Captain Tactical

Reprinted with permission of BLADE Magazine

That's the philosophy Ernest Emerson has lived by for much of his life, whether it relates to knifemaking, martial arts or his personal affairs. "I never want to look back and say I should have done this or I should have done that," Emerson explained "I've found that you can be an expert in many areas if you're willing to devote the time to them. ''

Two fields of expertise in which Emerson, 42, has excelled over the past two decades is knifemaking and martial arts, which, in his case, go hand-in-hand. In fact, Ernest's interests in martial arts was directly responsible for his initial knifemaking endeavors. After earning a degree physical education in the late '70s, Emerson headed west from Wisconsin to California to study a martial art under the guidance of Dan Inosanto (a close friend of the late actor and martial arts master, Bruce Lee). The Filipino-influenced martial at which Ernest studied entailed the use of blades, namely, butterfly knives. Unable to afford a $250 blade at the time, Emerson made his own knife with a file and vise and was soon building blades for his martial arts cohorts.

By 1983, Ernest was selling his handmade knives on a part-time basis while holding down a full time job; as a tool-and-die maker with Hughes Aircraft in El Segundo, California. About the same time, he ventured into the folder market after coming across a Michael Walker piece at a gun show. "Back then, that was the most beautiful knife I'd ever seen," Emerson recalled. "I ended up calling Michael to get his permission to linerlocks®. He gave me the OK and I fell in love with building folding knives."

After making high-end folders (which he sold for $800-$2,000 apiece) for a number of years, Ernest moved in a different direction as the new decade approached. He decided to make the same type of knives dress them down to a working piece by using "hard-core" materials such as Micarta®, titanium and G-10. Shortly thereafter, he started building tactical folders.

"A number of my knives had gone overseas during the Persian Gulf War and, when it ended, I got besieged by a lot of military orders," Emerson related. "The U.S. Navy also approached me about developing a special knife for them. So, I contacted Phill Hartsfield in regard to putting a chisel-ground blade on a folder, which resulted in the CQC6 model. My business really skyrocketed from there."

Eventually, Ernest became a design engineer with Hughes Aircraft before deciding to resign and pursue knife-making as a full-time career in 1994.

"I noticed a tremendous surge in popularity among some of my knife-making peers and I felt the same thing was happening to me, " Emerson reflected. "I was confident that I had carved out a niche in the marketplace that was going to be around for a long time to come."

In most cases, Emerson grinds ATS-34 for his applications because, according to him, it's battle-proven, tested and has all the right qualities He usually takes it to a 57-59 Rock-well because he said it gives the blade added flexibility, which his customers need.

He said building a quality folder comes down to ergonomics and simplicity. "It has to be comfortable in a hard-use situation, and it has to be simple because simple doesn't fail," Ernest claimed.

In February 1996, Emerson and his wife and business partner, Mary, decided to branch out beyond the custom-knife industry by opening a small cutlery manufacturing facility to serve the factory-knife market. Today, he splits his time between Emerson Knives Inc. (the factory-knife business) and Emerson SPECWAR Knives (the custom-knife business). He said he currently has nearly 3,000 orders custom knives on the books.

"I guess the amount of orders are an indication that I make a pretty good product," remarked Emerson who's also working on the production of the new syndicated television show Soldier of Fortune, Inc., on UPN. "I've really learned to appreciate customers patience." (For more Ernest's knives and role with SOF, Inc., watch for a special story in February '98 BLADE®).

With everything that's going on in his life, it's hard to imagine that Ernest has any time to contemplate the future, but he does indeed.

"I want to have my fingers in the pie at all times," the father of two girls, Rachael and Megan, explained. "I still want to make custom knives five years from now, but I don't want to be grinding knives for eight hours a day. Eventually, I want to design the knives, hand make the prototypes and have the company (Emerson Knives, Inc.) build them."

Considering Emerson's high level of motivation, that scenario will likely be played out early into the 21^st century.