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The SOG Fusion Line
Mistake or Triumph?
by Dylan Fletcher
Log onto one of the popular knife discussion forums these days, search for threads about SOG knives, and undoubtedly youll see a number of threads questioning the quality of SOGs Fusion line. It seems that there is no shortage of people that have damned the Fusion line without giving it a chance. Some say that SOG has lost their way and sold out to the mall ninjas in order to make a buck. Some ask, why is SOG discontinuing all the tools that made them famous and built their loyal market? Whatever the statements or questions may be, the general theme is the same. To these people, SOG has made a grave mistake and forgotten what made them SOG Knives.
Due to all the questions and statements I was reading on the forums, I was personally interested in the quality of the Fusion line. This isnt a review where a company sent a knife to a writer for review for a magazine article. No one got paid, no bribes, nothing. Im not saying that happens all the time with other people reviewing knives. Im just saying it didnt happen this time. I contacted SOG and asked if I could have a crack at a couple of Fusion knives to satisfy my own curiosity and do a review for the forums. I even offered to send the knives back when I was done. I also told SOG that I was planning on posting my findings for everyone to see and it would be completely honest. My stipulations were that they would get an honest review, but they wouldnt have any influence on the findings. The only thing they would be allowed to do would be to help me with any corrections to technical specs or facts that I was incorrect about concerning the history of the knives.
Some time ago, SOG underwent a change. Originally, many of their knives were produced between the United States and Seki, Japan. Many of the knives that won our hearts, such as the various Bowies, the seemingly indestructible folders, and perhaps the most notable, original Tigershark, were produced in Japan. SOG, in an effort to keep up with the times, evaluated what was selling and what wasnt. They then decided to produce some new designs and drop some of the ones that were no longer selling in great enough numbers to warrant further production costs. Also, they decided to shift some of the production to less expensive materials and labor in other areas of the world in order to keep the cost reasonable for the customer while maintaining the ability to produce new products and continue their innovation. While some changes were made to materials, that doesnt necessarily mean that they were to inferior materials. Many of their tools have been stepped up over the years, not stepped down. Anyone who has ever run a business that produces and sells a product will tell you that this is pretty much the standard model for staying in business and thriving. If a product no longer has the demand, you stop making it. If overhead costs rise enough that it drives up your price to the customer, you find ways to cut overhead. Most importantly, and the purpose of the Fusion line, if you want to produce products for everyone, and not just those who can spend serious cheese on an item, create a product that is affordable to everyone.
This is where the Fusion line comes in. Despite how much most of us knife and gear snobs would wish, not everyone has the money to spend on high priced gear. Some of us have to get what we can afford. Whether it be because we just dont have the dough for a big ticket purchase, or because we destroy or lose stuff too often to warrant high priced gear. For whatever reason, we need a high quality product that we can afford on a tight budget. SOGs Fusion line is an effort to meet that demand. According to SOGs marketing, they use the highest quality materials possible to produce great tools at affordable prices.
It should be taken into consideration, that this wasnt some one day or even weekend test. I tested both of these knives over a period of more than a month and Im not talking a little here a little there. I mean every day I was using these knives. The day I received these knives, I took my usual EDC knife out of my pocket and replaced it with the Salute. I used it for everything I would use my usual EDC for, cutting up boxes and packing tape, snatching strips off motorcycle crates, cutting rope and paracord, opening containers, cutting cans and plastic bottles apart, making my lunch, you name it. I use a knife throughout the day more than most people use their cell phone. As for the Hunter Revolver, I came up with little projects almost every day to use it for, not many of them had a lot of practical application, but all were thought up to push the knife and see how it performed. I wanted to really take my time to see how these knives hold up, because no one buys a tool to use over the span of one day or a weekend. They buy it to use until it breaks.
Well start with the Fusion Hunter Revolver.
Here are the technical specs straight from SOG Knives.
Blade Length ...4.75" x .15"
Overall Length 10"
Weight .6.0 oz.
Edge Straight/Double Tooth Saw
Steel 440A
HRC ....56-58
Handle Glass-Reinforced Nylon
Finish ..Satin
Sheath .Nylon
Suggested Retail Price $40.00
I dug a little deeper on the materials, because I like to know what EVERYTHING is made out of. The Fusion Revolvers liners are 420 stainless. The washers in the pivot are nylon. Also the screws and locking pin are stainless as well. All of these are good, well-respected, tried and true materials that you could expect to find in a lot of high quality knives.
Lets first talk about the design. I have wanted to try a revolver for a long time now. Ive read a lot of information about the history behind the knife and have read nothing but great reviews about the original Revolvers (pre-Fusion line). Unfortunately, acquiring one just never really happened. Every time I had the dough, there would be something else it had to be spent on, be it a legitimate necessity or just some other knife I thought I needed more. Either way, I missed the boat. By the time I got serious about getting one, all of the originals were gone. You can still find them here and there, but people want at least full price if not more for them, where as you used to be able to find some pretty smokin deals on them when they were abundant.
The design of this knife is very cool. The man who came up with it is Robbie Roberson. The idea is that you have a fixed blade/full tang knife and a fixed blade/full tang saw in the same package, being able to switch between the two with only the push of a button and a half revolution of the blade, hence the name Revolver. The way the knife is designed, with the pivot screw, locking pin, and safety stop all there, you basically have fixed blade strength in either position, saw or knife. Instead of all the force being applied to only a pivot screw and one locking mechanism separate from the blade, as you would on a folder, it is distributed among these three points along half the length of the steel, effectively turning it into the tang. Knowing that you have this kind of strength really gives you confidence in the knife.
The handle itself is extremely grippy, so much so that I would recommend gloves for extended use. If youre just using it here and there for maybe an hour at a time, Im sure you wouldnt notice any serious discomfort, but you can tell by holding it that this handle will surely create some hotspots after prolonged hard use. One thing is for sure, the curves of the handle and the grip the texture gives ensures that this knife is absolutely NOT going to slip in the hand. There is a lanyard hole at the butt of the handle. Inside the black glass-reinforced nylon are the 420 stainless steel liners and the locking mechanism itself.
One thing I noticed right off the bat was a slight flex to the handles inward toward the blade when squeezed really hard. I wondered if this was a sign of weakness and something different from the original Revolver, being part of the new Fusion line. Maybe it had lost some of the strength through changing materials. I contacted Chris Cashbaugh, from SOGs Marketing department, Robbie Roberson, the man behind the design, and also a few random Revolver owners from an internet forum to ask about this. Chris told me that SOG changed nothing as far as the materials used in the handles when they switched this model to the Fusion line and everyone else I contacted confirmed that the flex was also a characteristic of the previous models. Chris said that the only thing that was changed was the blade material and some tooling on the handle to make it more grippy. Also, everyone reassured me that even though there is slight flex in the handle, NO ONE had yet had one give up the ghost on them. Given some of the people I asked and what I know of how hard they use their knives, I have no doubt that the strength is there.
The sheath that comes with this knife is very basic. I must admit, I loved the original leather revolver sheath and would love to have one, sooooo if anyone out there has one they want to give away, my contact info is available. The new sheath included with the Fusion Revolver is a very inexpensive nylon job. Now heres the deal. Is it an expensive leather or kydex rig? Nope. Does the sheath work? Yes it does. Does it hold the knife and keep it from falling out or cutting or stabbing anything you dont want it to? Sure as hell does! Its just a sheath. If you want fancy, have a cool custom sheath made or buy a more expensive knife that comes with a more elaborate sheath but this thing does its job.
The blade is made from 440A, where as the original Revolver sported a blade of AUS8. The obvious question is, is the blade decent? The answer is no, its not just decent. Its actually surprisingly good. To tell you the truth, I had written off what I thought to be crap steels long ago, and 440A was on my throw-away list. I had lumped it in with the cheapo gunshow knives of my youth and thought I had raised the bar and moved onto real steel a long time ago. I can honestly say that Im going to start really looking at all the 440A knives I had walked by with my nose in the air and see if there are some good user designs like this Revolver. The blade locking pin slid in and out of the hole in the blade easily when the button was pushed. The blade rotated like butta. The whole mechanism worked flawlessly. I did notice just a tiny bit of play in the blade front to back when it was locked into position. After examining the holes in the blade, I noticed that they were just a hair larger in diameter than the locking pin. I assumed that if you made the tolerances too close, the pin wouldnt move in and out of the hole as easily and could snag, but I dont like to make assumptions. Again, I checked with all the usual suspects above to see if this was a new thing or the same as the original. They confirmed that this was exactly the same as the original Revolvers and Robbie also confirmed what I suspected about the tolerance issue. The blades cutting edge and gut hook edge were hair popping sharp straight out of the box. So much so that I actually recommend that you be very careful when drawing the knife out of the sheath. If the gut hook snags the retaining Velcro strap, youll never know. It will just fall to the ground, having been silently lased off. While the primary grind wasnt perfectly symmetrical, all of the edges were very uniform and even.
Before I tested this knife, I will admit that putting a serious amount of pressure on a knife with a sharp blade that spins out of the HANDLE had me kind of apprehensive. I mean what if they lock failed? What if the locking pin somehow let go and this thing sailed right through my hand? Not to mention, this is the new affordable line, like as in less costly. What if all those people were right and this new stuff wasnt exactly strong? I really like my fingers. I mean whats not to love? This one goes to the market. This ones stays home. This one over here, you know what he likes?... Roast beef. You get the idea. Robbie was right there to make me feel more at ease.
The lock up on the originals has been amazingly strong for many years. There is also a safety block within the handle that makes them even stronger. Notice the angle on the end of the saw blade, this angle gives the saw extra security and will not allow it to rotate through the handle even if the lock pin fell out............which is exactly how I tested my Revolvers to make sure they could still be used in the woods even it the lock pin came out. I removed my lock pin and put a green stick in the lock hole and used mine for days without failure of any kind..........a green stick locked the blade.
Well there you have it a green stick. Along with Chris assuring me that nothing in the handles had changed, all it took was working with this knife for a few minutes to feel completely comfortable with it. With the way the blade rotates, even if the lock and the safety block failed, there is virtually no way that this thing could bite you. In either saw mode or knife mode, youre hand will always be hit by a blunt spine, not a sharp blade. Again, very well thought out design.
Continued...
Mistake or Triumph?
by Dylan Fletcher
Log onto one of the popular knife discussion forums these days, search for threads about SOG knives, and undoubtedly youll see a number of threads questioning the quality of SOGs Fusion line. It seems that there is no shortage of people that have damned the Fusion line without giving it a chance. Some say that SOG has lost their way and sold out to the mall ninjas in order to make a buck. Some ask, why is SOG discontinuing all the tools that made them famous and built their loyal market? Whatever the statements or questions may be, the general theme is the same. To these people, SOG has made a grave mistake and forgotten what made them SOG Knives.
Due to all the questions and statements I was reading on the forums, I was personally interested in the quality of the Fusion line. This isnt a review where a company sent a knife to a writer for review for a magazine article. No one got paid, no bribes, nothing. Im not saying that happens all the time with other people reviewing knives. Im just saying it didnt happen this time. I contacted SOG and asked if I could have a crack at a couple of Fusion knives to satisfy my own curiosity and do a review for the forums. I even offered to send the knives back when I was done. I also told SOG that I was planning on posting my findings for everyone to see and it would be completely honest. My stipulations were that they would get an honest review, but they wouldnt have any influence on the findings. The only thing they would be allowed to do would be to help me with any corrections to technical specs or facts that I was incorrect about concerning the history of the knives.
Some time ago, SOG underwent a change. Originally, many of their knives were produced between the United States and Seki, Japan. Many of the knives that won our hearts, such as the various Bowies, the seemingly indestructible folders, and perhaps the most notable, original Tigershark, were produced in Japan. SOG, in an effort to keep up with the times, evaluated what was selling and what wasnt. They then decided to produce some new designs and drop some of the ones that were no longer selling in great enough numbers to warrant further production costs. Also, they decided to shift some of the production to less expensive materials and labor in other areas of the world in order to keep the cost reasonable for the customer while maintaining the ability to produce new products and continue their innovation. While some changes were made to materials, that doesnt necessarily mean that they were to inferior materials. Many of their tools have been stepped up over the years, not stepped down. Anyone who has ever run a business that produces and sells a product will tell you that this is pretty much the standard model for staying in business and thriving. If a product no longer has the demand, you stop making it. If overhead costs rise enough that it drives up your price to the customer, you find ways to cut overhead. Most importantly, and the purpose of the Fusion line, if you want to produce products for everyone, and not just those who can spend serious cheese on an item, create a product that is affordable to everyone.
This is where the Fusion line comes in. Despite how much most of us knife and gear snobs would wish, not everyone has the money to spend on high priced gear. Some of us have to get what we can afford. Whether it be because we just dont have the dough for a big ticket purchase, or because we destroy or lose stuff too often to warrant high priced gear. For whatever reason, we need a high quality product that we can afford on a tight budget. SOGs Fusion line is an effort to meet that demand. According to SOGs marketing, they use the highest quality materials possible to produce great tools at affordable prices.
It should be taken into consideration, that this wasnt some one day or even weekend test. I tested both of these knives over a period of more than a month and Im not talking a little here a little there. I mean every day I was using these knives. The day I received these knives, I took my usual EDC knife out of my pocket and replaced it with the Salute. I used it for everything I would use my usual EDC for, cutting up boxes and packing tape, snatching strips off motorcycle crates, cutting rope and paracord, opening containers, cutting cans and plastic bottles apart, making my lunch, you name it. I use a knife throughout the day more than most people use their cell phone. As for the Hunter Revolver, I came up with little projects almost every day to use it for, not many of them had a lot of practical application, but all were thought up to push the knife and see how it performed. I wanted to really take my time to see how these knives hold up, because no one buys a tool to use over the span of one day or a weekend. They buy it to use until it breaks.
Well start with the Fusion Hunter Revolver.
Here are the technical specs straight from SOG Knives.
Blade Length ...4.75" x .15"
Overall Length 10"
Weight .6.0 oz.
Edge Straight/Double Tooth Saw
Steel 440A
HRC ....56-58
Handle Glass-Reinforced Nylon
Finish ..Satin
Sheath .Nylon
Suggested Retail Price $40.00
I dug a little deeper on the materials, because I like to know what EVERYTHING is made out of. The Fusion Revolvers liners are 420 stainless. The washers in the pivot are nylon. Also the screws and locking pin are stainless as well. All of these are good, well-respected, tried and true materials that you could expect to find in a lot of high quality knives.
Lets first talk about the design. I have wanted to try a revolver for a long time now. Ive read a lot of information about the history behind the knife and have read nothing but great reviews about the original Revolvers (pre-Fusion line). Unfortunately, acquiring one just never really happened. Every time I had the dough, there would be something else it had to be spent on, be it a legitimate necessity or just some other knife I thought I needed more. Either way, I missed the boat. By the time I got serious about getting one, all of the originals were gone. You can still find them here and there, but people want at least full price if not more for them, where as you used to be able to find some pretty smokin deals on them when they were abundant.
The design of this knife is very cool. The man who came up with it is Robbie Roberson. The idea is that you have a fixed blade/full tang knife and a fixed blade/full tang saw in the same package, being able to switch between the two with only the push of a button and a half revolution of the blade, hence the name Revolver. The way the knife is designed, with the pivot screw, locking pin, and safety stop all there, you basically have fixed blade strength in either position, saw or knife. Instead of all the force being applied to only a pivot screw and one locking mechanism separate from the blade, as you would on a folder, it is distributed among these three points along half the length of the steel, effectively turning it into the tang. Knowing that you have this kind of strength really gives you confidence in the knife.
The handle itself is extremely grippy, so much so that I would recommend gloves for extended use. If youre just using it here and there for maybe an hour at a time, Im sure you wouldnt notice any serious discomfort, but you can tell by holding it that this handle will surely create some hotspots after prolonged hard use. One thing is for sure, the curves of the handle and the grip the texture gives ensures that this knife is absolutely NOT going to slip in the hand. There is a lanyard hole at the butt of the handle. Inside the black glass-reinforced nylon are the 420 stainless steel liners and the locking mechanism itself.
One thing I noticed right off the bat was a slight flex to the handles inward toward the blade when squeezed really hard. I wondered if this was a sign of weakness and something different from the original Revolver, being part of the new Fusion line. Maybe it had lost some of the strength through changing materials. I contacted Chris Cashbaugh, from SOGs Marketing department, Robbie Roberson, the man behind the design, and also a few random Revolver owners from an internet forum to ask about this. Chris told me that SOG changed nothing as far as the materials used in the handles when they switched this model to the Fusion line and everyone else I contacted confirmed that the flex was also a characteristic of the previous models. Chris said that the only thing that was changed was the blade material and some tooling on the handle to make it more grippy. Also, everyone reassured me that even though there is slight flex in the handle, NO ONE had yet had one give up the ghost on them. Given some of the people I asked and what I know of how hard they use their knives, I have no doubt that the strength is there.
The sheath that comes with this knife is very basic. I must admit, I loved the original leather revolver sheath and would love to have one, sooooo if anyone out there has one they want to give away, my contact info is available. The new sheath included with the Fusion Revolver is a very inexpensive nylon job. Now heres the deal. Is it an expensive leather or kydex rig? Nope. Does the sheath work? Yes it does. Does it hold the knife and keep it from falling out or cutting or stabbing anything you dont want it to? Sure as hell does! Its just a sheath. If you want fancy, have a cool custom sheath made or buy a more expensive knife that comes with a more elaborate sheath but this thing does its job.
The blade is made from 440A, where as the original Revolver sported a blade of AUS8. The obvious question is, is the blade decent? The answer is no, its not just decent. Its actually surprisingly good. To tell you the truth, I had written off what I thought to be crap steels long ago, and 440A was on my throw-away list. I had lumped it in with the cheapo gunshow knives of my youth and thought I had raised the bar and moved onto real steel a long time ago. I can honestly say that Im going to start really looking at all the 440A knives I had walked by with my nose in the air and see if there are some good user designs like this Revolver. The blade locking pin slid in and out of the hole in the blade easily when the button was pushed. The blade rotated like butta. The whole mechanism worked flawlessly. I did notice just a tiny bit of play in the blade front to back when it was locked into position. After examining the holes in the blade, I noticed that they were just a hair larger in diameter than the locking pin. I assumed that if you made the tolerances too close, the pin wouldnt move in and out of the hole as easily and could snag, but I dont like to make assumptions. Again, I checked with all the usual suspects above to see if this was a new thing or the same as the original. They confirmed that this was exactly the same as the original Revolvers and Robbie also confirmed what I suspected about the tolerance issue. The blades cutting edge and gut hook edge were hair popping sharp straight out of the box. So much so that I actually recommend that you be very careful when drawing the knife out of the sheath. If the gut hook snags the retaining Velcro strap, youll never know. It will just fall to the ground, having been silently lased off. While the primary grind wasnt perfectly symmetrical, all of the edges were very uniform and even.
Before I tested this knife, I will admit that putting a serious amount of pressure on a knife with a sharp blade that spins out of the HANDLE had me kind of apprehensive. I mean what if they lock failed? What if the locking pin somehow let go and this thing sailed right through my hand? Not to mention, this is the new affordable line, like as in less costly. What if all those people were right and this new stuff wasnt exactly strong? I really like my fingers. I mean whats not to love? This one goes to the market. This ones stays home. This one over here, you know what he likes?... Roast beef. You get the idea. Robbie was right there to make me feel more at ease.
The lock up on the originals has been amazingly strong for many years. There is also a safety block within the handle that makes them even stronger. Notice the angle on the end of the saw blade, this angle gives the saw extra security and will not allow it to rotate through the handle even if the lock pin fell out............which is exactly how I tested my Revolvers to make sure they could still be used in the woods even it the lock pin came out. I removed my lock pin and put a green stick in the lock hole and used mine for days without failure of any kind..........a green stick locked the blade.
Well there you have it a green stick. Along with Chris assuring me that nothing in the handles had changed, all it took was working with this knife for a few minutes to feel completely comfortable with it. With the way the blade rotates, even if the lock and the safety block failed, there is virtually no way that this thing could bite you. In either saw mode or knife mode, youre hand will always be hit by a blunt spine, not a sharp blade. Again, very well thought out design.
Continued...
