some SOG knife history: TECH, Tech I, Tech II

N

New Pig Hunter

Joined
Dec 4, 2002
Messages
1,350
I've had the privilege of e-chatting with vjb.knives the past couple of days and he was kind enough to forward to me two Incredible catalog pages from a couple of places.
One page is from 1989.
Another is from 1990.

Anyway, what's New Info to me is that the blade material of the SOG Tech I's and Tech II's of that long ago were Carbon Steel !!
Now this is new news to me, I've always thought the Tech series was stainless steel. But nope, not so.

AND.... come to find out, and here I'm once again extrapolating and guessing, Way Back When there was a SOG knife called the SOG TECH, and it's picture is on one of the catalog pages sent to me, and that picture and description are "identical" to what I recognize as a Tech II.... but the SOG TECH is made of carbon steel (the Tech II in my collection is stainless steel) !!

SO, once again extrapolating and guessing some historical lineage: the SOG TECH existed in carbon steel, then Mr SOG decided he wanted long-blade and short-blade versions, so the SOG TECH begat the Tech I (6" blade) and the Tech II (7" blade), and both had carbon steel blades.
Ya still with me ??

BUT, somewhere further down the road Mr SOG then decided to change the blade material.... and voila, both the Tech I and Tech II stayed the same in design etc but the steel changed to stainless.

NOW what's beyond cool is that Mr vjb.knives says he can find for us New In The Box versions of those old old old Carbon Steel Tech II's, and maybe even a Tech I !!!!! That just totally throws me for a couple of loops and backflips.

Cheers,

Carl

p.s. oh yeh, pictures.... here is the SOG Tech
http://www.hunt101.com/showphoto.php?photo=340053
 
Carl, thanks for that great info. ! Great pics ! :D

Sometimes I think we need a special place to put all this history about SOGs that you and all the others here have collected..............:confused:

Robbie Roberson;)
 
Yes, he is correct. Several of SOG's knives had their origin with carbon blades. Spencer made the change to AUS6 (440A in print media) on non-blued blades due to better corrosion resistance. Since he had a number of blued blades in the very early years (Team Leader, Tigershark, Night Tiger, Night Tech, Recon Government, and of course the SOG Bowie...am I missing something?), his use of carbon steel was more prevalent. Because of the facts that bluing does not work on stainless steel and it does hold a better edge, he used it on more blades in the beginning.
 
Ron,

the carbon steel that was used..... might that be SK-5 ??

And if you have any pics, they'd be much appreciated !!!

Cheers,

Carl
 
Here is the SOG Tech in Carbon Steel new in the original Box along with it's big brother the Tigershark (which I have to admit I opened previously). The sheaths are minty HD black leather and even the boxes are much cooler than they are now with each having it's own design artwork. I guess I will have to go get one of these older SOG Tech 1's today if I can talk this guy out of one. I am not 100% sure that they are carbon or stainless as the last time I visited this source I did not really look at them. I was mostly interested in older Gerber's and just picked up a few SOG's on the side.

Regards, Vince.

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y161/vjbknife/DSC00361.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y161/vjbknife/DSC00364.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y161/vjbknife/DSC00365.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y161/vjbknife/DSC00366.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y161/vjbknife/DSC00370.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y161/vjbknife/DSC00371.jpg
 
Hey, you shouldn't post pictures like this on the internet without giving fair warning .... I do believe I'm having a heart attack.... not to mention I badly bruised my chin when it hit the floor !! :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:

WOW ..... now THOSE are some Real Knives !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And those are New In The Box ??!!?? I just gotta ask: how old ??

Cheers,

Carl

p.s. did I say "THANK YOU !!!" ??

p.p.s. did I say "WOW" ???
 
I have to agree with New pig hunter, you really should have given us a warning. :eek::eek: Those knives are awesome!!!!:D:thumbup:
 
Ok I went today and checked on the various SOG Tech's that were in this collection I mentioned and the smaller SOG Tech I is Stainless not carbon steel and is definately a newer generation from the larger version. I did not get one because it they had the cordura sheaths and he wanted the same price as the SOG Tech in Carbon so I bought another one of those instead. Also picked up a mint William Henry and near mint Sebenza small model. By the way the Carbon steel sog tech is not labelled SogTech II just plain SogTech, so I guess they gave it the II later when they came out with the smaller version.

Vince.
 
vjb.knife said:
By the way the Carbon steel sog tech is not labelled SogTech II just plain SogTech, so I guess they gave it the II later when they came out with the smaller version.

Vince.
Click to expand...
You're correct. In the beginning, there was only the large Tech with a 7" blade. A year or two later, the Tech II came out with a 5" blade. The larger and original Tech then took on the name Tech I (all dual sized SOG knives have the I larger than the II).
 
The SOG Tech I was the smaller model and the SOG Tech II was the larger model derived from the SOG Tech (carbon). Heres a scan of the 3rd Edition SOG catalog (about 1990 or 91) which shows the names. I remember these names from buying them back when they came out. By the way this collection I looked at had a Tomcat with Cocobolo wood handles if anyone is interested. I was quoted $125 I think.

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y161/vjbknife/SogTechB.jpg

Vince.
 
Reading the ad closely, I see that the Tigershark is still carbon steel.
But the Tech I and Tech II are listed with, ".... new stainless steel blades."

Great History Lesson !!

Cheers,

Carl
 
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