The unstoppable Flash

T

thebullfrog

Joined
Jul 25, 2007
Messages
68
So after some months of ownership I thought I'd pop in and share my experiences with my Flash II. For reference it's the tigerstripe version. First off, I abuse the crap out of this thing. It's my EDC and work knife. I have literally cut, sliced, opened, and stabbed thousands of boxes with this thing and we all know what cardboard does to a blade. I've cut apart probably a couple hundred peices of that thick plastic pallet strapping as well. I've also used it for some light prying duties. Cut some electrical wire here and there, and God knows what else. I swear I must have dropped it on a concrete floor probably 30 times now. In fact one day a coworker was complaining about my "cheap plastic" handle. So I threw the kinfe up to the 20 ft. ceiling and let it fall to the concrete floor. It bounced. That's it. Zytel FTW. No matter how hard I beat this knife it just doesn't seem to care. I occasionally have to touch up the blade obviously but it has never actually gotten what I would consider to be dull. Like many I snapped the pocket clip in half when it got caught on a door (I know I could get a replacement, but whatever) the serrated part of the blade has a couple small chips, and the blade really could use a good re-sharpening by someone who knows what they are doing more than I do, but it'll still cut through 1/2 thick cardboard without a complaint. And the TiNi tigerstripe coating has held up stupidly well. Theres some barely noticable scratches here and there. I bought the knife to be my "EDC get the snot kicked out of it and probably not last more than a couple of months" knife. Not expecting it to last incredibly long in the first place is why I was willing to do such dumb crap like bounce it of the ceiling and let it hit the cement LOL. Figured I'd have to replace it soon when the S.A.T. breaks, or the handle gets screwed up, or the blade gets so bad it isn't really worth sharpening anymore. But no. The damn thing has been practically invincible. I do some light edge maintenance, and keep it cleaned and oiled regularly, and no matter what I put it through it always comes back for more. Can't beat this thing as an EDC for the money. I've decided that the serrations generally just get in the way and I want a plain edge now for my EDC so I'm about to order myself a Tanto Trident (the "groove" is extremely attractive to me for that strapping). If it's even half as reliable and durable as my Flash I'll be impressed and elated. Thank's SOG. You've made a fanboy out of me and if my Trident is anywhere near as good, I think you'll have a customer for life.
 
Thanks for the great feedback on your knife. I am sure you will also be pleased with the Trident.
 
I also greatly enjoy my flash II. Mine is the black handled satin finish with the serrations. I picked it up at Lowes and I was actually surprised to find it there (usually knives at hardware stores are cheap), I was always a big sog fan so finding such a knife there surprised me a bit, but back to the point...I was greatly surprised as my flash II was also a great work knife and it is extremely light for what it does. I actually like the thickness of the flash II better than the trident, but the trident has a really cool blade and I think you will find the groove very helpful to cut through stuff at work.
 
Yeah the groove would be oh so handy to have and having the straight razer-ish tanto blade should work a lot better for slicing apart c-board all day long. I'm also curious to see how well the Arc-Lock works, as my major gripe about the Flash is the slide lever is really uncomfortable for me. It actually kinda hurts my thumb, the Arc-lock looks to be a lot more ergonomic.
And a note on the SAT. I swear I must have flipped that thing open and closed at least fifty times a day for a couple months now, not including how many gazillion times ive done it just fidgeting with the thing so I'm confident the SAT springs hold up really well (I had an assisted opening Gerber that broke after like 2 or 3 weeks).
 
The arc-actuator is very nice, and YES, it is a lot nicer to the thumb than the flash II. Just make sure you don't mix up the arc lock and the arc-actuator. The arc-lock is on the other knives and is tested out at 1000 pounds at the lock, the arc-actuator is somewhere around 32~36 pounds at the lock, but as long as you don't stab a rock or a 2X4 (as I've seen on other threads) you'll be okay. And as for the coil on the SAT, Chris has stated in another forum that they should last the duration of the knife which is about 10 years or so, and even if it broke, SOG will gladly fix it. SOG and chris are well known for taking care of their customers. Hope this helps, J.
 
Yes, yes Arc-actuator is what I meant, my bad. It's essentially going to be a glorified box opener so 1,000 lbs of lock strength isn't really necessary. Besides, I prefer to use fixed blades on my rock hunts lol. Out of curiosity what is the lock strength on the flash II anyway?
 
I've tried to find that out myself, but the one time I did get a response from the sog engineer was the range from 32~36 pounds for both knives. I was also told the flash II appears more in 'hardware' stores due to it's thicker blade and the drop point tip. This makes it easier to have control when doing small tasks. But, I do love the trident, mine is the all black serrated version and I love the way it looks and cuts. The lock on the sog trident is very nice, you can apply a lot of force using the groove and not have to worry about the knife opening. That would be another question of mine, and that would be, what is the safety stength of the sog trident? Hopefully somebody reading this will know. I hope this helps, J.
 
I'm not all that worried about the safety strength since it seems you'd generally be holding the blade close with your hand when your using the groove, but it is a good question. So long as the main lock is about as strong as the Flash I'd have no worry since I can't imagine anything I'd do with the Trident that would require it to be any stronger. I've always felt totally comfortable and safe with the Flash and anything I'd do that would require much more locking strength I'd probably just use a fixed blade for anyway. I'm considering a Seal Pup Elite down the road for that purpose.
 
That is a very nice knife and I was actually staring at one at Academy the other day. That is next on my agenda for a fixed blade. The Field Pup is also a nice knife, but for overall badassness (if that is a word) I would go for the seal pup. I recently just bought my sog vulcan and it is a great folder. It is a real workhorse if you are into bigger folders. Here are the stats from the site:

SOG Vulcan:

Blade 3.5" x .16"
Overall Length 8.375"
Weight 5.0 oz.
Edge Straight
Steel VG-10
Handle Zytel
Finish Satin
Includes Reversible Pocket clip

For me, if I had just jumped up to this knife, it would have seemed like carrying a pound, but I actually gradually ended up getting knives that weighed more partly because I was trying to find "the one" that worked for everything. I'm still putting the vulcan to the test, but so far so good.
 
Yeah I've looked at the Vulcan a couple times actually. Does look like a rather nice knife, but alas I can't really afford one yet.
 
Well, for in the future since you have already handled the knife, it wouldn't hurt to try finding a vulcan on ebay where it is going to be a lot cheaper than a store. Other than that let me know how the trident holds out, J.
 
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