We are big fans of Emerson Knives around here. Why wouldn’t we be? They are well proven, well made and designed to last. Knives like the CQC-6 are absolutely legendary in the Spec Ops community. The line has slowly expanded over time to include a wide variety of different types of blades. The core of the CQC series remains the same, a great grip, a liner lock, a chisel edge, and 154 CM steel. The Mini Commander is a pocket-friendly EDC blade that’s well worthy of the Emerson name.

The Grip

First things first I mentioned great grip but let’s elaborate on that. The grip is a black G-10 composite that’s textured harshly. It will not slip and slide in your hands regardless of gloves, wet hands, or them being covered in blood. Stuff happens, and I’m not judging. The simple fact is that this is a tactical knife.

The shape of the handle conforms nicely to the hand and allows for the comfortable use of a variety of grips. This includes the hammer grip, as well as a fencing grip, a thumb on blade grip, ice pick grip, etc.

The Blade

The Mini-Commander’s blade is 3.4 inches long and made from tough 154CM. This tough steel is a great knife steel. It’s tough, corrosion resistant, and holds an edge well. The only real downside is that it takes time to sharpen, but can be honed to a razor’s edge. The Mini Commander comes from Emerson with an extremely sharp blade.

The blades shape and design should be noted. The Mini-Commander has a re-curve blade style. The blade shape resembles an S-Curve along the cutting edge. This maximizes efficiency when it comes to the cutting surface, and gives you a cutting surface longer than the blade. The inward curve near the bottom of the blade offers you better leverage to cut through stronger materials.

The forward cutting edge’s outward curve gives you a strong cutting curve that will cut deep with minimal force. This forward cutting edge guides the knife through it’s cut with ease. That same curve gives the knife a solid belly and makes it easy to clean game both large and small.

The Mini-Commander’s blade is small and stout, and well suited for cutting, stabbing and other tasks. It’s small and easy to control and compared to the Commander and Super-Commander it’s much easier for daily carry.

Additional Ergonomics

The blade sports the wave feature as well as a black thumb disk. The black thumb disk is ambidextrous and works as intended. Not much to say, but the Wave feature is where it’s at. This makes the Mini-Commander faster to open than most auto knives.

The wave feature allows you to open the blade as you pull it from your pocket. This is a technique that takes practice but is well worth learning. It makes deploying the knife fast and perfect in a self-defense situation.

Lock-up is night and tight and the blade doesn’t budge. The Mini-Commander’s has a lanyard loop, as well as blade down pocket clip for righties. A left-handed variant is available though.

The Mini Commander

The Mini-Commander is an outstanding knife. It’s small, rugged, and reliable. The blade design makes it versatile, while still remaining a solid fighting knife. The Mini Commander is easy to carry, and well designed. What else could you want? It’s certainly worthy of the legendary Emerson name.

Originally published on the Crate Club Knowledgebase