(Courtesy of Tactical Life)

With the addition of the “Horseman” (top) and the “Super CQC-8” (bottom), the Emerson CQC-8 family recently expanded to cover a much wider range of field uses. The Super would certainly be my choice for a military combat folder and the Horseman makes a very useful EDC. The standard model is still a great all-round working knife.

While looking around the Emerson Knife Company website recently, I noticed they had added a “Super CQC-8” with a massive 4.3-inch long blade. Ever since Ernest Emerson actually loaned me his wife Mary’s personal, custom-made CQC-8 around a decade ago, this has been one of my favorite models in the company’s line. Originally referred to as the “banana,” the basic blade pattern resembles a greatly scaled down version of the Chinese “dao” saber. Though at first glance you might think that the curved blade is some kind of specialized hunter’s skinning knife, Ernest pointed out to me that the point is actually very well centered for efficient thrusts. Rather than just take his word for it, I had to prove that to myself on a variety of training targets. I quickly found the knife easily penetrated to the handle even when other blades that appeared more “pointy” failed on the same medium. At the same time, the curved edge retains the cutting and slashing power of the saber it resembles.

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