Anatomy of an Emerson Knife

Anatomy of an Emerson Knife

Close-up of a folding knife showing the stainless steel flat liner and the titanium liner lock, both labeled with red lines and text, highlighting their positions in the knife handle.
Close-up of a folding knife’s handle frame, showing several cylindrical standoff spacers between the metal liners, with a label and arrow pointing to one standoff spacer.

Standoff Spacers have been standard on all Emerson Knife models since 2014. Any knife ordered from our site from 2014 to present will receive one of these models, unless otherwise noted.

Please note that some Emerson Knives resellers have older stock so there is a small chance that they will have the solid G-10 backspacer shown to the right.

Close-up of a black knife handle with a labeled solid backspacer, showing textured material, two visible screws, and a lanyard hole at the end.

Solid back spacers are no longer standard to our production line. You can tell the difference between newer and older models by looking at many things such as the spacer type.

Both perform their function identically and there is no advantage or disadvantage to having either variation

A folding pocket knife with a black handle, labeled to show the lanyard hole near the end and the thumb button on the side for opening the blade.
Three images show a person pulling a curved folding knife with a black handle from the front pocket of blue jeans using their right hand. The knife is progressively revealed in each image.
A folding knife with a black handle and a metallic blade. An arrow labeled FLAT points to the blade’s upper section, highlighting its flat grind area.

The flat part of the blade is where the logo and model information will be.

A folding knife with a black handle and a silver blade. The lower part of the blade is highlighted in gold, labeled MAIN BEVEL with an arrow pointing to it.

A bevel is where the grind begins and it will continue down toward the bottom of the blade.

A folding pocket knife with a black handle and partially open silver blade. The blades sharp edge is highlighted in yellow and labeled EDGE with an arrow pointing to it.

The edge is the point at which the blade is sharpened into a 25-30 degree angle to achieve a razor sharpness.

Diagram showing the cross-section of a chisel grind blade with labeled parts: Flat on the left, Main Bevel sloping down, and Edge at the bottom right. The image title is CHISEL GRIND.

A standard Emerson Chisel Grind will be completely flat on the back side of the blade. It will have the flat part, move into a bevel and finally into the cutting edge.

Diagram labeled V-GRIND showing a cross-section of a blade. The blade has a flat top, tapered sides labeled main bevel, and a sharp bottom labeled edge.

An Emerson conventional V-Grind will have the same layout but it will have a bevel on the front and backside. However, this bevel will not be sharpened into a cutting edge. The edge will only be ground on the front side of the blade.

Diagram labeled Zero Grind showing a geometric shape with a flat top edge labeled FLAT and a slanted side labeled EDGE. The shape demonstrates the zero grind blade profile.

The Emerson Zero Grind will only been seen on handmade Custom Emerson Knives. These hand ground blades skip the bevel completely. They go from the flat surface and dive into the cutting edge, thus giving it a true razor sharp chisel edge.

A folding pocket knife with a black handle and partially open silver blade, shown on a white background with a red dashed arrow curving away from the blade’s tip.

Spear Point

Spear point blades are commonly referred to as ‘drop point‘. The edge curves up to the tip of the blade. We refer to Emerson Knives with spear point blades as having ‘A-Blades'.

A folding knife with a black handle and a stainless steel tanto blade, shown on a white background. Red dashed lines highlight the angular shape of the blade’s tip.

Tanto

Emerson Knives is famous for our many Tanto style blades. One of our most popular Tanto models is the Bulldog, which is shown above. The profile is similar to that of a samurai's katana, because of its sharp angles and razor sharp edge. We refer to Tanto knives as having ‘B-Blades'.

A black folding knife with a curved blade is shown on a white background. A red dashed arrow points outward from the tip of the blade, highlighting its curved edge.

The recurve blade is most commonly associated with the Emerson Commander. Starting from the rear of the cutting edge, it arcs upwards, then downwards. Lastly, it swoops elegantly upwards to the tip.

Fun Fact: The Emerson Commander was the recipient of the Knife of the Year award at the annual Blade Show in Atlanta!

A folding knife with a black textured handle and a silver blade, shown with red dashed lines and arrows indicating the curved edge and tip of the blade.

Recurve/Tanto Combo

The CQC-15 features this blade and is truly one of our most unique designs. The belly of the blade shows off our recurve edge but abruptly ends at a sharp angle giving it a nice Tanto tip.

Fun Fact: CQC-15s are basically a fusion of the CQC-7BW and the Commander.

A folding knife with a black handle is shown, with a red dashed line and arrows illustrating the curved motion of the blade as it is swung open.

Bowie

Bowie blades are very popular among Emerson Knives fans. These awesome knives have an upswept blade edge that meets a downward curved tip. This gives it a similar appearance to a rhino's horn. Perfect for hunters and fisherman because their fine points are perfect for getting into small crevices.

A curved karambit knife with a black handle and circular holes, placed on a white background. A red dashed arrow points downward, following the curve of the blade.

Karambit

The Karambit design comes directly from an ancient Indonesian utility knife used for self defense, but Emerson's Combat Karambit is designed as a fighting weapon. You can identify a Karambit knife by its claw-like blade.

Fun Fact: The Emerson Combat Karambit is the original folding karambit. There are many like it, but nothing beats the original!

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