How's My Cat Doing ?

razorburn · Jun 5, 2009

I've been meaning to post this for so time now and with all the bad news for the past months about SOG products and how they have horribly rude customer service.I wanted to post this to all SOG and Tomcat 3.0 knife owners to ask if the folowing problem that I have with my knife is normal?

The edges of the knife tang that come in contact with the bolt of the arc-lock are extremely rough and unfinished.

Spots of glue at the edge of the kraton handles

An unfinished lanyard tube

The only other SOG knife that I've ever seen was a Spec-Elite II at the mall.I did have a chance to closely look at it;the outer edges of the tang were highly polished and oiled but because of it's cutout in the handle for the thumbstud.I found it to be not very comfortable in the hand.

Futhermore,I do not know why Sog choose to use Kraton handle inserts instead of a more ridged material because on several occasions when holding the knife's handle in my hand,with moderate pressure,and while using the thumbstud . The steel liners would flex a bit and touch the side of the blade marking a noise,even though the pivot screw is fully adjusted.Thankfully,not a scratch was produced because of the blade and liners are polished.

nutz_about_knives · Jun 5, 2009

Your cat's was born with some birth complications unfortunately. I'm sorry but we need to send her to the ICU for some monitoring.

Seriously that are quite minute flaws, but flaws nonetheless. I wouldn't have expected such a thing on a "limited production" knife and worse still, a high quality "Seki Japan" made one. If this one was a Taiwanese made one I would have let it pass. But not Seki made ones. Suggest you either contact Chris@SOG or wait for him to chime in.

Some questions on QC need to be answered. I was thinking of buying a Stingray 2.0 or Arcitech or even your kitty but now... Thanks for sharing anyway.

dl351 · Jun 5, 2009

"...how they have horribly rude customer service."

What the heck is with this recent plague of bad customer service experiences? Up until maybe the past year, it seemed that SOG got nothing but praise for their customer service. What's the deal now? Maybe someone at SOG just needs to work in a different position.

The good thing is that Chris usually seems to take good care of any problems that come up here.

razorburn · Jun 6, 2009

nutz_about_knives said:
Your cat's was born with some birth complications unfortunately. I'm sorry but we need to send her to the ICU for some monitoring.

Seriously that are quite minute flaws, but flaws nonetheless. I wouldn't have expected such a thing on a "limited production" knife and worse still, a high quality "Seki Japan" made one. If this one was a Taiwanese made one I would have let it pass. But not Seki made ones. Suggest you either contact Chris@SOG or wait for him to chime in.

Some questions on QC need to be answered. I was thinking of buying a Stingray 2.0 or Arcitech or even your kitty but now... Thanks for sharing anyway.

The Tomcat 3.0 above is made in Seki,Japan with the kraton handles and not the limited edition carbon fiber.I thought I'd ask here first to get some comment befroe contacting Chris@Sog.

MB1 · Jun 7, 2009

OUCH! I might be wrong, but this knife costs...500$ on SOG website!!!! Byrds have better finish! I've been thinking about SOG knife...but no...no way!

dl351 · Jun 7, 2009

MB1 said:
OUCH! I might be wrong, but this knife costs...500$ on SOG website!!!! Byrds have better finish! I've been thinking about SOG knife...but no...no way!

Actually, the msrp on this Tomcat is $260, as seen here:

http://sogknives.com/store/S95.html

They can be found for substantially less, too.

MB1 · Jun 7, 2009

dl351 said:
Actually, the msrp on this Tomcat is $260, as seen here:

http://sogknives.com/store/S95.html

They can be found for substantially less, too.

Sorry. My mistake

razorburn · Jun 7, 2009

I think OUCH would be right.For a knife that has a MSRP of $260 it's expected to be up there with Benchmade.I have to admit that I sure love how the bolster's are highly polished but the thing I don't like is the upward facing bump at the rear that makes it IMHO very unergonomic

gadgetgeek · Jun 7, 2009

a bad one slips through QC once an a while, have you talked to SOG at all about it yet?

razorburn · Jun 9, 2009

gadgetgeek said:
a bad one slips through QC once an a while, have you talked to SOG at all about it yet?

I wanted to give Chris a chance to contact me first but he hasn't yet ,so I just contacted Chris@SOG right now regarding my knife.

Chris@SOG · Jun 12, 2009

I have not responded because I have been attending a show for the past four days.

The first step if there are any problems is to contact our warranty department. They do a good job of helping people with their knife issues. Yes, there have been some vocal complaints about them but there have also be many more positive praises for the department. Check out all the threads in this forum.

I can answers some of your issues though. The reason we chose Kraton is because that is what was used on the original Tomcat and we were trying to keep it reminiscent of the original version. Which happens to be the first folding knife we made.

As for the QC issues. I am passing them along to Engineering and letting them know. Sometimes things do slip through but we do make every attempt to catch them in the process before they go out.

If there are any other specific questions let me know.

blackfeetmageet · Jul 21, 2009

I am slipping though right now. Chris can you help me? My flash 2 is getting the run around at your warrantee dep. It has problems which lindsay is ignoring and she is about to send me back my knife with nothing fixed. I tried to email you by clicking on your B.F. name. Please reply, thank you.