I am not a SOG-o-phile by any means, but feel a need to post some personal feedback about the SOG Team Leader in 20CV Duratech steel (TL-01). I’ve seen several people ask for feedback on this knife and all the fanboys who’ve never even seen the knife chime in and bash it. I bought one a couple of months ago to serve as my all around big game hunting and camp knife. In summary, it has far exceeded my expectations and is an absolutely excellent knife. My “testing grounds” was a 4 day deer hunt in the Trinity mountains near the California/Oregon border plus other household uses since I’ve owned it. Here is my feedback on the knife:
Overall Styling: It consists of simple construction of a flat ground 5” blade w/spearpoint (willow leaf) and two checkered zytel slabs as grips fastened by allen head bolts. Dull satin finish of the blade is nice too. Simple, yet very functional. Pretty hard to screw this one up.
Blade: The 20CV steel is scary sharp out of the box. Shaves arm hair no problem. Very pointy, too. I gutted, skinned, and boned out a deer, used it to cut steaks and veggies for dinners, cut rope, and widdled some wood with it on the trip. It perhaps lost about 5% of it’s sharpness (guesstimate) over the four days, which immediately came back to 100% after a couple of swipes on the steel. I really like the flat ground blade – not too thick, not too thin. Hard as a rock with a good solid spine, too. The blade was a little wide for gutting, but the sharp point made up for it. The blade is about 1.25” at its widest point. I think a 1” wide blade would be perfect, but might compromise the strength given that it’s not a thick blade.
Handle: I feel like the zytel slabs are really just plastic, but they serve their function. They are sharply checkered for a very grippy feel. Plus a lot of jimping on the top and bottom of the tang really gives you a good grip on the knife, even in a slimy carcass. I’m not a lanyard guy, but the lanyard hole is the exposed back of the tang which would serve as a good “bashing” device. I would like SOG to make this lanyard hole more of a triangle with a flat top, which would make for better glass breaking in an emergency. Also, I sanded down some of the checkering on the handle to make it more comfortable without compromising gripability.
Sheath: Originally, I thought the leather sheath looked like something cheaply made in China. However, it is solidly constructed and has all the properties that you’d expect in a quality leather sheath, plus a snap on the belt loop to allow you to carry it high or low on your belt. I prefer leather, but probably a nylon or kydex sheath would be more “en vogue” for this type of knife. A nylon sheath like the new one for the Seal Pup with a small front pouch would be perfect, as you could put a small folder or multi-tool in the sheath with your Team Leader.
Improvements: As I stated above, a slightly narrower blade, better handle material, like G10 (although I have no good reason to need G10 on this knife), a little smoother checkering on the slabs, and a triangular lanyard hole would be great, but not necessary. Handle slabs in other colors would be cool, like Desert Sand, OD Green, and Fluorescent Orange. The nylon sheath wouldn’t be bad either.
Conclusion: A great all around fixed blade knife made of phenomenal steel that holds a very sharp edge well and sharpens easily. I think I will use this knife more than my Al Mar S.E.R.E Operator in S30V, which to me is a similar knife in terms of size and quality. I chose this knife over several others that were similar, and so far, I'm happy with the decision. Otherwise I would have pawned it off on eBay a long time ago. And I hope SOG doesn't discontinue this knife or using this steel due to lack of interest. It's an asset in their arsenal of quality knives.
Overall Styling: It consists of simple construction of a flat ground 5” blade w/spearpoint (willow leaf) and two checkered zytel slabs as grips fastened by allen head bolts. Dull satin finish of the blade is nice too. Simple, yet very functional. Pretty hard to screw this one up.
Blade: The 20CV steel is scary sharp out of the box. Shaves arm hair no problem. Very pointy, too. I gutted, skinned, and boned out a deer, used it to cut steaks and veggies for dinners, cut rope, and widdled some wood with it on the trip. It perhaps lost about 5% of it’s sharpness (guesstimate) over the four days, which immediately came back to 100% after a couple of swipes on the steel. I really like the flat ground blade – not too thick, not too thin. Hard as a rock with a good solid spine, too. The blade was a little wide for gutting, but the sharp point made up for it. The blade is about 1.25” at its widest point. I think a 1” wide blade would be perfect, but might compromise the strength given that it’s not a thick blade.
Handle: I feel like the zytel slabs are really just plastic, but they serve their function. They are sharply checkered for a very grippy feel. Plus a lot of jimping on the top and bottom of the tang really gives you a good grip on the knife, even in a slimy carcass. I’m not a lanyard guy, but the lanyard hole is the exposed back of the tang which would serve as a good “bashing” device. I would like SOG to make this lanyard hole more of a triangle with a flat top, which would make for better glass breaking in an emergency. Also, I sanded down some of the checkering on the handle to make it more comfortable without compromising gripability.
Sheath: Originally, I thought the leather sheath looked like something cheaply made in China. However, it is solidly constructed and has all the properties that you’d expect in a quality leather sheath, plus a snap on the belt loop to allow you to carry it high or low on your belt. I prefer leather, but probably a nylon or kydex sheath would be more “en vogue” for this type of knife. A nylon sheath like the new one for the Seal Pup with a small front pouch would be perfect, as you could put a small folder or multi-tool in the sheath with your Team Leader.
Improvements: As I stated above, a slightly narrower blade, better handle material, like G10 (although I have no good reason to need G10 on this knife), a little smoother checkering on the slabs, and a triangular lanyard hole would be great, but not necessary. Handle slabs in other colors would be cool, like Desert Sand, OD Green, and Fluorescent Orange. The nylon sheath wouldn’t be bad either.
Conclusion: A great all around fixed blade knife made of phenomenal steel that holds a very sharp edge well and sharpens easily. I think I will use this knife more than my Al Mar S.E.R.E Operator in S30V, which to me is a similar knife in terms of size and quality. I chose this knife over several others that were similar, and so far, I'm happy with the decision. Otherwise I would have pawned it off on eBay a long time ago. And I hope SOG doesn't discontinue this knife or using this steel due to lack of interest. It's an asset in their arsenal of quality knives.
