Emerson CQC7A HD Conversion

Update and Edit: As a final touch to this folder I did find a single Emerson Skull pocket clip I did not realize I had hiding in my bag of extra clips accumulated over the years. Actually I found some other extra things I had forgotten I still had along with that. One of which was a little pocket hook I had been making a while back to function as an 'add on Wave' for knives equipped with thumb discs but no Wave built into the blade design.

Contrary to popular belief on other forums I do not particularly like permanently modifying a folder I work on as you may know from reading here and on my forum by how I point out the ones that are not permanently modified. I work quite hard to avoid making permanent changes to a knife whenever possible whether its utilizing existing hole patterns drilled and threaded already for one of my pocket clips or a complete rebuild. Perhaps it is the collector in me always in conflict with the pimper in me, I don't know. Anyway, this add on Wave was a 'non invasive' way for me to come up with a Wave that worked and worked well for folks wanting a Wave added to their knife. This comes up quite often with the 7 model from Emerson as of late because a lot of guys like the A spear shaped blade but want the Wave. The latest run which again is limited in number are all non Waved factory blades. If you want the 7 with a Wave and don't particularly like tanto blades or a chisel grind unfortunately you have to buy the tanto chisel grind blade to get it.

Some have sent me blades with the raised areas in the spine for the thumb to rest such as the BenchMade HK 14200, 205 and 210, the 420 Resistor when it was made and of course older 7 A models of Emerson folders all wanting me to cut a hook into the blade permanently modifying the blade. I recall after getting a rather nice and rather collectible green handled 7A here a few years back (those green ones are very rare and discontinued) that I sat down to come up with a pocket hook Wave add on. Also as many visting here may already know, Ernest Emerson, patent holder for the Wave, gave me his OK in writing some years ago to Wave production folding knives for folks asking me to do this for their knives. When I first came up with this add on I had not heard of Andrew Demko but then when Cold Steel ran a production version of their AK47 folder that had something similar I was motivated to contact him about that patent and ask him if it was ok for me to continue to offer the pocket hook pointing out that I had already been selling them albeit just a few. Andy is a class act and gave me his ok. I really like his work. He makes some very stout lock designs too.

I have only done a few of my add on pocket hooks because they are very labor intensive and wasteful the way I had to do them cutting out the shapes on my band saw. The ti has to be longer than what you actually need to allow it to bend easily enough to manipulate and give your tools something big enough to hold onto so you end up having to cut off or grind off some waste after you heat it up to form it to a hook and you waste quite a bit just to get one of the shapes out of a sheet of titanium. I have not been taking orders for these for the last year or more due to this but now that I have made friends with Dave over at Great Lakes Waterjet who cuts out my pocket clip blanks perhaps he can cut these out for me from my sheets of titanium also. I did not have the pattern anymore for thesee or so I thought. I just figured I had sold them all but found this one laying in a box with the skull clip so it got added to this folder as a break in helper. Its worked quite well too and been fun.

These removable Wave hook/thumb discs do work quite well and I've found they are very gentle on pockets compared to other Waves so I feel they would be appreciated for that. There are other minor advantages to having a removable Wave for traveling also, particularly through certain states in the US. Some of the folks that bought these add on Wave hooks from me also bought low rider pocket clips so when they removed the Wave they could at the same time install the pocket clip and reinstall the original thumb disc. When combined with a khaki color or blue jean color anodized pocket clip this offered them some comfort in providing some perceived 'urban camo' for their carry knife in those not so not so knife friendly areas.

This Emerson model is 4 and 5/8" closed. What you are looking at is a CQC7A shown here with a factory non Waved blade. This A model is one of the limited run of Emersons just produced recently as I recall. This one is done in .140 thickness titanium for the new lock side. I've taken the lock cut relief in the back of the lock down to .060 on this one to spring the lock compared to .033 for the lock cut relief on my Emerson Comrade 12 model. Again here with this one, no permanent modifications were done to any of the factory parts and it can be reverted right back to the factory liner lock.

I do have a puzzle with this one I'm still scratchin' my head over. All the .160 plus thickness slab models of the Horseman folders I posted earlier weighed in at 5 ounces plus or minus each. This folder done thinner than those by .020 for total titanium thickness weighs 5.1 ounces as shown here. I'm not sure why or how but that is the case. This titanium slab was more difficult to thread compared to the thicker models although the Tapmatic didn't listen or care much about all the whining though so maybe its just denser or something. Not sure.

Lock up is early and secure. The feel of the action is smooth as silk already even though its only been used a few times at this writing. You may also notice this one was not ordered with the replacement stop pin conversion like others I've posted recently. These Emersons are great knives folks! Every knife nut should own at least one CQC7 from Emerson or at least an early BenchMade model from when Ernie worked there. This model, much like the maker are both a legend in their own time.

This is the model that perhaps single handedly revolutionized the tactical folder world. Of course it did that with the Tanto blade shape and forever put tanto blades on the map for good in my opinion. Emerson makes a Waved version of this same folder which I've rebuilt the same way on an earlier post some months back. That model comes with the Tanto blade but both come with the same handle choices in three sizes. One in Mini, this model here and a Super which is the larger of the three.

Oh and for you knife nuts out there, yes I recognize that the late great Bob Lum cannot be forgotten when it comes to the tanto blade and introducing that to America but what Ernest R. Emerson did for it is beyond measure with this model.

Thanks for looking.

STR