48 Facts About Ernest Emerson

Ernest R Emerson was born on March 7,1955 and is an American custom knifemaker, martial artist, and edged-weapons expert.

Originally an engineer and machinist in the aerospace industry, Emerson became a knifemaker by producing knives for a martial arts class and making art knives early in his knifemaking career.

Ernest Emerson's knives have been displayed as museum pieces, designed for use by Navy SEALs and used by NASA in outer space.

Ernest Emerson's knives have been featured in films and novels, due to their association with military units.

Ernest Emerson is an accomplished martial artist who has developed a combatives system, Ernest Emerson Combat Systems, which has been taught to police officers, military units, and civilians.

Ernest Emerson was born on March 7,1955, in northern Wisconsin.

Ernest Emerson began his training in martial arts at the age of 16 with the Korean version of Judo known as Yudo, traveling from Wisconsin to Minnesota twice a week to attend school.

Ernest Emerson subsequently trained in Gracie Jiu Jitsu for three years at the original Gracie Academy in Torrance, California, under the founders of the Gracie Jiu Jitsu system, Rorion and Royce Gracie.

Ernest Emerson milled and drilled the handles from aluminum stock; the knife's blade was a simple steel blank that he hand cut with a hacksaw, shaped with files, and heat treated at his dining room table with a butane torch.

Ernest Emerson did so and sold these early butterfly knives for just the cost of materials, but he soon raised the price to $50 each, as demand for his knives increased.

Ernest Emerson went on to make fixed-blade knives on a part-time basis, but upon seeing a Michael Walker handmade folding knife at a gun show, he was so impressed by the quality and design that he decided he was going to make folding pocketknives from that point on.

Ernest Emerson contacted Walker and obtained his permission to use the Walker Linerlock mechanism on his own knives.

Ernest Emerson's early folding knives were of the linerlock variety, ground by the stock removal method, and utilized rare materials from the aerospace industry, including titanium, carbon fiber, micarta, and meteorite.

Ernest Emerson incorporated exotic materials common to knifemakers of the time, including mother-of-pearl, abalone shell, paua shell, staghorn, and rare hardwoods.

Writer Paul Basch reported in 1990 that Ernest Emerson refused to use the parts of any animal or plant which was an endangered species, noting Ernest Emerson as being an environmentally conscious knifemaker.

Ernest Emerson agreed with this assessment, dropping the knife outline and the word "knives" from his stamp, using just his name in a half-circle on the blade as a logo.

Ernest Emerson continued his use of linen or canvas micarta because of its high tensile strength and superior gripping surface when wet; he decided on black or dark grey for the color instead of the brighter colors used previously.

Ernest Emerson retained the titanium for the liners and bolsters but chose to bead-blast them a flat grey matte color as opposed to the colorful anodizing which used to appear on his knives.

Ernest Emerson bead-blasted the blades as he did the liners and bolsters instead of rubbing or polishing them, giving them a matte finish as opposed to the mirror-polished finish common on his earlier knives and other knives at the time.

Ernest Emerson designed each one of these knives for a specific purpose.

Ernest Emerson sold these five models under the name "Viper Knives" and changed the logo on the blades to read the same.

Ernest Emerson had long been impressed by the cutting ability of the chisel-ground edge and had asked Hartsfield's permission to incorporate it into his own folding knives, which Hartsfield granted.

Ernest Emerson's knives began appearing in the Rogue Warrior series of novels written by the founder of the US Navy's SEAL Team Six, Richard Marcinko, at this time which helped fuel interest among collectors.

Four years after starting this venture, Ernest Emerson sold an entire year's worth of production in four hours at the SHOT Show in January 2000.

Ernest Emerson continued to collaborate with other companies on knife-related projects as his own company grew.

In 2002 Ernest Emerson collaborated with Gerber Knives to create both companies' first automatic opening knife, the Gerber-Ernest Emerson Alliance.

In that same year, Ernest Emerson collaborated with SureFire Flashlights by making an exclusive CQC-8 numbered and marked with the SureFire logo and sold with an identically numbered Ernest Emerson-marked Centurion C2 CombatLight.

In 2005 Ernest Emerson collaborated with Andy Prisco, the CEO of the American Tomahawk Company, to produce the CQC-T Tomahawk.

In 2007, Ernest Emerson announced a collaboration with custom knifemaker and knife thrower Bobby Branton.

One of Ernest Emerson's earliest production models, the Commander, is a large recurve folding knife based on a special custom design, the ES1-M, that he had made for a West Coast Navy SEAL Team.

Since another knife and tool company, Leatherman, had trademarked the name "Wave," in March 1999 Ernest Emerson changed its name to the "wave-shaped opening feature".

Ernest Emerson's Wave made its way onto most of the knives in both the production and custom lines, with the exception of the Viper models.

Ernest Emerson made the change on this model which is only available to the US Navy and the model designation is the NSAR Knife.

In 1999, NASA contracted Ernest Emerson to build a knife for use on Space Shuttle missions and the International Space Station.

The model is a folding version of the Specwar knife that Ernest Emerson had designed for Timberline with the addition of a guthook cut into the tanto point of the blade with which astronauts could open their freeze dried food packages.

On July 1,2000, Ernest Emerson announced his semi-retirement from custom knifemaking in order to concentrate on this new production company and to fill the thousands of outstanding orders for his custom work.

Ernest Emerson still makes custom knives available for sale at knife shows, but takes no orders for new custom work.

Since 1995 the only way to get a new custom knife from Ernest Emerson himself is through a lottery held at knife shows where he is present.

In 2007, Ernest Emerson branched out in a new direction, announcing he would manufacture twelve custom electric guitars per year.

In 2008, Ernest Emerson opened a clothing company called "Ernest Emerson Brand Apparel" specializing in MMA and casual clothing.

In 2009 at the annual NRA Convention, Ernest Emerson announced a collaboration with custom pistol manufacturer Les Baer to produce a custom M1911 pistol built to Ernest Emerson's specifications with a semi-custom folding knife named the "CQC-45".

In late 2009, Ernest Emerson announced a collaboration with Spike's Tactical to produce an M4 Carbine based upon his specifications for training, chambered in.

In September 2010, Ernest Emerson announced a collaboration with Pro-Tech Knives to produce an automatic opening version of the CQC-7.

In January 2011, at the SHOT Show in Las Vegas, NV, Ernest Emerson debuted a new knife model designed in collaboration with Kelly McCann known as the Canis.

Ernest Emerson has developed a combatives system drawn upon his experience known as Ernest Emerson Combat Systems, which has been taught to hundreds of law enforcement agencies, members of the US military, and civilians.

Ernest Emerson maintains he does not teach a "martial art" encumbered by ritual or sporting aspects but a combatives system where the goal is more than simple self-defense.

Ernest Emerson has been consulted as a technical advisor to television and movie productions including National Geographic, specifically the program Fight Science, due in part to his position as the hand-to-hand combat instructor for Harry Humphries' Global Studies Group Incorporated, a company that teaches police and military tactics to law enforcement agencies and film production crews.

In 2014, Ernest Emerson was inducted into the Black Belt Magazine Hall of Fame as "Self-Defense Instructor of the Year".