Emerson Combat Systems

Emerson's study and instruction of martial arts is ongoing. He has accumulated close to 40 years of experience in a variety of styles and philosophies of combat. As a result he has developed a unique fighting system known as Emerson Combat Systems, which has been taught to hundreds of law enforcement agencies, members of the U.S. military, and civilians.

The purpose of Emerson Combat Systems is to give the student the tools to survive the first few seconds of a violent attack. It is based upon the recognition of two factors: the human body's physiological response to stress and its reduction to the use of gross motor skills. All of the techniques are based upon the physical and instinctual laws that govern the survival instincts and physical function of a human being.

This system is based on techniques unencumbered by the ritual or "sport" aspects of martial arts and is characterized by training as realistically as possible and utilizing flowing, dynamic concepts (for example, Integrated Fighting Skills and Weapon Transition Skills) with a strong emphasis placed on overall physical fitness. Emerson maintains he does not teach an "art", but a combat system where the goal is more than simple self defense—to overwhelm and destroy the opponent.

Along with the individual Martial Arts Instructor Rankings listed earlier, Emerson's teaching credentials include California POST (Peace Officer Standards & Training) Instructor, Gunsite Instructor, Hand-to-hand Combat Instructor for H&K Defense Group, and Director of the Combat Research and Development Group. Emerson is also an expert witness for the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office and has been consulted as a technical advisor to television and movie productions^] including National Geographic, specifically a program titled 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.

Emerson has written over 30 articles on hand-to-hand combat, knife fighting, history, and knifemaking for publications including Blade Magazine, American Cop Magazine,^[72] Martial Arts Experts, Journal of Modern Combatives, Inside Kung-Fu, Black Belt Magazine, Police Magazine, and American Handgunner Magazine.

Emerson's knives in popular culture

Emerson's knives have appeared onscreen in films and television shows. In Night of the Running Man, Scott Glenn's character carried a white-handled, one-of-a-kind Emerson CQC6. Ravens, neck knives, and the Commander knife were featured in the short-lived UPN television series Soldier of Fortune, Inc. A Commander knife was used by the character of Zak in the 1998 movie The Placebo Effect; Emerson Knives is thanked in the film credits for the knife.

Ridley Scott's 2001 film Black Hawk Down portrayed soldiers carrying Emerson folding knives in the hangar scene, and in Tears of the Sun the Kandahar model appeared on Bruce Willis' character's web gear, and other actors were seen with Emerson Police Utility Knives. Frank Castle used an Emerson Karambit to kill an opponent in one of the final scenes in The Punisher. The Transporter 2 briefly featured an Emerson fixed-blade Kandahar knife in the trunk of Jason Statham's car along with other weapons.

Future projects mentioned in the Emerson Collector's Association Newsletter indicate that the CQC-T Tomahawk and Emerson knives are to be used in the upcoming movies John Rambo and Alien Vs Predator 2.

The main character "Naked Snake" of the Playstation tactical espionage game Metal Gear Solid 3 uses an Emerson-style knife referred to as a "CQC Knife" throughout the game. Screenshots show the knife to strongly resemble an Emerson fixed-blade tanto.

Emerson's knives are featured in mystery, spy, military, action, and adventure novels. At least seven of Richard Marcinko's Rogue Warrior novels (Red Cell, Green Team, Task Force Blue, Detachment Bravo, SEAL Force Alpha, Violence of Action and Holy Terror) prominently feature Emerson's knives (CQC6 or CQC7) as a regularly carried piece of equipment. The protagonist, Marcinko, uses an Emerson CQC6 or CQC7 on various occasions. On page 175 of Task Force Blue, Marcinko remarks that his CQC6 was a "personal gift from Ernie Emerson, himself".

New York Times bestselling author David Morrell's novel The Protector not only has the main character, a former Delta Force operator named Cavanaugh, using an Emerson CQC7 knife, but the cover art itself is a photograph of a blood-stained Production Emerson CQC7. Cavanaugh uses the knife in combat as well as in many rigorous cutting chores. The author acknowledges Emerson as "the best manufacturer of tactical knives" as well as a "top level blade instructor for elite military and law-enforcement units". In an interview with British E-Zine Shots : The Crime and Mystery Ezine, Morrell indicated that he injured his collarbone during an Emerson knife-fighting course while performing research for the novel.

Three of Marcus Wynne's novels (Warrior in the Shadows, No Other Option, Brothers in Arms) also feature use of Emerson's knives by the main characters. The CQC7, Commander, and La Griffe are favored by the main characters and are used as defensive weapons throughout the books. Barry Eisler's fictional hired killer John Rain uses an Emerson Comrade CQC-12, a folding knife based on the AK-47 bayonet, in The Last Assassin. The characters of S.M. Gunn's novels based on Naval Special Warfare, Navy SEALs, and submarines routinely carry Emerson's knives. One of the main characters carries an Emerson custom MV-1 Viper knife in the book SEALs SubStrike.

Retired Navy SEAL and SEAL Team 6 Plankholder Dennis Chalker routinely puts Emerson's knives (CQC-7s and Commanders) into the hands of the heroes of his Home Team novels based on the exploits of former Naval Special Warfare Operators.

Emerson Knives, Inc.

In February 1996, Emerson and his wife, Mary, founded Emerson Knives, Inc. (also referred to as EKI) to manufacture knives on a larger scale than he was then capable of. This new company would be a distinct entity from his Specwar lineup of custom knives, although several custom designs would make their way into production from time to time. Four years after starting this venture, Emerson sold an entire year's worth of production in four hours at the SHOT (Shooting Hunting and Outdoor Trade) Show in January 2000.

Emerson continued to collaborate with other companies on knife-related projects as his own company grew. In some cases these collaborators had become his competition, such as Gerber Knives. In 2002 Emerson collaborated with Gerber Knives to create both companies' first automatic opening knife, the Gerber-Emerson Alliance. In that same year, Emerson collaborated with SureFire Flashlights by making an exclusive CQC8 (Banana Knife) numbered and marked with the SureFire logo and sold with an identically numbered Emerson-marked Centurion C2 CombatLight. In 2005 Emerson collaborated with Andy Prisco, the CEO of the American Tomahawk Company, to produce the CQC-T Tomahawk. This tomahawk features a curved head machined from 4140 steel with a rear spike and a lightweight fiberglass handle. Although not made by Emerson, the tomahawk was designed by him. In 2007, Emerson announced a collaboration with custom knifemaker and knife thrower Bobby Branton. The collaboration piece is a fixed-blade knife designed primarily for knife throwing dubbed the BETT: Branton-Emerson Tactical Thrower.

One of Emerson's earliest production models, the Commander (winner of Blade Magazine's Overall Knife of the Year Award for 1999), 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. The Commander has a hook on the spine of the blade (originally designed as a blade catcher) which, when snagged on the edge of the pocket or sheath causes the knife blade to open as it is drawn. Emerson called this innovation the Wave and secured a patent for it in March 1999. Emerson's Wave made its way onto most of his knives both in the production and custom lines, with the exception of the Viper models. It is a required feature on all knives that Emerson supplies to military units, search and rescue units, and law enforcement agencies.

After a disastrous helicopter crash in 1999 resulting in the deaths of six Marines and one sailor, the US Navy performed an assessment of their equipment and decided among other things that they needed a new search and rescue knife. The Ka-bar knives issued to the SBUs (Special Boat Units) had catastrophically failed to cut the Marines free from their webbing.

The Navy went to Emerson, who designed and fabricated a working prototype within 24 hours. They found that it met their needs, and the model was dubbed the "SARK" (Search and Rescue Knife). The SARK is a folding knife with a wharncliffe-style blade and a blunt tip designed so a rescuer could cut trapped victims free without stabbing them. The knife also features Emerson's Wave. Seeing another need in the police community, Emerson replaced the blunt end of the SARK with a pointed end and named it the "P-SARK", or Police Search And Rescue Knife. The Ontario, California Police Department consulted Emerson to produce written policy for the carry and deployment of the P-SARK knives in their department.

In 1999 NASA approached Emerson with a special request for a knife for use on Space Shuttle missions and the International Space Station to replace the Randall Model 17 Astronaut Knife. Rather than design a new model from scratch, NASA chose an existing model which already met their specifications, with one additional design requirement. The model is a folding version of the Specwar knife that 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. The knife features the NASA logo and is not available for purchase outside of NASA.

On July 1, 2000, 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. He 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 Emerson himself is through a lottery held at knife shows where he is present. Depending on the size of the show, as many as several hundred potential buyers write their names on individual pieces of paper at his booth, and at a predetermined time a name is drawn. The winner gets a chance to buy one of the custom knives brought to the show.

In 2007 Emerson branched out in a new direction, announcing he would manufacture twelve custom electric guitars per year. His first guitar debuted at Blade Magazine's Blade Show in Atlanta in June 2007.

Popularizing the tactical knife

While not the first knifemaker to build what is known as a tactical folding knife, Emerson was one of several makers who popularized and perfected the concept of the handmade tactical folder in the 1990s. Emerson's knives also began appearing in the Rogue Warrior series of novels written by the founder of the US Navy's SEAL Team Six, Richard Marcinko, which helped fuel interest among collectors.

This surge in interest for Emerson's knives soon became overwhelming. Although he had been making knives full time since 1994, Emerson was still manufacturing these knives in his home garage workshop three years later. As Emerson watched his customers' wait time expand from two years to seven, he realized that the demand for his handmade blades was far outpacing his ability to produce them. The first method to bridge this gap between supply and demand would be through factory collaborations with established cutlery companies.

Emerson's first collaboration with a knife manufacturer was with Timberline Knives in 1993 for his SPECWAR model. This model featured a one-side chisel-ground tanto blade almost 1/4 inch (6.35mm) thick. Its handle was made from fiberglass-reinforced nylon molded around a near-full tang. Vaughn Neeley of Timberline designed the sheath. The knife was originally a custom piece designed for Naval Special Warfare Group One, and this factory version was soon entered in the trials for the Navy SEALs knife in 1995. Although it was not chosen by the Navy, the Emerson-Neely SPECWAR knife won Blade Magazine's 1995 American Made Knife of the Year Award at the magazine's Blade Show in Atlanta, Georgia, that same year and was displayed as an exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art in New York City from May 24 to August 15,1995.

In 1994 the president of Benchmade Knives, Les DeAsis, approached Emerson to manufacture the CQC6 on a larger scale as a factory production model. Preferring to keep the CQC6 as a custom-only knife, Emerson instead licensed a similar design of his, the CQC7.

The Benchmade factory version was sold under the model name BM970 or BM975 depending on blade length. Other designations followed which denoted blade finish, manual or automatic opening, or partially serrated blade. The knife retained the profile of Emerson's custom piece in addition to the ATS-34 steel and the titanium liners. However, on Benchmade's offering the bolsters and micarta scales were replaced with G10 fiberglass scales, the slotted screws were replaced by Torx head screws, and the pocket clip was repositioned so that the knife could be carried in the pocket in a tip-down position.

Despite these changes the knife was true to Emerson's original design, and even though it did not have the craftsmanship of a handmade piece of cutlery it satisfied customers with their own version of Emerson's work at an affordable price and without the five-year wait.

Specwar Knives

In the mid-1980s individual Navy SEALs from a West Coast team had been using personally purchased custom fixed-blade knives made by Southern California knifemaker Phill Hartsfield. Hartsfield's knives are hard ground from differentially heat-treated A2 tool steel and are known for their distinctive chisel-ground blades. More accurately, they are also zero ground; that is, the edge has no secondary bevel, minimizing drag when used for cutting purposes. 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. When the SEALs asked Hartsfield to make them a folding knife, he informed them that he did not make folding knives and referred them to Emerson.

According to the SEALs' requirements, the knife had to be corrosion resistant, designed for easy cleaning in the field, durable enough to be used on a daily basis as a tool, and capable as a weapon should the need arise. Emerson's folding chisel-ground "tanto" became the sixth model in his Viper series and, while a handful of prototypes were referred to as "Viper 6", the model was soon named the "CQC6" (CQC refers to close-quarters combat) and was chosen by the SEALs for use. Ownership of a CQC6 soon became something of a status symbol among members of various elite military units, including Navy SEALs, Army Special Forces, German GSG 9, and British SAS. Because of this connection to the Special Warfare community, Emerson changed the name of his custom knife line to "Specwar Knives", and in 1996 this new designation began appearing in the logo on his blades.

Other models followed in the Specwar line bearing the CQC Series moniker, including the CQC7 which is another chisel-ground tanto-bladed folder similar to the CQC6 but with a saber-type handle shape. The CQC8 ("Banana Knife") was a folder inspired by Bob Taylor's Warrior Knife and is used extensively by British SAS troops. The knife also has the distinction of being the first folding knife that was designed to be ergonomically correct in both forward and reverse grip. Its users refer to it as "the finest fighting knife ever developed". The CQC9 ("Eagle Knife") is a reverse-curved hawkbill blade developed as a backup weapon for an American law enforcement agency; it also has an opening hole in the blade licensed from knife manufacturer Spyderco. Although Emerson has standard models for these custom knives, each one is made individually by hand.

Viper Knives

As a direct result of watching his fellow martial artists train with a fixed-blade fighting knife in class, yet carry some type of a folding knife when they left the training area, Emerson decided there was a need for a sturdy folding knife designed primarily for combat. Although Emerson had always maintained that the knives he made were built as fighting knives first and foremost, in October 1988 he stripped down five of these designs to simpler materials.He 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. He 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. The reasons for using titanium were its exceptional strength-to-weight ratio and corrosion resistance.

Emerson ground the blades of these knives from ATS-34 steel with a Rockwell hardness of 57–59 and made them thicker toward the tip, creating a stronger-tipped blade than he had made previously. He 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. Emerson designed each one of these knives for a specific purpose. The slender Viper 1 and smaller Viper 2 were designed for use as a police officer's backup weapon. The Viper 5 was designed to be used by naval boat crews, as the handle was contoured with a rear brake so as to not slip from the user's hand when wet.

Emerson's goal for this Viper line was to produce a working knife which would be more resistant to the elements and more durable than the "art knives" for which he had become known. These knives were created to satisfy the demand for a practical field-grade combat knife which could be carried discreetly and accessed quickly. He sold these five models under the name "Viper Knives" and changed the logo on the blades to read the same. Emerson makes these models to this day on a custom basis under the names MV1–5, "MV" standing for "Model Viper".

Pre-tactical models

Emerson's early folding knives were of the linerlock variety and utilized rare materials that working in the aerospace industry gave him access to at the time, including titanium, carbon fiber, micarta, and meteorite. He also incorporated exotic materials common to knifemakers of the time, incorporating mother-of-pearl, abalone shell, paua shell, staghorn, and rare hardwoods into his pieces. Writer Paul Basch reported in 1990 that Emerson refused to use the parts of any animal or plant which was an endangered species, noting Emerson as being an environmentally conscious knifemaker. The steel used in these blades was typically graded ATS-34, AEB-L, or 440C, and the blades were either highly polished or hand-rubbed. Emerson also made knives with Damascus steel blades.Among custom knife collectors and purveyors today, these knives are known as the "Pre-Tac" (Pre-Tactical) models. They can be identified by their bright anodized titanium bolsters and liners and the predominant use of clip point blades.The knives were also noted for their close tolerances and precise locking mechanisms. Emerson credits the following knifemakers for helping him along during his early years as a knifemaker: Michael Walker, Clint Breshears, Bob Engnath, and Jim Ferguson.

Emerson's first logo or stamp on these knives was "Emerson Knives" surrounding the outline of a Bowie knife; accordingly this is referred to as the rare "Bowie Logo", appearing on only a very small number of knives. When a knife collector asked Emerson if he made Bowie knives, Emerson informed him that he did not. The collector then advised him to change his logo or he might confuse the knife-buying public as they would ask for Bowie knives instead of linerlock folders. 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. This marking is known among collectors as the "Half-Moon Logo" and would appear again as a transitional mark between the Viper and Specwar lines of knives.

These early knives sold for between $800 and $2,000 each; that, combined with his appearances at knife shows and write-ups in knife magazines, helped Emerson gain status and credibility as a custom knifemaker. Once established as a serious and reputable maker, Emerson was soon able to concentrate on making the knives he wanted to make—knives designed for use as opposed to show, specifically folding knives designed for combat.