SOG used to have a steady flow of great knives...

Maximumbob54 said:
Well. I did say I could be super wrong. I'll still give them the tiny shred of credit for the few good things they've done but agree it doesn't make up for the list of wrongs. I'm curious as dubious as some news stories have been over the years what doing business in South Africa would be like in these current times. Maybe South America like Condor or similar instead? And not being able to get parts for sure makes zero sense.
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jbmonkey said:
I dont know details of the move from South Africa maker to Chinese one......maybe had to be done for reasosn i dont know about...no idear. just know products arent as good.
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The company that made them in South Africa went out of business. If Lynn had not moved the production to China he would have lost the line.
 
Wish I still had my first gen Tomcat! But, I have an Agency, which is decent enough, and an S1, which is better than decent, so it's not like I'm bereft of SOG quality. And, I have a Todd Begg Recondo, which is basically the exact same knife as the new Seal Commander. While the looks can be polarizing, most either dig it, or hate it, I can assure you it's a quality cutter. There's not really much difference, if any, but the Commander looks more like a SOG than the Pillar. They're both really good mid-sized cutting tools, hell, they're functionally the same knife. Which one you prefer is going to be more about aesthetics and personal preferences, rather than any real difference in overall performance. Yeah, the Seal Commander costs considerably more, but I don't consider it out of line.

Very few SOG designs have really appealed to me over the years. That hasn't really changed with GSM. Yet. We'll see if that changes.
 
Dug up another relic of the past:

The SOG Auto Clip
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I've read over and over the BG-42 steel was supposed to be good stuff but I hardly ever used this one
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Reason it was hardly ever used was the namesake of the knife, the AUTO CLIP...
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Truly the good idea fairy showed up to work drunk as all hell that day. An adjustable tension clip, sounds good, right? But it's dialed buy a rotary wheel at the end that likes to catch everything and spin either direction either locking the knife in place or completely opening the clip. And the whole thing is just a clunky design. Glad it was left behind. Nice knife held back by a terrible clip. Still fun to dig up and roll down memory lane.

Just noticed they used to use a lot of tiny Philips head screws in their knives.
 
My first "good" knife was a seki aus6 seal pup in got while in army I still have it no coating is left on it and handle looks terrible but still love that knife. I had a sog vulcan and spec elite folder that were smooth and well made but the newer folder don't seem as well built.
 
Sitcomdad83 said:
My first "good" knife was a seki aus6 seal pup in got while in army I still have it no coating is left on it and handle looks terrible but still love that knife. I had a sog vulcan and spec elite folder that were smooth and well made but the newer folder don't seem as well built.
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I did a tour in Kuwait (USN) where we were guarding ammo ships coming and going. Figured it would be a good idea to have a decent fixed blade knife so I brought two with me. One was my step father's Ontario pilot's survival knife and then the Seal Pup. He had carried the Ontario over during Desert Storm so I figured it was good for another run through. I liked the look and feel of the stacked leather handle and leather sheath but I should have waxed it before I left because it was a sweat sponge. It didn't fall apart or anything but the Seal Pup just shrugged off all the punishment and I could just rinse off all the caked on dust that got into everything. And yeah, that coating was kind of an afterthought. Cheap frying pan teflon lasts longer.
 
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Maximumbob54 said:
I've had that same issue with my Terminus but my bigger issue is the thumb stud being finicky to use.
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Mine opens so well with the flipper, or the cross bar lock that I did'nt really make use of the thumbstuds. I tried them out & I see what you mean. I did notice that my index finger would sometimes inadvertently brace slightly on the underside of the flipper, which could be adding to the resistance of the 'thumbstud opening' option.
It also looks like they changed / improved the pocket clip to fix the pocket snag issue that I mentioned. I wonder if thats something that I can get replaced. -(?)
BTB
 
Back in the day I owned two SOG knives; the "Green Beret" bowie and the Tomcat (being a young and dumb kid with disposible income was not a good look on me :rolleyes: ).I broke the tip of the bowie after about a year and called SOG (I was local to Edmonds then) and they said bring it in. I did and was met by a gentleman who's name eludes me, but he said it shouldn't have happened (he never asked how the tip got broken) and promised he'd send a replacement in the mail. Four weeks later I got a new knife and a nice letter! I was sold on SOG for many years after that. But alas, my tastes changed and so did my love affair with SOG - the bowie went in a trade for gun and the Tomcat got sold on eBay. Now I hardly give their stuff a second look. Too much advertising on the knives and the quality doesn't seem to be where it used to be.
 
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