Got me a new toy

T

thebullfrog

Joined
Jul 25, 2007
Messages
68
So guess what I just got from my friendly neighborhood UPS guy? That's right. My very own Vulcan :D

Been playing with it a bit (obviously). Probably the best factory edge I've ever gotten. It shaves my arm cleanly right out of the box. Not bad. I find it pretty comfortable to hold. I think the Trident folder is a tad more ergonomic, but not by much. It really does fit my hand pretty darn nice. I find the bottom and top of the handle to be a bit sharp edged for my liking. For the money I would have liked a smoother handle, but about 5 minutes with my Leatherman's diamond file fixed that little problem. I honestly don't find it very heavy like some people say. It's got some heft, but it's plenty light enough for EDC.

I'm still getting used to using the Arc-Lock, but so far I'm liking it. I find the spring tension pretty tight on the release, making it a bit tough to pull the lever back, but it seems to be loosening up a tad. Very smooth and solid. I suppose it's to prevent a problem I've heard of the blade not staying closed and opening too easily. I like. I'll also say that I don't have the problem with the tip being to close to the edge of the guard when folded. I mean it's close-ish, but I can't touch the tip no matter how hard I try. I could just do it with my pinky when I was trying to get at it. There's no way I could ever poke myself with it by accident. Either mine has the flaw corrected, or some people just have girly-ass fingers :p Like every SOG I've ever gotten there was a bit if side to side play, but a few seconds dialing in the pivot got it tightened up yet still plenty free and smooth.

Like some people have reported it does have noticeable up/down play but it locks totally solid and it's nothing I'm worried about. Just seems to be the nature of the lock design.

Only faults I see are that the springs in the lock release make noise at one point in the travel. Theres a bit of a click towards the rear most point of the travel. It sounds like the spring moves a tiny bit in whatever groove or notch holds it in place when the tension starts to max out. Any one else's do this? Right now I'm not really worried about it, just a minor little thing so long as the spring never decides to come loose in there. The only other thing is the flipper is pretty much useless. I like the idea, but I can't open the blade effectively with it at all. There's just too much spring tension in the lock to be able to overcome with the flipper. At this point all the flipper does is sometimes interfere with closing. I mean using it in conjunction with a little wrist flip allows the blade to open without as hard of a wrist flick, but not enough to be worth it interfering with closing. It also will catch my finger when I use the thumbstud to open the blade interfering with opening too. Honestly I think it'll just take some practice on my part to work around it and use the flipper correctly so it's not entirely a negative, but I could definitely live without it.

All in all, I really like the knife. I bought it to be my new EDC. I decided I wanted something a bit more....solid than my SAT knives. The Arc-Lock, thick ass VG-10, and *gasp* actually having steel liners certainly seem capable of providing that. I also feel a bit more comfortable not having to worry about the SAT mechanism. Even though I know full well how durable the SAT is, it's just one less complication to worry about. :thumbup: for the Vulcan.
 
Great review. :D

Why not tune it by loosening the pivot a bit so you can take advantage of the flipper ?

I have looked at several right out of the box and they all were super easy and smooth to open using the flipper, maybe it's a bit too tight.

Or you could cheat like I do on all my SOG assisted knives and tighten them until they open very slow and then add a drop of light weight oil.........then there is no play at all but opens very fast after a few openings.

Of course there could be a happy medium in the tuning, tightening will take care of side to side but it might make it too tight to use the flipper.

My Night Vision has a slight click in the arc lock too. It also has a very slight vertical movement that I think is just a flexing of all the parts because it has never got any looser. Of course the arc lock is never supposed to get looser because there is constant pressure from spring tension and any wear is taken up by pressure.


Robbie Roberson.;)
 
Nope. Even backing the pivot screw almost all the way out the flipper still doesn't work. It's not the pivot that's holding it back, theres just too much spring tension in the lock holding the blade in place. It's actually like really hard to pull the lock back. Hurts my thumb.
 
Well actually after a little bit more breaking in and some practice, I can get the flipper to work, but barely. Sometimes it'll just pull it off, others it won't. I need to go find myself some light oil around the house and see if I can't free things up a bit.
 
I understand now. Maybe after some wear it will loosen up.

Thanks for the clarification. :D


Robbie Roberson ;)

Edit: I have used light oil on my arc locks for many years that results in silky smooth knives..........it does however collect some lint sometimes but this is no big deal.
 
Yeah I've been sitting here flipping it open and closed and it is getting a bit better now. I didn't even notice before that the lock was actually sticking a bit. Now that it's not sticking so much things are getting better. I'm actually liking the knife better the more I sit here opening it. Guess she just needs some breaking in is all.
 
Thats great.

Is that thing sharp or what ! :eek:

If I did not have so many SOGs I would get me one of them knives. :o


Robbie Roberson.
 
LOL. Yeah it's got a pretty wicked edge on it. Makes me almost afraid to use it because I'm not sure I have the Sharpmaker skills to get an edge like that. Time to start practicing more. Naturally I managed to cut myself opening the blade within like 30 seconds of taking it out of the box. I do that every time. I always get so excited over mew kinves I get careless until the blade reminds me who's boss.
 
LOL ! :D

Yeah, I've done that too.........I carry lots of band aids. :D

Keep us posted on how you like it if you don't mind.



Robbie Roberson. ;)
 
After putting it through it's paces at work tomorrow I'll post up how it performs in my somewhat abusive hands. I buy knives to use them and this one will be used.
 
Okay so on account of horrible snow I was only at work for like 2 hours, but I did get to use the knife a bit. Definitely sharp. After it got used a bit thae lock really loosened up and that thing is smooth as glass now. Very nice indeed. Although I didn't use it for anything more than slicing at a couple pieces of C-board, I really think it's gonna hold it's own just fine. It just feels so solid and rugged in use. The way it fits my hand makes it feel really secure in action too.
 
So seriously, what is it with SOG and their pocket clips? Getting off the bed this afternoon watching a movie, the pocket clip snagged on the mattress and snapped clean off. How is a piece of thread stronger than the metal pocket clip? WTF SOG?
On the other hand it's a lot easier on the hands without it so now I'm not sure I want to bother getting a replacement. But I hate digging in my pockets for my knife. But I'm sure the new one will just snap off too. Oh well, I'll just find myself a sheath to stick it in.
 
Thought it was time for an update now that I've gotten some good use in. Man what a beast. The thing got pounded for the last couple days at work. Cut through I don't even know how many plastic pallet straps, untold boxes, including a crate the was made of 1/2 thick cardboard. No problem. Had to use it to scrape some broken glass shards out of an electronic scale display. No problem. At some point it did get a small knick/chip in the blade, but nothing I couldn't touch up on the sharpmaker. After all that it was still pretty damn sharp. A bit of touching up on the Sharpmaker and it's good as new with little to no effort. Still have no problems with the mechanism. Still haven't had it open itself. Still haven't poked myself with it closed. In fact after using the crap out of it, it's basically perfect. Only problem was the pocket clip breaking off when I stared at it too hard, but I grabbed one of the SOG small sheaths for the pocketplier. It fits in there PERFECTLY and I like having it on my belt but still concealed and sheeple friendly. So no worries there. I suppose my only complaint is the way the blade cuts into the bottom of the handle when it closes. I don't like that the blade is allowed to hit the plastic. There should be some kind of stop so the blade isn't cutting into the handle. My Flash does the same thing. The knife may last forever, but sooner or later the blade is going to cut right through the handle. MY Flash is almost 1/4 of the way through already. I can live with that on the Flash, but on something as expensive as the Vulcan, they should have found a way to prevent it. All in all though, it is a great knife.
 
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