HISTORY

The Emerson Commander knife was conceived and bred for one purpose – combat. Now you need to understand that the word combat does not solely refer to the use of the knife as a weapon but more so a knife that can be used and counted on in a combat environment, a knife that can be called upon to do many things, many tasks, yet still function as a viable weapon if that need does present itself. That knife is the Commander.

The Commander knife was originally designed at the request of a unit at Fort Bragg, North Carolina for a SERE type of knife that could cover all of the requirements necessary in a knife that would be taken into a combat environment. This included having a forward heavy blade with a larger front end and a smaller width towards the pivot which was solved by using the Commander recurve design.

Design

Besides the recurve design creating a forward weighted blade another advantage is that the recurve creates a blade where the cutting edge is longer than the blade itself. If you were to lay a string along the edge of the knife it would be longer than the overall length of the blade. This gives the blade more cutting surface. Additionally because of the curve when cutting material is drawn along and into the concave portion of the blade (the inward curve) it gives great leverage when cutting cord, clothing, or webbing. Thirdly the convex portion of the blade (the outward curve) commonly called the belly concentrates the force of cutting or slashing onto the front end and maximizes the efficiency of any force applied to the blade cutting remarkably well with minimal force.

And last because of the upswept curve towards the point it is delicate enough and fully capable of skinning large game with ease.

The original knife blade had a thumb hole in the blade for simplicity in opening but it was replaced with the Emerson thumb disk on top of the blade because the “hole” did not work well when wearing combat gloves.

The handle needed to be ergonomic in design and capable of being comfortable in a number of grip positions including a reverse grip and a forward (saber) grip.

Put to Use

So as a design the Commander originally called the ES1-M, covered all the requirements for both a combat ready SERE and fighting knife.

The next evolution came when the original ES1-M design was introduced to the US Navy SEAL teams. The combat fighting course instructors requested one additional feature, a hook or projection on top of the blade to catch or stop an opposing blade from sliding forward into the operator's hand. This feature with just a little tweaking became the “Emerson wave shaped opening feature” the “wave”. This feature enables the user to deploy the knife fully opened as it is withdrawn or deployed from the pocket. Faster than any switchblade and ready for immediate action it is the fastest opening knife ever developed.

So successful and innovative was the Commander design that it was declared the hands-down winner of the “overall knife of the year” at the 1998 BLADE Show, the cutlery industry's top honor.