It was founded in 1996 by custom knifemaker Ernest Emerson in an effort to mass-produce his folding knife designs for the U.S. Military and collector markets.

In February 1996, custom Knifemaker Ernest Emerson and his wife, Mary, founded Emerson Knives, Inc. (also referred to as EKI) in Torrance, California to manufacture knives on a larger scale than a custom knifemaker was capable.

These models include the Police Utility Knife (PUK), Emerson's version of Fred Perrin's La Griffe, and a dagger.

[3] In May 2013, a non-custom factory-made Emerson CQC-7 knife carried by the Navy SEAL who served as point man on the mission to kill or capture Osama bin Laden was auctioned off for charity, netting over $35,000.

[5] In that same year, Emerson Knives 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.

This tomahawk features a curved head machined from 4140 steel with a rear spike and a lightweight fiberglass handle.