Armed Lifestyle - Issue 2 - June 2022

EVERYDAY CARRY KNIFE
Once the Commander and Commander Trainer arrived for review,
I began to carry the trainer for the first week just to get into
the practice of deploying the blade smoothly while remaining
safe. All too many times I have had to risk learning the hard
way with test knives, now that I had a training blade offered, I
would take full advantage of it. Towards the end of the week, I
began to switch back and forth between training blade and live
blade while working on rapid deployment of the blade. The blade
deployed smoothly ending in a crisp lock up with the Walker liner
lock. This lock was easy to manipulate one handed, even when
wearing my lightweight operator gloves from Outdoor Research.
On Friday, the live blade gave me an idea just how sharp it was
straight out of the box and into my pocket. The incident occurred
when I accidently double clutched my draw stroke and felt a
slight tug on the top of my rear pocket. Later that night, I realized
that the slight tug was the blade effortlessly slicing through the
pocket of my jeans. Our Swanson Media Group Instagram and
Facebook followers got a kick out of the candid photo of the
damage posted later the next week.
Once the second week rolled around, I only used the trainer
in the evenings working with various techniques in my personal
training before prepping the Commander for the next day’s attire.
For the next 5 weeks, I carried the Commander while alternating
between my front and rear right hand pocket depending on if the
day’s attire dictated my SIG Sauer model 365XL or 320 AXG pistols.
Later in the test and evaluation process, I would experiment with
weak side carry as well opposite my SIG inside the waistband
carry holster from Falco Holsters. (Thankfully, no further articles
of clothing were harmed in the testing of the Emerson Knives,
Inc products.)
With its wide, beefy razor sharp 3.75” blade and 5” G10 grip,
the Commander is a very intimidating tool coming in at 8.75” in
overall length. The 4.9 oz weight and wide profile make it feel
like a true tool in the user’s hand rather than Grandpa’s old apple
peeling jack knife. It was very well balanced with its center point
located mid-finger grove in which your index finger would grip.
I was very pleased with how natural the Commander felt in my
hand during strikes and heavy cutting work. I could quickly index
the blade on target and make precise cuts quickly when needed
just as easily as making long, deep cuts into thick material such
as meat, denim or rubber innertube.
For those familiar with the weather in Florida, it rains almost
every afternoon during the summer and fall, so using the
Commander in the rain was a regular occurrence. Regardless of
how wet the scales on the knife became, it and the trainer’s
grip remained sure. When using gloves, the grip almost seemed
to bite into the palm of the glove as pressure on the knife was
increased. I was impressed how sure it felt in the hand yet not
rough or uncomfortable to the skin.
To prevent rust and premature wear, Emerson Knives offers the
Commander in two good looking blade finishes, a nonreflective
stonewash or black Cerakote. The sample sent was the latter
option which held up extremely well over the test period.
Maintenance with the test knife was extremely simple. With just
a little bit of Modern Spartan Accuracy oil applied after brushing
the dirt and grime from normal exposure to the elements with
a toothbrush from the Dollar Store, the Commander was ready
to go. To keep the razor-sharp edge on the chisel edge of the
conventional V-Grind, I turned to our media group’s “go to” knife
sharpening guy, Simon Michael at Atavistic Edgeworks. Simon’s
work with our test blades has never failed to impress no matter
how sad the condition of some of the lesser knives may be when
turned over to him.
The major advantage in performance the Commander has is
in the recurve design of the blade. When cutting from base to tip
EMERSON KNIVES COMMANDER
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