Word from a lot of "knife guys" is that the Emerson ZT sells is a better Emerson than the Emersons that Emerson sells.
Are people actually trusting the ZT framelocks? Last I heard, they still snap shut on spine whacks. Not what I'd want in a defensive knife.....I'd look for a compression or triad lock.
Would like nicer folder for EDC. Use would be primarily defense, have some fixed Esee for utility, I’ve narrowed it down (for now anyway) to:
Pro-Tech TR-4.3
Spartan Blade Pallus
Zero Tolerance Hinderer 0393SW
Any suggestions, I’m a knife novice, & don’t really wanna waste $200ish bucks on a turd.
Word from a lot of "knife guys" is that the Emerson ZT sells is a better Emerson than the Emersons that Emerson sells.
Are people actually trusting the ZT framelocks? Last I heard, they still snap shut on spine whacks. Not what I'd want in a defensive knife.....I'd look for a compression or triad lock.
This is true, The ZT Emersons are better than Emerson Emersons. Same with the Hinderer colabs. ZTs have a much better action and the blade steel is easy to sharpen. I was extremely underwhelmed by Hinderer's S35VM and up until recently the actions were so hit or miss that for a $500 knife, it was kinda sad considering the prestige once involved with the XM line.
First time I've heard that, but they're production folders, anything can happen with batches, same with midtechs.
I've always been torn on spine whacks for testing anyway (on a folder you never plan to baton with). There might be more to it but defensively I'd imagine you'd slash and the knife would have rearward force, not forward. Plus your hand would be putting pressure against the lock as well
After I saw the video with all of the ZTs failing the spine whacks, I tested mine. None of them failed. I won't speculate why someone has a large collection of ZTs and all of them fail with a pretty minimal whack on the spine.
I was curious (especially since I carried my 0850 today)
I tried my remaining ZTs, a 0850, 0450, 0562BLK Sprint Run, none of them failed. Didn't whack the bejeezus out of them either but they were solid hits