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<center><h3>SOG Night Vision</h3></center>
<center><small>part 1 of 3</small></center>
Some time ago I have shared my initial impressions on this knife here and I promised to review it more particularly when I'll know it better. Meanwhile some discussions around SOG Arc Lock and it's similarity to BENCHMADE Axis Lock caused me to review Arc Lock separately, without reviewing the first knife equipped with this innovative locking device - SOG Night Vision.
<a href="http://albums.photopoint.com/j/View?u=222944&a=1811604&p=26062000&Sequence=0" target="_blank"><IMG align=right SRC="http://albums.photopoint.com/j/View?u=222944&a=1811604&p=26062001&Sequence=0" border="2"></a>And here it is. Quite accomplished blade geometry with numerous grinds makes Night Vision pretty hard to take it onto the photos, after lot of clumsy trials to make good photos with my old Russian Zenit camera I have pushed a whole knife into my flatbed scanner. I like very much James Mattis' knife images obtained this way and I'm going to discover some his scanning secrets
<a href="http://albums.photopoint.com/j/View?u=222944&a=1811604&p=26062005&Sequence=0" target="_blank"><IMG align=right SRC="http://albums.photopoint.com/j/View?u=222944&a=1811604&p=26062008&Sequence=0" border="2"></a> The blade is claimed as "tanto" but really it has nothing to do with traditional Japanese tanto knives which didn't have any fore-edge and secondary tip. Even the ones made from shortened broken swords did have this secondary tip pretty rounded unlike Bob Lum's Americanized Tanto with almost straight fore- and main edges and pronounced geometric secondary tip between them. I would say that Night Vision's blade has completely independent design and I would propose to name it "piercing point blade". Grind lines at the blade tip make up something very similar to flattened pyramid quite strong and very penetrative at the same time. It is pretty hard task for designer to reconcile these properties one with another. The most penetrative point has classic double-edged dagger and this point is also among the weakest. Americanized tanto has by far more steel at the point and makes up the opposite end in strength matter but at the same time it is one of the less penetrative points known.
<a href="http://albums.photopoint.com/j/View?u=222944&a=1811604&p=26062012&Sequence=0" target="_blank"><IMG align=right SRC="http://albums.photopoint.com/j/View?u=222944&a=1811604&p=26062014&Sequence=0" border="2"></a>Night Vision's point seems to be well balanced between strength and penetration abilities. As I already specified in one of my reviews I never evaluate knives how they would cope with tasks they are not designed for. This is the main reason why I didn't make any experiments with tip strength and all my suggestions in this matter are based on theory and experience only.
However I have made some comparison in penetration abilities dropping different knives straightly with tip down onto thick corrugated cardboard. I was quite surprised that Night Vision displayed better penetrating abilities than some knives with much thinner pointy tips. So far it was a very approximately evaluation only, I'll think how to make this comparison more scientific and reliable and how to obtain comparable data for more knives.
The main edge is created with hollow grind and is serrated at the rear half. We have discussed the usefulness of partially serrated blades numerous times and I know that the most of Forumites do not like serration as itself and partially serrated blades especially. I do not wont to discuss the advantages and drawbacks of serrated blade here again, especially taking into consideration that I do not like them also. If SOG worked out their new knife with partially serrated blade they probably know well what they are doing, I guess this is the question of selling abilities. If partially serrated blades sells better no reasons to be surprised that they are making them. However we can appeal SOG to make the version with plain blade too.
<center><small>to be continued...</small></center>
<center><small>part 1 of 3</small></center>
Some time ago I have shared my initial impressions on this knife here and I promised to review it more particularly when I'll know it better. Meanwhile some discussions around SOG Arc Lock and it's similarity to BENCHMADE Axis Lock caused me to review Arc Lock separately, without reviewing the first knife equipped with this innovative locking device - SOG Night Vision.
<a href="http://albums.photopoint.com/j/View?u=222944&a=1811604&p=26062000&Sequence=0" target="_blank"><IMG align=right SRC="http://albums.photopoint.com/j/View?u=222944&a=1811604&p=26062001&Sequence=0" border="2"></a>And here it is. Quite accomplished blade geometry with numerous grinds makes Night Vision pretty hard to take it onto the photos, after lot of clumsy trials to make good photos with my old Russian Zenit camera I have pushed a whole knife into my flatbed scanner. I like very much James Mattis' knife images obtained this way and I'm going to discover some his scanning secrets
<a href="http://albums.photopoint.com/j/View?u=222944&a=1811604&p=26062005&Sequence=0" target="_blank"><IMG align=right SRC="http://albums.photopoint.com/j/View?u=222944&a=1811604&p=26062008&Sequence=0" border="2"></a> The blade is claimed as "tanto" but really it has nothing to do with traditional Japanese tanto knives which didn't have any fore-edge and secondary tip. Even the ones made from shortened broken swords did have this secondary tip pretty rounded unlike Bob Lum's Americanized Tanto with almost straight fore- and main edges and pronounced geometric secondary tip between them. I would say that Night Vision's blade has completely independent design and I would propose to name it "piercing point blade". Grind lines at the blade tip make up something very similar to flattened pyramid quite strong and very penetrative at the same time. It is pretty hard task for designer to reconcile these properties one with another. The most penetrative point has classic double-edged dagger and this point is also among the weakest. Americanized tanto has by far more steel at the point and makes up the opposite end in strength matter but at the same time it is one of the less penetrative points known.
<a href="http://albums.photopoint.com/j/View?u=222944&a=1811604&p=26062012&Sequence=0" target="_blank"><IMG align=right SRC="http://albums.photopoint.com/j/View?u=222944&a=1811604&p=26062014&Sequence=0" border="2"></a>Night Vision's point seems to be well balanced between strength and penetration abilities. As I already specified in one of my reviews I never evaluate knives how they would cope with tasks they are not designed for. This is the main reason why I didn't make any experiments with tip strength and all my suggestions in this matter are based on theory and experience only.
However I have made some comparison in penetration abilities dropping different knives straightly with tip down onto thick corrugated cardboard. I was quite surprised that Night Vision displayed better penetrating abilities than some knives with much thinner pointy tips. So far it was a very approximately evaluation only, I'll think how to make this comparison more scientific and reliable and how to obtain comparable data for more knives.
The main edge is created with hollow grind and is serrated at the rear half. We have discussed the usefulness of partially serrated blades numerous times and I know that the most of Forumites do not like serration as itself and partially serrated blades especially. I do not wont to discuss the advantages and drawbacks of serrated blade here again, especially taking into consideration that I do not like them also. If SOG worked out their new knife with partially serrated blade they probably know well what they are doing, I guess this is the question of selling abilities. If partially serrated blades sells better no reasons to be surprised that they are making them. However we can appeal SOG to make the version with plain blade too.
<center><small>to be continued...</small></center>
