I recently received the Emerson Knives CQC-7BW flipper. I’ve been a long time fan of Emerson Knives and own several of them. The one model I never had my hands on was any of their “flipper” models. I went with the CQC-7 for a few reasons; first, it’s a proven blade design that was originally developed with input from the SEAL Teams. Second, the size of the knife is damn near perfect for EDC. The third and final reason, well it just works! Don’t fix it if it ain’t broke.
When I’m evaluating a knife for daily carry, the blade to handle ratio is very important to me. Ideally, I prefer the overall length to be around 7.5″, with a 3 to 3.5″ blade. That gives me plenty of handle surface area to maintain a positive grip in almost any condition. Couple that with the G10 scales Emerson uses on their knives and you got yourself a bomb proof knife.
The Flipper 7 comes in with an overall length of 8″ and a blade length of 3.3″. That leaves me with a generous 4.65″ handle to work with. Although 8″ sounds like a lot when the knife is opened, it’s really not. The blade is not large enough to be intimidating when using in public for EDC tasks.
The handle shape is a very simplistic design which I prefer. No fancy cut outs or contours.
The blade is your standard CQC-7 design, but with two different modifications. The first being the flipper which looks like a damn shark fin when closed.
The second is the blade steel used. Generally, Emerson Knives uses 154CM steel on all their knives. The Flipper 7 is an exception as it’s made from S35VN steel, which is a bit more robust than the more common 154CM. Both are great steel’s and will hold up to the abuse of the American Warfighter.
I have to say this is one of the smoothest operating Emerson Knives I’ve ever owned. Typically one of the first things I do when I purchase an Emerson knife is disassemble the knife to wipe down the pivot points and add a little gun oil to smooth out the operation; not needed with the CQC-7 flipper.
The Emerson line of flipper knives is also the first in the industry to have 3 methods of deployment:
“The Flipper 7 is the next evolution in the Emerson CQC-7 Family. With all the components of the insanely popular CQC-7BW, with the added Flipper tab. This knife boasts three different opening methods: Wave-out, Thumb-out, and Flip out – WTF!” – Emerson Knives
