SOG X-42 Recondo - review

[Sergiusz Mitin]

SOG X-42 Recondo

part 1 of 3

I have waited for this impressive knife impatiently, finally I got mine a couple of time ago. Unfortunately some unexpected obstructions didn't allow me to review it earlier, the most pissing off was my old photo camera's irreparable failure. Sorry Friends, but I really can't to tell you too much without pictures. Maybe when I'll learn English a bit better...
Here I have shared my very superficial initial impressions and this was all I could do.

At last new Minolta 505si Dynax came and now I can show you my X-42 Recodo. Here it is in my duty Glock's companionship on military camouflage mesh background. No, it wasn't rainy day, the water drops are the fruit of my artistic fantasy only.
The very, very first impression when I saw this knife first time "in person" was: "Wow, it is noticeably bigger than is looks at the photos!" To be sure all grind lines and another details will be visible I tried to make direct scan also. Please note that lanyard is not my attachment, X-42 Recondo came with attached one out of the factory box.

The handle fits my medium sized hand simply excellently in saber grip. Doing some piercing tests I have gripped Recondo with reverse grip though I do it extremely rarely in real life knife use. Here I noticed than in reverse grip the handle also leaves nothing more to wish. Banging with full my force into old plastic drum and stack of old phonebooks I had no doubts about my hand safety thanks to lanyard and very sure and comfortable grip. However in hammer grip the handle fits my hand somewhat less comfortably. This is nothing to do with skin tearing or any unpleasant feelings, simply the handle's shape do not match my fingers too precisely. Seems the handle could match larger hand better in hammer grip.
Making some heavy cutting and wood whittling I noticed that finger grooves force to grip the handle as far forwards as it is possible. Assuming that hammer grip is used mostly for heavy cutting I found this future quite useful because this kind of grip provides better leverage for heavy cutting tasks.
Zytel scales are textured very aggressively, I had no problems to control the knife with wet or even wet and soaped hand. On the other hand aggressive scales do not affect gripping comfort too much, simply you are feeling you are handling man's tool.
The scales are removable, those of us who want to make some customizing can replace them with custom ones.

to be continued...


[This message has been edited by Sergiusz Mitin (edited 11-19-2000).]

[Sergiusz Mitin]

part 2 of 3

The blade surprised me somewhat, I must say it honestly. I have described the blade and tip shape here, so it is no sense to repeat. The most surprising for me was very shallow serrations and the fact that the edge is ground on the single side only. The main grind is double sided, it is not chisel ground blade! Sharing my initial impressions I said that I'm going to deepen serrations. I was going also to rebevel the edge to conventional double ground symmetric one. This moment I gave up with these ideas almost completely. After some piercing and cutting tests I had no problems to restore shaving sharpness, my DMT Diamond Whetstones coped with BG-42 blade sharpening with flying colors. But I can't imagine how many expensive diamond files I should waste to reprofile the bevels and to deepen serrations! Maybe when (or properly saying if) I'll have belt grinder I'll return to this matter...
Especially taking into consideration that shallow serrations work better than I expected. I became convinced about this making some rope cutting and some chopping tests. On 25-mm thick cotton rope shallowly serrated edge worked noticeable better than non-serrated part. Though it didn't cut rope as aggressively as Night Vision's deeper serrations the cutting seemed more controllable and required less effort. This would not be the first thing with two sides in this world.
The chopping test on about 40 millimeters thick, pretty hard and fairly fibrous decorative horse chestnut's stalk displayed better chopping results with serrated part of the edge.

Doing chopping, also through pretty hard wood, and stabbing tests I didn't notice any edge chipping at all. The BG-42 blade seems to be very tough and no way brittle, so I can't consider it could be overhardened as it was questioned some time ago on SOG Forum.
As to edge hold, subjectively I can evaluate it as closely comparable with Night Vision's ATS-34 blade, but certainly less prone to chipping. The closest counterpart could be M-2 steel, but BG-42 advantage is that it is stainless steel.
These evaluations are very subjective, due to Recondo uncommon edge geometry I have no ideas how to obtain reliable and objective comparison test results.
One subjective observation more - I have noticed that it is pretty difficult to remove wire edge when sharpening. This also proves steel high toughness and low brittleness in my opinion.
Non-reflective bead blasted finish matches knife overall design by all means.

to be continued...

[This message has been edited by Sergiusz Mitin (edited 11-19-2000).]

[This message has been edited by Sergiusz Mitin (edited 11-20-2000).]

[Sergiusz Mitin]

part 3 of 3

And how well does the Recondo point when stabbing? I have made some hard stabbing into the stack of old phonebooks and here are results. Recondo tip pierced about 300 pages thick dry phonebook and then pierced about 200 pages in next one. To obtain comparable results I have used Fällkniven S1 Forest Knife as benchmark knife. Somewhat surprising for me was the fact that S1 penetrated equally deeply!
I repeated piercing test on the old plastic drum with about 4 millimeters thick polyethylene walls and here Recondo penetrated noticeably deeper. So I considered that geometric shape of the tip adds almost nothing when piercing into target with consistent density but works well when piercing into target with relatively hard surface and soft material (or no material) behind it.
Unfortunately the pierced drum landed on the rubbish dump before I got new camera and could make photos.

The sheath is very strong point of Recondo design. It is made of Kydex and it is fully ambidextrous. You can put your knife into the sheath for both right- and left-hand carry - it will match the sheath firmly and will stay securely. Nylon strap with fastener provides additional security. Tough plastic buckle on the top of belt loop, four slots and ten holes around the sheath's edge allow to attach it to harness, tactical west or to the leg when diving.

Very useful is the belt loop which can be done up on two fasteners. This allows to attach the sheath without belt opening - nice option if you have some kilograms of equipment more on your belt.

Considerations: If dedicated modern fighting knife is required Recondo would be one of my very first choices. However I'm not too partial to this kind of knives because some futures which add fighting abilities at the same time are heavily affecting knife usefulness in utility tool role. In case of Recondo this affect is noticeable minimized in comparison with most pure fighting knives, this makes Recondo far more versatile and user friendly then working. But it is still dedicated fighter. I think it could be even more versatile and much more attractive with plain double beveled clip point blade.
What SOG Specialty Knives about this?

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Sergiusz Mitin
gunwriter
Lodz, Poland


[This message has been edited by Sergiusz Mitin (edited 11-19-2000).]

[Ralf]

As usually, great review and excellent pictures! Thanks a lot Sergiusz!

It seems your experience with this knife confirms what I expected from the look of it. Sheath and handle are very good, so is the steel. But the blade shape is just not my thing. Sure, it LOOKS agressive, but as you noticed in the comparison with the S1, it doesn't have any advantages over a regular clip point style blade. To mee it seems also that the tanto point is overly thin, which makes it potentially weaker than a clip point. I don't understand why a knife needs such a long false edge. It doesn't add anything to performance, but reduces strength. A typical case of style over function.

I just wish SOG would read your review and come up with a nice "utility" blade shape. The other factors of the knife (sheath, handle, steel, quality) have such a big potential.

[Crayola]

Ralf: I questioned the tip strength/ling clip on the SOG forum. You should go there and check it out. The conclusions were that pictures of the tip don't display the tip accurately. The tip looks thin but is actually quite thick. The clip stops before the beginning of the tip so there is quite a bit of steel behind the tip and the "upper edge" of the tip is thick too, not sharpened.

What does tiss all add? The clip makes it lighter, adds looks and could add to penetration ease. Plus, with the tanto style tip, it is stronger than a regular drop point or a clipped point. I bet further comparison tests would draw this out.

One other benefit I believe can be attributed to this style is in a fighting application. In Wayne Goddard's new book he shows what a wound channel would look like from a double ground drop point blade and a chisel ground, americanized tanto pointed blade. Dropped points create an oval shaped hole that closes up easily. The wound channel from the other blade os not oval-like and quite irregular: not easily closed up. I suspect that the Recondo or similar blades would have a similar effect. I think that it wouldn't be as great an effect as a chisel ground tanto but a Recondo type tip should create a more effective "battle wound" than a dropped point. This is of course speculation. Perhaps someone who has done some thinking on this or actual testing could clarify me on this point!

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"Come What May..."

[The General]

Nice!

W.A.

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"To strive to seek to find and not to yield"
Tennyson
Ranger motto

[Ron Andersen]

Hi Sergiusz,

Thanks for the complete and thoughtful review. Your contributions are always very well received.

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Ron Andersen
Consumer Services Manager
SOG Specialty Knives, Inc.

Website: www.sogknives.com
Email: ron@sogknives.com

[Ironhorse]

Great, Great review,and from a man living on the other side of the world no less, who admits his english is not perfect also!!
I'm forced to agree with Crayola, about the tip design, remember this is a defensive blade, designed to cut and penetrate flesh, clothing, and living bone, if one wants a utility knife, there's enough around. the serrated part is easier sharpened with only one side ground. Again, Great job!! Sergiusz, Ironhorse

[Ron Andersen]

I think his English is better than mine!

Ron

[Gator97]

Originally posted by Sergiusz Mitin:
As to edge hold, subjectively I can evaluate it as closely comparable with Night Vision's ATS-34 blade, but certainly less prone to chipping. The closest counterpart could be M-2 steel, but BG-42 advantage is that it is stainless steel.

Quite disapointing then I've ordered Recondo, don't have it yet, but somehow I was expecting better edge holding (especially at 62-64 HRC), than with ATS-34. Okay, I realize that edge holding depends on many factors besides RC, but anyways... Never had SOGs ATS-34 blades, thus can't comment on them but with other ATS-34s I was simply disapointed. May be SOG does something really good with their ATS-34 blades Who knows.



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zvis.com
Have Fun,
Alligator

[Sergiusz Mitin]

Thank you Friends!

I must tell you one secret, but please do not tell anyone more
My English is so-so only when computer corrects my grammatical and stylistic mistakes and when I have the dictionary in my CD-ROM drive

Ron, are you going to visit Nuremberg IWA in March'2001? If so please be prepared to say twice and slowly all what you do want to say me

[Sergiusz Mitin]

Gator,
Properly hardened ATS-34 is very hard to bet as to pure edge holding. The weak point is brittleness and susceptibility to chipping under side pressure at the very edge. If certain steel can hold an edge like ATS-34 and at the same time is tough, impact resistant and not prone to chipping - nothing more can be required from knife blade steel.
I have noticed that some steels like M-2, BG-42 or D-2 do not hold edge better than ATS-34 speaking about pure cutting, but they allow you to do more with your knife due to their toughness and ability to take impacts and side pressure without edge damage.
Since Recondo blade holds the edge no worse than ATS-34 blades and is noticeably tougher - I think you have no reasons to be disappointed


[This message has been edited by Sergiusz Mitin (edited 11-27-2000).]

[Gator97]

Hi Sergiusz,

Originally posted by Sergiusz Mitin:

Properly hardened ATS-34 is very hard to bet as to \pure edge holding.
Well, I guess the key word here is properly Like I said in my message I didn't have very good experience with ATS-34 blades. For experiments sake I'm gonna get Strider MT, apparently that's one of the the makers who knows what to do with ATS-34 plus Mr. Paul Boss. Anyways, as of pure wear resistance I think M2 has higher, thus properly hardened... though don't know, might become too brittle may be. I am no expert in that area...


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zvis.com
Have Fun,
Alligator

[This message has been edited by Gator97 (edited 11-27-2000).]

[Riley]

I just got a Recondo. Sweet! I love this knife. I can't wait to try my hand at making a new handle, and some hard cutting. Love the standard, but I want to experiement, without permantley changing the knife.

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Riley
Do it right,or not at all.

[DameLara]

Thank you for that excellent review!
I will be getting my Recondo tomorrow and now I'm totally stoked.

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Fear Is The Mind Killer

[Danbo]

I'm supposed to be getting one of these knives soon, and I will be replacing the zytel scales with some nice ironwood. Hopefully, those scales can come off easily.

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Danbo, soul brother of Rambo

[Gator97]

My Recond arrived, thought I'd add my 0.02

Impresion #1 was like Sergiusz said, wow this is bigger than on the pictures.
Actually I don't have much ot say yet.
The handle is comfortable. Overall the knife looks cool, fine with me.

The hmmm, what is it, thumbramp or thumbrest, quite aggresively checkered. Your thumb is really gonna get sore if you apply the force for some, even not very prolonged period of time.
The blade geometry. Well, like I said the knife overall looks cool, however whatever it is now, IMHO it optimized only for stabbing.
I'm sure Recondo won't have any problems punching holes in the different things starting from those oil drums, donno exactly why the oil drums, but this excersise seems to be very entertaining for some forumites thus it's very useful for any knife Ok, so it has a strong point & good penetraiton...

Yet it is not a good one as a utility knife.
Both, blade geometry and chisel grind contribute to that. Besides non serated edge is too small IMHO.
Sergiusz, to be honest I'm kindda confused with your review now, because my Recondo definitely has a chisel grind, non-serated part is same chisel as serated, hence obvious "chisel" problems with cuting tasks.
Interesting now, is it supposed ot be like that or it's a bug? The edge was quite dull.
From what I have heard about SOG I was expecting more. I mean everyone's used to complaints about BM edge sherpness for example, but about SOG all folks seem to be positive, anyways, it's not a big deal, I sharpen all of my knives myself.
One of the things I'm gonna do it to put a normal V grind on Recondo, non serated part of the blade definitely will be more useful like that. BTW DMT benchstones work just fine, I mean rinding Recondo was no prob using medium and fine stones. I'm sure edgepro won't have problems either.

Overall, I may not be very right expecting certaing things from Recondo, this is not a utility knife anyways. For the collection it's fine, but since I don't expect much
stabing, piercing tasks less likely I'll use it a lot
IMHO clip or spearpoint BG-42 fixed blade with normal V grind & same handle would be nice.
Just read quite a few messages where Recondo was compared at some extent to other blades as Strider, Busse, TOPS etc. IMHO those are quite different things.


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zvis.com
Have Fun,
Alligator


[This message has been edited by Gator97 (edited 01-04-2001).]

[Gator97]

Hi
Ok, my fault then, I was refering to the single bevel.

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zvis.com
Have Fun,
Alligator

[Sergiusz Mitin]

Gator,

Sergiusz, to be honest I'm kindda confused with your review now, because my Recondo definitely has a chisel grind, non-serated part is same chisel as serated, hence obvious "chisel" problems with cuting tasks.

Let's make an appointment about terminology: chisel grind means that the blade is ground only on one side, the another side is completely flat as it came from steel sheet. Examples - TIMBERLINE Aviator, CRKT KISS and Stiff KISS, BENCHMADE Stryker Model 910 SCG. Quite different thing is if the blade is ground on both sides but the edge is beveled on one side only, examples - Emerson's Commander and some other knives.

Recondo blade is ground on both sides so it no way can be considered as chisel ground. However the edge is beveled on one side, exactly as I have wrote in my review. So I really do not see any confusion here.
This can't change fact that I would like far more if the edge would be beveled on both sides and the blade shape would be drop or clip point.


[This message has been edited by Sergiusz Mitin (edited 01-05-2001).]

[Apothecary]

Sergiusz, good review, as always. When can we expect you to join Joe and Dexter as moderators of this forum?