My vote is for the classic SEAL Pup. Here's my re-heated reasons why.
The Elite's black blade and its smaller choil wins it high marks in my book. The only "bad point" (and it's a deal breaker for me) is the rasp back on the Elite. It's not really a serrated back, or a saw. A full length set of sharp serrations on a Seal Pup's top edge would be a very cool thing. It would make the Pup a cross between the SOG Seal 2000 and the SOG Pentagon. The late Al Mar designed his SV-IV survival knife with a full set of serrations (not a saw) on the back. But it was a very big, very heavy knife that nowadays has an even bigger and heavier price tag.
SOG put a weird set of mini notches all along the top edge of the "Elite". It's not a saw, so it can't cut wood. It's not serrated, so it can't cut rope. The notches also prevent you from having the top clip sharpened or serrated as a third-party modification by a custom maker. If SOG ever made a SEAL Pup with a fully serrated top edge (like the Buck 184 survival knife had), I would be in heaven.
What those Elite notches almost certainly
will do is jam up in the material if you need to penetrate deeply with the blade. That is much less likely to happen on the classic SEAL Pup with its smooth, unsharpened top edge. The classic SEAL Pup doesn't have any notches to jam up during a thrust. Sharp serrated top edges are a different story, but the "Elite" doesn't have that.
Both the SEAL Pup and the "Elite" can be purchased from certain sellers with a fantastic nylon sheath that completely covers over the handle. It doesn't look like an "edged weapon" because there's no knife handle sticking out. Your knife looks like just another piece of pack gear on your belt (especially if you're clever and you cut off that
SOG Knives label). That can mean the difference between "just a few questions" and a lot of hassles!
This seller has the "Elite" and the SEAL Pup classic in all its finishes, the knives come with the good nylon sheath,
annnnnnd they even sell the nylon sheath by itself as an accessory!
Well, that's my (slightly more than) 2 cents. Hope it helps!
As for the steel, AUS isn't some "miracle" steel that will hold its edge forever (and then take just as long to resharpen). It's a decent "middle of the road" steel that holds its edge for a reasonable amount of time, is pretty rust resistant, and resharpens with no major hassles. I've carried and trained with a SOG Pentagon (which is also AUS) for a very long time now and had no major complaints. There's one other advantage to AUS. It isn't exotic, which means SOG offers some great every day carry/ every day use knives that
don't have price tags starting in the 3 digits.
