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Pros: Blade Material, Blade Sharpness, Ease of Opening, Handle Feel, Handle Material, Lock Ease of Use, Lock Type, Overall Quality, Pocket Clip, Weight
Cons: None
Compact, capable and legal nearly everywhere
The Lionsteel Emmet is my fifth Lionsteel knife. While lion steel makes many different types of knives, the ones I gravitate towards are non-radical and classic designs that are made with the most modern of manufacturing techniques and materials. All of them have impeccable fit, finish and feel with excellent contouring and texturing of the handle and chamfering or radiusing of all edges, including the spine of the blade. I generally eschew aluminum handled knives with anodizing for the reason that the chemical bond of anodizing with aluminum is not terribly strong, and the anodizing rubs off fairly quickly in my experience. But, I was so taken with the appearance of the hammer finish earth colored aluminum handle on this knife, and the functionality of the texturing created by the hammer finish that I decided to go with the aluminum handled version. I would have preferred a solid titanium handle with the same hammer finish and anodizing, as the chemical bond of anodizing with titanium is much stronger and far more durable than that aluminum. But, Lionsteel does not presently offer this option, although it is my hope that they will in the future. Of course, a titanium handled version would have been substantially more expensive and, for a knife of this quality with a Magnacut blade, the aluminum handled version is an absolute bargain. The things I love about this knife include the following. 1) It has a flat grind blade, as do my other Lionsteel knives, which I prefer for two reasons. A flat grind produces better slicing and all of my knives have a lot to do with food. More importantly, as Dr. Larrin Thomas, the metallurgist who created Magnacut steel sets forth in his book Knife Engineering and in his articles on knifesteelnerds.com, a flat grind that puts more steel behind the shoulder of the edge provides a tougher edge than a hollow ground blade, other things being equal. 2) Also relating to the fact that my knives have a lot to do with food, I confirmed with Lionsteel that this knife has ceramic ball bearings at the pivot. The adult children of a friend of mine who uses his pocket knife to eat his steaks in restaurants unaffectionately refer to his knife as the "salmonella special." To avoid this, my knives are frequently washed in hot water with dish detergent. Because ceramic bearings not only require no lubrication, but lubrication actually impedes their function by attracting dirt, I do not have to constantly lubricate the pivot on this knife, and do not have to worry about petrochemicals entering my food. 3) Of particular importance to me is that the blade shape is very nimble and has no thumb stud to get away when trying to slice food and to trap material between the stud and the handle. Rather, there is an indentation in the blade that permits manual opening with a finger pinch. 4) The knife also has a flipper tab, which is removable if not desired. While flippers are very convenient, I prefer not to use the flipper feature of a knife to open it when in public ares where those who are unfamiliar with knives and are often afraid of them confuse any knife that opens rapidly with an illegal switchblade, which can create issues. It's worth noting that Lionsteel provides with the knife a small torx driver and a spare screw for the flipper tab. The screw is extremely small and if you should drop it accidentally, it is nearly impossible to find unless you are on a perfectly smooth surface. I speak from experience with having made this mistake with the screw for the pocket clip on my Lionsteel Nini, and when I couldn't find the screw Lionsteel was kind enough to provide me with another upon request. 5) Another excellent feature of this knife is the pocket clip, which is unobtrusive when using the knife and yet easily slides over thick garments while firmly gripping thin garments. 6) Another important aspect of this knife is that it is extremely comfortable in the hand and provides an excellent grip via the neutral shape and texturing of the handle that permits this knife to comfortably perform many tasks that one might ordinarily expect to perform with a larger knife. 7) Finally, one of the attributes that I look for in collecting knives is legal compliance. There are.two features of this knife that in conjunction make this knife legal nearly everywhere in the United States. The first is that the blade is under 3 inches long, as blades longer than 3 inches are often highly regulated. The second is that the blade has a frame lock mechanism. This is important because many jurisdiction prohibit so-called gravity blades that permit a blade to be opened by gravity or with a flick of the wrist. While button lock and crosslock locking mechanisms for example are excellent locking mechanisms, by depressing the button lock or pulling the crosslock to the rear one is able to release tension on the blade to permit it to be operated by gravity or centripetal force, thus making them illegal to carry in many jurisdictions. It is impossible on a frame lock to release the lock tension on the blade prior to opening, as the frame lock is not accessible with the blade folded. I researched. the question of how strong is a frame lock and the answer I kept getting was that a frame lock is as strong as the frame of the knife. Given this knife is made with Lionsteel’s SOLID Technology that produces a one piece frame, this frame lock should be strong, indeed.To sum up in one sentence, this is another great knife from Lionsteel.
