I love all my Emersons. I am a bit partial to the CQC-7 but the Commander is a nice knife. The older Emersons are a tiny bit better in quality than the new ones but either will wholeheartedly take the abuse without issue.

I have carried my current CQC-7 for 6+ years now and have beat it to near death - and it still works just as good as the day I got it. It needs to be sharpened but that's about it.

If your going to beat up your knife I recommend a tanto style blade (again why I like the CQC-7) - but the Commander's belly is big enough that you have some 'meat' there.

Once you go with the 'wave' feature you will never own a knife without it. Its just so damn useful (opens bottle tops too).