this knife on deployment. It deploys upon opening so it’s ready to use in situations both dire or knotty. Made of great steel. Balanced. An amazing knife. If you’ve read it, please buy it. Learn how to use it on YouTube for the pocket opening feature and enjoy.

Last year I went on a search for a good pocket knife since I like always having one on me for work. Tried 4 different brands. The tanto blade is easy to sharpen, the lockup is still tight and has held up being used as a pry bar throughout. I have a lot of the husky Tantos as well in my cars and throughout my house. For edc though something a little nicer is nice. This knife is nice, but still cheap enough I won’t be sad if I lose it. Only issue I have is the belt clip loosening. I put them back in with Loctite but they have loosened again over a half a year. Perhaps if they machined it in so it couldn’t wiggle somehow or tabbed it, idk. Small issue though for an otherwise great knife. Would recommend locktiting those asap though.