Anyone else here have a SOG Vulcan VL-03 and hate the clip?

myu

Joined
Feb 9, 2010
Messages
72
The look of the clip on the Vulcan VL-03 is rather cool, with the 3 adjacent triangles cut out of the metal. But for practicality, I find the clip obtrusive. It's too big. It has a large cumbersome 90 degree angle on it. And frankly those cutouts are a vulnerability for stress fractures.

Case in point, by merely providing strong thumb pressure on the clip, mine fractured in 2 places. Thankfully alternating locations that kept the clip intact... but it just looked unsightly. SOG has a clip replacement service and you can fill out of a form to request one. They'd had the Vulcan VL-03 in the list and I requested it repeatedly at ultimately 2 different addresses and never got a response. Finally, I wrote directly to the contact email address and they told me "sorry, but that clip is no longer available." Shortly thereafter it was removed from the list. So, I looked around to see what other SOG knives might have compatible clips. Sure enough it looked like the Terminus XR LTE would be a good candidate.

SOG-Vulcan-VL03-Terminus-XR-LTE-clip-compare.jpg


So much better! Unfortunately this clip ends up making contact with the scales at the back edge, thereby defeating the deep pocket carry of the original clip. But that's not a major concern. The feel of the knife is just so much better with this far less obtrusive clip.
SOG-Vulcan-VL03-Terminus-XR-LTE-clip.jpg
 
Nice modification. I agree that the original clips on the Vulcan series were a bit too intrusive. I had both the full size and mini. In retrospect I think the Vulcan lost some practicality in favor of a tactical design where it excelled. On the con side, I was never happy with the grind, the clip, the mysterious shark gills behind the thumbstuds. But on the pro side, I thought the scales despite being just FRN) were very ergonomically designed and comfortable. And the ability to use the thuimb studs and flipper made it one of my most "fidget friendly" knives. Of course the Arc-Lock was fantastic, and fully on a par with my Benchmade Axis-locks. The Vulcan could have evolved further into an even better knife, but SOG decided to back away from Seki production.
 
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