controversy around SOG knives?

[seelow123]

Not to change the subject too much, but what's the general consensus on their multitools? I've got a couple of their knives that I'm alright with (really like the mini vulcan), but I never hear much about the tools.

I owned one of their powerlocks (the EOD version) And it was pretty nice but nothing spectacular. I prefer leathermans as i feel they are made better.

 

[jakeyjake4528]

First post nailed it.

We would not be where we are today without generations of copied and derivative designs in everything in the entire world.

This entire discussion is silly and pointless.

Not at all.

You have a company blatantly copying the design of another. With inferior materials and workmanship. If this was the case for everything in the entire world, everything would suck.

The OP asked why the controversy. They are copying designs. Well known, current designs, not something from four generations ago. By trying to follow another company, they are in fact quite behind. But that's obvious.

 

[Mountain Mike]

Not to change the subject too much, but what's the general consensus on their multitools? I've got a couple of their knives that I'm alright with (really like the mini vulcan), but I never hear much about the tools.

I had a Pocket Power Pliers for 10 years (before someone stole it!), loved the compound leverage gears! Also love the fact that you don't need a special tool to swap/replace implements. I've never used their Powerlock or Power Assist models, but I loved that little multi-tool more than my leathermans.

 

[Gramps]

SOG has an outlet here in WA State; I stopped in several months ago, and looked around. Nothing really caught my eye. I do remember their quality being better a decade or two ago. However, the employees were very pleasant, and didn't pressure me to buy.

SOG strikes me as a company suffering slightly from a lack of originality and quality.

Regarding Gunny...every man's got a right to make a living. He's a personality that endorses products for a fee. Most folks are sophisticated enough to separate the persona from the product, and disassociate the "pitch" from the personality....or not. For example, I liked Ronald Reagan fine, when he was a pitch man for GE, but bought a Whirlpool because I thought it was better built.

 

[ooitzoo]

It's not a "beef" but he's a caricature, a human cartoon character. Plus his endorsement implies that the product endorsed is military or military grade, which I think is an affectation that I want to avoid.

Maybe but that comes from one of my fav movies of all time (Full Metal Jacket.) He's made a career of that caricature and I can't begrudge him making some $$ after many years of service.

I generally don't buy SOG but not bc of Gunny. Mostly its a quality vs. price thing.

 

[seelow123]

Really the only thing i have against SOG is the blade play in the folders i have owned. I find that their blade finishes are very nice and they come very sharp OTB. I bought my brother a GOV TAC for his birthday and i really like it. I put a new edge on it not too long ago and cut some wood and it performed admirably. No complaints here.

 

[slt]

The only SOG I own is a Seal Pup Elite - and I love the little thing. Fixed blade wise, I haven't heard of any major issues. Most problems seem to stem from the lack of QC in folders and lots of blade-play; seeing as how I don't own any of their folders I cant comment with certainty, but that's the gist of it from what I gather.

 

[Planterz]

I worked on a SOG Flash II for a coworker. It's a piece of junk. Thin flimsy plastic washers, massive blade play, and an overly complicated mechanism. I've had very little experience with SOGs, and this example left me with an extremely poor impression of their products. Why anybody would buy a SOG over a Kershaw is beyond me.

 

[A.P.F.]

I think that some people would complain about blade play on a Seal Pup! I have 4 SOG folders, two Vulcans, a Visionary II and an Aegis. None of these knives came with any blade play and all displayed appropriate F&F for their price points. All came shaving sharp, all but the Aegis were perfectly centered and I would buy all of them again.

I can't verify others problems, but I can say that I haven't had any at this time.

 

[Tim-Gabz]

My paratool was superb, regrettably stolen from me. Well at the top of the performance of multi tools. The Pentagon and Tsunami were excellent in quality and general multi tasking that allowed for them to be constantly with me. These were the Seki generation. I have had a couple of Fusion items and they were ok, not for use of Hockey masked testers, but serviceable at a low price.


Spyderco is always superb, a little expensive but good value. It is natural that others follow but SOG should be paying more attention to their quality of folders as they have had excellent designs but lacks follow through.

 

[Indianbladenoob]

Agree that functionally there no serious issues with the fixed blades. I have a NW Ranger 2.0 in AUS-8 made in Taiwan. Now I am not American so I have little to say about the Made in America bit except that I find my BK-14 with scales to be better finished than the Ranger. The Ranger hasn't seen any real action except some youtube style foolhardiness with cardboard and bottles. Cuts like a laser and I haven't touched the factory edge yet. Still wave cuts newspaper. Fit is very good; everything stays where its supposed to. No loose handles or guard. Finish, however is a little off even to my untrained eye. For example the base of the edge where the grind ends has mismatched notches on both sides on my blade, and the grind on the belly seems to not follow the curve of the blade. I am sure the first issue wont affect performance and the second is easily fixed with my Lansky Kit, but still. And I have heard a few people say they had a little Kraton overflow into the lanyard hole.

I got it because I needed a bushcrafter for humid conditions and Adam from equip2endure did a comparative usage review with some other more expensive stuff (CS Master Hunter, Fallkniven F1, Fishwolf Custom etc). And it held up very well and won out on the cost/benefit ratio stakes.

But my made in China Kershaw Scamp is like a Staffordshire Bull Terrier of knives. Not too big but robust enough to keep up with the bigger dogs. even fixed blades. Just saying there's some good stuff out of China & Taiwan when the company takes a deeper interest in QC.
Cheerz

The only SOG I own is a Seal Pup Elite - and I love the little thing. Fixed blade wise, I haven't heard of any major issues. Most problems seem to stem from the lack of QC in folders and lots of blade-play; seeing as how I don't own any of their folders I cant comment with certainty, but that's the gist of it from what I gather.

 

[J. Hoffman]

Gunny? What you got against gunny?

I use to love Gunny, but he has sold out. I can't think of a single company that he endorses that produces a product I would buy.

 

[Sidehill Gouger]

As for SOG, they got their start in the business copying stuff. Their original fixed blade was a high quality, clean copy of the "sterile" knives made in theater by local smiths in Vietnam which were, by some accounts, their attempt to copy a Randall design. But who knows? The SOG "bowies" also remind me quite a bit of my early 60's Bill Moran fighter which is pretty much identical to the one that knife writer Ken Warner had back then before he had Bill make him one of the original big "Rio Grande" spear point knives IIRC.

The original Vietnam SOG knives were designed by Ben Baker on Okinawa and made in Japan. The current SOG company once said they were using the same maker for their reproductions but there may have been more than one company that received a part of that contract during the war.

 

[overlordseth90]

i agree , why have gunny approve there knifes ? , they pay him so why wouldnt he , if they want approval they should get it from the customer and user of ther knifes.

 

[razorsdescent]

I use to love Gunny, but he has sold out. I can't think of a single company that he endorses that produces a product I would buy.

WEll its not like he was a high speed guy to begin with, he was an actor and was retro-activley promoted to gunnery seargent because of his fame. Hero worship is silly and he only promotes second rate products

For instance as was already mentioned crk doesnt have acelebrity spokesperson, but this applies to everything the gunny endorses. He endorses glocks, you never see wilson combat or les baer with an actor touting their wares. Lastly take for example tru-spec, a little more than half the price and a little more than half the quality of 5.11, i admit i own some of these products but yet again they arent like arcteryx vertx pants or even 5.11 who dont have big celebrity spokes people, even blackhawk with their explosions doesnt have vin diesel rocking warrior wear.
Its used car salesman advertising and it belies a sub-par product.