My Emerson CQC-7 Collection

Published: 11 years ago

In 1994, the president of Benchmade Knives, Les DeAsis, approached Emerson to manufacture the CQC6 on a larger scale as a factory production model. Preferring to keep the CQC6 as a custom-only knife, Emerson instead licensed a similar design of his, the CQC-7. Even though it did not have the craftsmanship of a handmade piece of cutlery, it satisfied customers with their own version of Emerson's work, at an affordable price and without the five-year wait. Benchmade manufactured automatic versions of the CQC7 such as the BM9700. Currently Pro-Tech Knives of Santa Fe Springs, California manufactures an automatic version of the CQC-7 in collaboration with Emerson.

The CQC-7 is similar in size and blade profile to the CQC-6 with the main difference being a rear brake at the butt of the handle of the CQC-7 as opposed to the boattail shape of the CQC-6. After the contract with Benchmade expired, Emerson began production of this model in his own factory, Emerson Knives, Inc., in 1999. The production version of the CQC7 is not a handmade knife and features no bolsters or micarta in the handle construction. The handle material on the production model is G-10 fiberglass and the edge of the blade has a secondary bevel. There is a larger and smaller version of this knife known as the "Super CQC-7" and "Mini-CQC-7", respectively and a version with a drop-point blade as opposed to a tanto. An "all titanium" handled version with a framelock was made in 2005 known as the HD-7 to commemorate the tenth anniversary of this model. Emerson makes handmade versions of the CQC-7 with variations similar to the CQC-6.
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