Good news for the hard-use cutters among us is that Ernest Emerson now has his own designs in production in his own facility and is direct-marketing the most advanced models of his designs. "In production" is the operative good-news phrase here, because those who knew his knives were willing to wait for them - but sometimes had a lengthy wait.

Even an excellent design usually goes through an evolutionary process of improvement, and Emerson's CQC7 is no exception. In its new iteration from its own factory, the CQC7 features art ergonomic radius on all outside edges. It is held together with common fasteners so it may be disassembled if necessary, as for cleaning, with the tools you will probably have at hand. The clip may be readily moved to either end of the grip to accommodate your individual work patterns, as there are pre-drilled and tapped holes at either end; all assembly and mounting screws mate with holes tapped directly in the titanium liner, not into the grip scales. Any pinch-points have been eliminated.

That is why Emerson's CQC7 is better, but in case you have never owned an Emerson, we should review the reasons why it was so good to begin with. Emerson builds innovative yet straight-forward, strong, no-bull tools. They do everything they are designed to do, do it better than almost any other, and will do it for a lifetime. The reason they do is a result of the triad for any superior tool or weapon: design, materials and workmanship. The basic design has become universally familiar, but the nuance of design is important, The thumb button, as an example, is far more facile a blade opener than any thumb stud or thumb hole we have ever used. The ATS-34 stainless blade rides precisely and smoothly on bearing washers, not simply between the liner or grip scales. Thus, a nudge with the tip of your thumb and a flick of the wrist and the CQC7 is ready to go to work. An observer would think you had an automatic opener.

There is simply more put into the Emerson than its illegitimate offspring. We do not do comparative tests in this column, but just for grins we weighed the CQC7-B at 4.6 ounces: its closest look-alike weighed 3.8 ounces. Bear in mind that the liners am not thin brass or aluminum but are titanium and you'll appreciate the fact that the extra weight in this design has been invested in making the overall design stronger. And speaking of strength, the grip scales are of G-10 epoxy-filled fiberglass.

With an overall length of 8 inches, the CQC7-A features 3.3 inches of a parity serrated, wide-radius, drop-point blade. It came as sharp as any knife I ever took out of a box, and it kept a good edge through a pile of natural and synthetic line and cardboard, then all the usually anticipated abuse such as copper wire, canvas, aluminum sheet and the like. It is factory ground from one side, with the reverse lightly honed, making it a fast blade to touch up with a diamond hone and rod. The CQC7-B has "Tanto" blade geometry that gives it a very strong point for thrusting or for when an emergency dictates you must risk a fine instrument for use as a pry-bar. On both knives, the top rear of the blade that is exposed when open, and the liners and liner-lock on the opposite side, are all notched to provide a good grip and keep one's hand off the blade on strong thrusts. Both have a lanyard hole in the butt, useful indeed for jumping or working over or under water. They are available in either a matte bead-blasted finish, or black Teflon-coated.

The CQC-7 is a mature design that tempts one to characterize it "as good as it gets." But, we might have said that about the original version ... and master designer Ernest Emerson still has his drawing board.