Sog was once in a time the TOP

Hopefully heading in that direction again. Am a fan of Sog and the improved models with better steels and other improvements like steel liners added to the newer Trident Models. Glad I bought my new Trident AT recently. So far appears to be well built. Am considering the Pentagon as another purchase soon in OD green. Smoky Mountain advertised them for $139. Like yours pictured above!
 
They’ll have to pump some steroids into their QC if they want to be a contender. No company should be sending out a dull $200 knife.
 
As near as I can tell, SOG, Benchmade, and Spyderco all got their starts in the same era. Each took a slightly different tactic, but by and large they all had some stuff made in the US, some overseas. SOG pushed hard on the evolution of design and had far more designs in production than the other two (I think benchmade is in the middle there, with spyderco initially having the fewest designs overall) For good or ill, those choices put SOG in a situation where they were trying to be a commodity brand, but competing against legacy brands like Buck, Gerber, Schrade, Kabar etc, and we've seen that while Buck is doing alright, the others have been subject to buyouts, some of which did not go well. It's the story of the "investor controlled company" in almost every industry. Like it or not, the economic school of thought that governs most of the western nations tends towards fewer, larger companies, and not everyone survives. It's sad though because they could have gotten somewhere good, SOG was almost the Kaltec of knives, sure a lot of it is weird crap, but no one else is trying it, and some of it works.
 
I was a big fan of SOG in the 1980's. I owned a lot of their stuff, but when they started changing manufacture out of Japan and the USA I lost interest. I think the only SOG knife I still have is an original Tigershark. Years ago when I was having a custom Shotgun built I had the guy hot gunblue the Tigershark and I had to cut the handles off of it. The plan was to make new grips for it from Micarta. I used to do this handle upgrade to Cold Steel Trailmasters a lot. Someday I will get around to doing the Tiger Also.
 
mauser9 said:
Hopefully heading in that direction again. Am a fan of Sog and the improved models with better steels and other improvements like steel liners added to the newer Trident Models. Glad I bought my new Trident AT recently. So far appears to be well built. Am considering the Pentagon as another purchase soon in OD green. Smoky Mountain advertised them for $139. Like yours pictured above!
Click to expand...
Sog was recently purchased by the same mob that bought Cold Steel. While the verdict is still out, these guys have little to zero knowledge about knives and are still flopping around like a fish on dry land.

n2s
 
Heard about that. Agree not always a good thing for sure. Sometimes too many bean counters involved and product can go down. Seen it in the firearms industry!!
 
not2sharp said:
Sog was recently purchased by the same mob that bought Cold Steel. While the verdict is still out, these guys have little to zero knowledge about knives and are still flopping around like a fish on dry land.

n2s
Click to expand...

whenever a well known brand is bought over, new owners
are convinced that the brand
alone is going to keep being
that proverbial goose which
lays the golden egg.
well, one can only hope
that they are well prepared
for the nature of the business.
because as merchandise,
knives have evolved to become
a lot more complex to predict customer appeal, than say selling some single flavored iconic brand of pop soda.
its a lot more like selling clothes
in an industry where there are far more personal considerations
which comes into play
before an eventual sale is made.
thus, like women buying new clothes
so it is a dizzying experience for a man going through countless knives for that perfect fit.
for manufacturers today
it is sinply not enough
to just keep churning out
old standards, stamp
brand logos and stack em high
on every shelf far and wide.
that formula might have worked
in a business environment
with zero conpetition.
the world of knives is evolving
and the consumer of today
has been spoilt rotten.
i m glad to see changes and upgrades with generic brands
but by george,
i do think its far easier to sell
a one model item.
 
Hope quality stays up there with Sog myself. Just upgraded many of their line. Sure enjoying my Trident AT. Great ergonomics.
 
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