Kershaw Emerson 6034 CQC-6K Folding Knife

Having owned a few Emersons I can tell you this is not bad for a cheaper Chinese version of a real Emerson. The blade is pretty thick the satin finish and stone wash combo look great. The frame lock is very thick and has solid lock up and no blade play. It weights a bit over 5 oz but the handle is thinner than a real Emerson which fits a little better in pocket. Frame lock Emersons like the HD7 are pretty expensive and hard to come by so it's nice to have an affordable frame lock Emerson any one can own. The wave feature looks the same as the wave feature on real Emersons and works just as good. The steel 8Cr14MoV isn't the greatest but it's easy to sharpen and the knife came pretty sharp. This blade came stiff and greasy so I'd suggest taking it apart cleaning it out and using something like super lube or tuff glide for lube. I went with the clip point because it makes a better slicer than the tanto version. It is also easier to sharpen and you will have to sharpen it often if you use it a lot. Just like a real Emerson you can take this apart with a flat head and phillips screw driver. I think it makes a great user (beater) knife at this price point.

Cons: It would be great if they would have used a better steel like aus 8 or the scan steel used for most of the kershaw blurs. 8Cr14MoV steel is used on knives kershaw sells in the $20 range. I guess your paying extra for a more stout knife and of course the wave feature.

The knife is good for what I use it for, cutting boxes at work, the blades hold a decent enough edge, but I sharpen my knives pretty frequently regardless. The reason for the 3 stars however is from the minute I opened the box I've had a good amount of blade wiggle, I've tried tightening a million times, even seeing if I could find a different screwup hold better but to no resolve. So I use it pretty exclusively at work, if I'm going out in the wilderness I take something more reliable like the benchmade, or the spyderco.