Sog Visionary II

[eyeeatingfish]

Got this from newgraham.com for $100.

Too busy for my own pictures for now.

This is a nice folder. It is slightly shorter than the spyderco Endura but a little larger than my griptilian. I find this a nice compromise as the endura is just a little too large I think. The action is smooth and the lock is solid.
The knife has liners that are almost full aside from a small bit of a zytel lip. The knife doesnt flex much and there isnt really any blade play. It came fairly sharp out of the box. It would shave hair but not as good as I like to see. I might loosen the screw just a tad to make the blade open a little easier. Its not stiff but its hard to do a wrist flick while just holding the lock open.
The blade is vg-10 so its good stuff. I bought it because I really liked the blade shape. The nice little recurve jsut looks good to me. The blade seems a little thin to me, especially for a larger fixed blade. The specs say .125 inches but it seems a little thinner than that, but it might just be an optical illusion. I dont know if the blade width would become an issue unless you are trying to pry something with it. Im not sure if i would trust this as a heavy duty knife. On the visionary I the thin blade doesnt matter because its a nice smaller folder. The width may be a good thing in some types of cutting. This knife should fair decent on food and cutting boxes.
The width of the knife overall makes it a nice EDC knife. The handles are zytel, which I wasnt too thrilled about, however they are nestled right against the liners so they feel more solid and the texture makes it feel kind of like a g-10 except not as good. The thumb stud is not comfortable on my thumb but this may be just me. Ive never really liked thumb studs as they seem to dig into my thumb.
Overall im happy with the knife. Good construction good feel, good edc factors. Only real complaint is that the blade isnt a hair thicker.

 

[eyeeatingfish]

One year update:

Ok after using this knife for one year I like it even more. The pointy tip is very useful whereas the modified wharcliff style points on some other knives I have dont always have the same poking ability I need.
The knife hasnt seen any hard use but I found myself using it a lot around the house when I was painting and cutting away at drywall plaster. It shaved it away nicely.
I sharpened the knife too though it retained a good edge.
The thumb stud is kind of love hate.
It sometimes gets stuck on my pocket edge when trying to pull it out, but on the other hand if I push up, parallel to the handle not away as in perpendicular, at a certain point the blade seems to fly open as if assisted but its not. I might change the thumb stud with something without the squared edges or something not dual side.
Aside from the pointy and probably more delicate tip on this knife I think that is better than my faithful standby EDC the Griptillian.
And you just have to love the recurve...

 

[DennisStrickland]

i,ve been edcing similar product, spec elite 2 for 3 months. really like the knife, however after yrs. of b.m. it requires leaning new muscle memory to work the opening stud. the arc lock seems as positive as the axis lock but as you mentioned opening is a slightly different thumb movement. the vg10 is good edge holder. i think the clip arrangment may be better on the vis.,plus i've preferred black blades in one handed carries. definitely good slicers & light weight for a good sized knife.

 

[yobbos1]

Glad I found this review. It's hard to get some objective info on SOG products these days. Strongly considering plunking down my hard earned sheckels on this one. Not a big deal to some but I buy 1 or 2 tacticals a year so it tends to turn into a big decision.