Why do knife snobs hate SOG???

I really like how the Vulcan looks and opens/closes, but the handle scales feel cheap and there's a fair amount of vertical play in mine. I'm looking to move up-market to some ZTs, Benchmades, and Spydercos.

Their fixed blades have some designs that really catch the eye, but AUS-8 is the highest quality steel they use for those. Which I find disappointing for the price. :(
 
Bump for teflon don that resurrected a 10 month long dead thread. :)

I like the classic SOG fixed blades, from the early 90s
 
I had a SOG Blink. Thought it was great. As good as the Kershaws and Spyderco's in that range. I have almost purchased a few other SOGs from time to time, but they seem a touch overpriced and there is a landslide of anecdotal evidence on the web that the fit and finish and QC is very poor. I almost bought a SOGzilla (which is a blatant rip-off of the Spyderco Endura, by the way) but took it out of the online cart when I saw the very poor user reviews.

I hear relatively good things about the fixed blades and multitools, but the folders have a very poor reputation.
 
I love the vintage 80-90's SOG Tigersharks, S1 BOWIES, S2 Tridents, Government models... Man that are bad ass.. They feel great and I just like em, but when u compare the vintage stuff to the newer models-- COMON!! Pisses me OFF!! I own the knives above and I may buy the newer ones just to compare... I dont no.. Maybe its in my hEAD the the newer S1 bowie is shit to the old school seki-japan s1! The upsets me! Hell make it in Tawin, but make it BEST u can! There should never be a knife with a lose gaurd and my S1 has it
 
I think Spyderco and Kershaw put out knives with better materials than SOG for either a similar price or cheaper. I'd rather get a $35 Made in USA Kershaw Skyline with G10 handle and sandvik blade that I know will come razor sharp than get a SOG Flash II for $50 that has zytel and AUS8.

Also SOG doesn't have a very good reputation here for out of box sharpness or customer support, whereas Spyderco and Kershaw have excellent reputations and lots of members vouching for their customer service.
 
Hellbound1906 said:
My Aegis is my off side (left side) carry. My strong side (right side) knives get rotated, but NOTHING has been able to replace my Aegis for ease of deployment. I also like my Twitch II. Both were exceptionally sharp when I got them and have held their edges well. Nowadays, you will usually find a Spyderco or ZT on my right side though.
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I like assisted openers on my left side as well and usually carry my Aegis on that side when I do carry it. I also carry the Kershaw Tremor and Kershaw Asset on my weak side. I like Kershaw's speedsafe and find I can open it pretty easily on my weak side.
 
Owned a SOg trident, after using a bit i sold it and never bought another sog again, not when Spyderco and Kershaw, Benchmade are putting out better product.
 
My first folder (outside of a few swiss army knives) was a SOG Tomcat, it was a solid knife (minus the Kraton inserts). I also had (until it was stolen recently) a Pocket Power Pliers that I liked and used alot. Both of those were purchased in the early 90's and since then it just seems imo, the quality and designs have been lacking (the same way I feel about Gerber knives). I don't hate on any knife company and there isn't a company that I like all there offerings, but most of their new models just don't do it for me escpecially for the price point.
 
The way I see it is that while they have a few pieces that are worthwhile, they are neither a budget nor a quality brand. Their quality pieces are more expensive than other knives in the same range, and when you go down to the low price point stuff the quality is lacking. So even though they manage to get a few solid models out to market, the rest just aren't competitive.
 
Haven't read any of the thread, so this may have already been noted.

As knife snob's, we have to have someone to hate, or we wouldn't be a knife snob in the first place!! Guess SOG is as "good" as anyone.;):)
 
I had a sog blink which I hated.... It had tons of uncorrectable blade play, tho it did come extremely sharp !!! I gave it to a friend who isn't a knife snob and he loves it !! OTOH a co-worker just gave me a sog kilowatt and I love it ... I'm an electrician and it's a great addition to my tool pouch (of course I still carry what I want) and is a very solid and useful tool with the aus-8 blade wire strippers (22awg-10awg) and coax strippers !!!
 
The Kilowatt is one of their rare gems. I love that thing just for the shear good design and value of it--I'm not even an electrician!
 
Seen a few people saying the snobs hate sog and cold steel. I wouldn't lump these companies in together myself, cold steel might make some cheesey videos and put that terrible coating on some of there blades but they actually make some pretty decent knives. The few sog knives I've handled were really crummy quality.
 
still a tad new to this place but i found this thred from the search and found that it was brought to top cus of someone, but i was wondering why it seems like a lot of people do hate sog. i own a bunch of blads some good and others crap but i do like my first gen SOG flash II its been my EDC for over 2 years. and i have put a working on it. i am looking to upgrade to a ZT soon.
 
I'm not a knife snob at all but , I have never had an interest in anything SOG puts out.

Never owned one , never plan to.

Tostig
 
SOG's got me buying knives again after about a 15 year hiatus other than SAKs. I don't know if that is good or bad, but I know I have spent $1000's since on blades. It corresponds to the about the time I joined BF. Since then, my tastes have been refined a bit.

My first was the NW Ranger which taught me that I do not like partially serrated edges. My second was a Field Pup which I think is an excellent value. I have since purchased the Blink, Twitch II, Twitch XL, Access Card 2.0, Vulcan and Mini-Vulcan. I purchased the Mini-Vulcan at the blade show when it first came out. Love that knife. I also really like the Access Card 2.0, Twitch II, and Twitch XL. The Blink is too small for my tastes. The only one that I truly disliked were the Flash II's which I owned several as work knifes. They either got lost or stolen by my folks and it didn't bother me much as they had a lot of blade play. We abused them. None of the other folders had blade play. I especially like the Seal Pup Elite plain edge. The Revolver Hunter (pre-Fusion line) is a heck of a field knife if you find an aggressive saw useful. Have a couple Tigersharks, an original SK-5 and the one that preceeded the current one. They never fail to bring a smile to my face. The old Tech I and Tech II bowies are great knives also. So... I guess I own a few....

When they copied the Spyderco design, I stopped buying them. They didn't need to do that and I find it unforgiveable. Have not even looked at most of the SOG blades since although the Acess Card 2.0 is probably the last one I purchased and I really like it in VG-10. It makes a heck of a desk knife. The Japanese blades are quite good.

The question always comes up of value for the price. I have not been displeased by any of them except the Flash II. Would not buy another one of them. I replaced them with Spyderco Endura's.
 
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I just saw Equip 2 Endure's knife testing for various medium sized fixed blades on youtube. Not scientific, but gave me a good indication that the SOG NW 2.0 is a solid product. Not a fan of the sheath, but great design and value. Nutnfancy also gave it a good review, as well as forum reviews. I might have to pick this one up in the near future.

SOGs have great value knives and some overrated/overpriced knives, just like every other company.
 
My biggest complaint is that they don't put their logo on the knife enough. I want to flaunt my SOG pride. :)
 
Their designs just don't appeal to me. Also, they tend to put serrations on all of their fixed blades, and that is something that I absolutely loath.

TBH, I do want a Fusion Tactical Tomahawk though.
 
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