Rich, here is what it says at the Emerson site.
THE KEY TO EMERSON GRINDS
From time to time we get a question like “Hey you forgot to grind the other side of my knife! It’s only sharpened on one side!”Well, the simple answer is this; that’s the way it’s supposed to be. I developed the Emerson single side edge after years of test, evaluation, research and feedback. I’ve been doing this for over thirty years now regardless of what type of level grind is on the knife, double V or chisel, I only grind the edge(the sharpest) of the knife on one side. It produces an extremely sharp; very durable and easy to service (sharpen) edge for hard duty use.
The main difficulty anyone ever has with our grinds is this, “I’m used to knives sharpened on both sides.” I understand, as that s the way most conventional knives are sharpened. However, once you break that mind-set, you will find that the Emerson Edge grind (one side only) cuts like crazy, stays sharp and is much easier to sharpen back to cutting capability.
Because, you’re only dealing with one edge, not two. I’ve sharpened these knives on rocks, bricks, pieces of pipe, sandpaper, glass and stones of all types and I’ve never had a problem getting a good using edge. Yes, I admit if I sharpened it on a piece of concrete, wouldn’t shave with it, but, I have a razor for that.
By the way, if you think of the sharpest piece of steel in your house, what is it? No, it is not your kitchen knives; it is not your pocket knife. It is the razor that you shave with every morning. It doesn’t matter if it’s Schick, Gillette or BIC they are the sharpest blades in your house. Guess how they are sharpened? One side only – exactly like an Emerson Knife.
And here is a link to the page with some other interesting stuff on it.
http://emersonknives.com/get-know-knife/