Desert Dagger's steel

[Ars_Stolam]

I've been eyeing the Desert Dag for some time now, and I think I'm ready to go ahead and purchase one. I've just got one question though--After looking through 1sks.com, I noticed that the blade material is listed as 440A, and the sheath material is listed as leather. I'm pretty sure the sheath is supposed to be kydex and the steel is supposed to be AUS6. So whaddya say? Do you think those are typos or is there actually a DD that comes in 440A and a leather sheath

 

[Ron Andersen]

The Desert Dagger is no longer listed on SOG's website, so I'm wandering if it's been discontinued. That knife definitely came with a Kydex sheath. I think the DD reference on 1SKS.com is a "typo."

Regarding the steel, this has been talked about in the SOG forum a number of times. To assist, I've quoted an explanation I'd given several years ago when I was employed by SOG, representing their products (quoted from this thread that was quite contentious where Cliff Stamp chose to argue his point rather than make his point):

Quoted from Ron Andersen on 08/12/01
I'll pop in for our company. AUS steels are of Japanese origin, while 440 steels are U.S. made. SOG's knives are (for the most part) made in Seki, Japan. So, our knives have been AUS steels all along.

Why, then, would we label any as 440? It was a marketing decision. When we started doing it more than a decade ago, the thought was that consumers in the American marketplace might know and understand 440 labels better than the AUS labels. As a result, the "similar" 440 labels for the actual AUS steels were used. This may or may not have been the best decision. Maybe someone with more historical perspective than me can answer this better, but I think the AUS steels have more recently gained broader understanding. As a result, we are converting completely to AUS labeling for all our knives in marketing material. I do understand that there are technical differences between the 440 and AUS steels. The key word here is "similar."

In "SOG-speak," AUS6A and 440A were interchanged, while AUS8A and 440C were interchanged. Are these the most accurate comparisons? I'm sure there will be those with differing opinions....

This should assist you in understanding the different steel designations. Because of these changes in the past, various distributors used specifications from marketing material they had...material that might represent the older marketing strategy.