Why do so many people on this forum dislike sog

Bierkameel said:
I only owned a SOG Aegis but man that was a crappy blade.
-Blade play to all side's.
-Way to light and very cheap feeling.
-Really annoying spring, almost impossible to close with 1 hand.

Sold it within a day and lost money so I will never buy a SOG again.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I've had a SOG Aegis before. Lightweight is always good for me, but it just felt so brittle and cheaply made in the hand. As, for the bladeplay yes it had a lot of it too.
 
Compare a SOG folder with any similarly priced competing product (from Kershaw, Spyderco, Benchmade, etc.) and the SOG will always seem cheap, flawed, or poorly designed. The SOG will probably equal most Cold Steel products, so if that's what you've been buying then no harm, but you could do better.

Also, for many products they insist on chopping off the back corner of the handles for a see through "SOG" logo. Anyone with 10 minutes experience using tools will see the flaw in that design. It's too fragile and liable to injure the user.

I actually like their fixed blades fairly well and would buy one if there weren't more interesting products on the market.
 
After holding an SOG Flash I had no interest in the company. The handle confused me more than anything. I don't know how something so uncomfortable got put into production.
 
I have several SOGs. One was a 'Sogwinder' model that I bought about 20 years ago. It was made in Japan--built like the proverbial tank. It was a early one-hand opening manual folder. I think it came along not to much after the spydercos did.

Another is a rainbow ti-ni Twitch II and I really like that knife. Well made and an exceptional 'sheeple' knife with its pretty pink finish. I used it for a while at work before I moved on to a zdp William Henry. BTW I consider AUS 8 to be an excellent steel.

I recall that SOG once won the contract to supply the Navy Seal knife. IIRC they used AUS 6 and thus had an incredibly tough stainless knife, although edge-holding would have been not great. It seems that especially in the past couple years they have moved towards the Bud K end of the spectrum. Nowhere near as bad, of course, but still leaning in that direction.
 
S.O.G. has just never really appeared on my radar. When properly treated, AUS8 can be a perfectly serviceable steel, so some of their fixed blades may have merit. Where the folders are concerned, they fall outside of my quality/value ratio.
 
All of the above reasons for preferring other brands are pretty much the same for me. I have several of their older knives (bought at superb prices at various PX stores on Army posts around the country) and like them, but they haven't kept up with the times in terms of materials, have a strong tendency not to offer non-serrated versions of many of the patterns I was once interested in, and generally have a tendency towards designs that look great first and cut second.

The one recent example I'll say is an exception is the Team Leader. I got the Duratech 20cv version and, while it's not the end-all-be-all steel that some thought it might be, it holds an edge very well, has excellent blade geometry, and--with a little bit of sanding to take the sharp edges off the scales--good ergonomics.

On the whole, though, they're chasing Buck and Kershaw now much more than Spyderco and Benchmade, and I do say "chasing" as they sure as hell haven't caught them. With Buck/Kershaw you'll get comparable materials (at least) at a lower price with MUCH more reliable fit and finish.

That said, I'm never giving up my old SOG Bowie in SK-5. Not very useful for a utility cutter, but one of the best looking (and feeling) fighters anybody ever put out in my opinion. Well made, too--although for the price they were at, it certainly should have been. :thumbup:
 
Vivi said:
After holding an SOG Flash I had no interest in the company. The handle confused me more than anything. I don't know how something so uncomfortable got put into production.
Click to expand...

I got a Flash I for Christmas and I agree about the dorky handle however after forcing myself to carry a present to be kind, I find it quite a handy little knife. It's light as a feather, easy to keep razor sharp and holds a good edge and best of all completely disappears in the pocket making it a great church knife. Once I tightened the pivot it lost some slop too. Even though, I find myself believing it is the first and last SOG I'll probably own. Too many other knives out there that get me a lot more excited.
 
i'm a johnny come lately to this brand. the 2 folders i bought in vg10 are excellent. great edge holding & not brittle. the arc locks are great since they can be employed left hand as well as right hand. however my purchases were made about 4 or 5 months back & they may have recently improved their production. my team leader in duratech 20 v should be here anyday. i hope its performance surpasses previous reports or i'm going to be disappointed. i guess many of us hope a new steel introduction " will do wonders & eat rotten cucumbers " ole country slang.
 
I've always wanted one of their carbon steel Bowie .Like the old Nam era ones.But I could never find one When I had the cash.Most if not all of the Bowies produced now are AUS8 And close to 300 CDN.I'll pass for now.
 
Unpopular here perhaps, but plenty popular in the real world. It is also one of the best managed companies in an industry riddled with many poorly managed ones. That makes them popular with me at any rate. ;)

One of the things you have to understand about internet forums is that many of the opinions you read aren't based on personal experience. They are simply parroted from other posts. Not all, of course, but many. Also, fashion plays into what you read in forum posts. Over the years I've watched products and steel varieties move back and forth between terrible to awsome depending on the current direction of the fashion winds.

The truth is that the better SOG knives are made in Japan and are comparable to other brands made in Japan. If they were inferior or a terrible value, I would get many returns and that is not the case. People who buy them seem to be satisfied with them.
 
I like the looks of some of them just fine.

I've only handled a Seal Pup Elite and a small Flash (is that the Flash2?).

They're ok. But for the same amount of money there are just soooo many other knives I'd buy before I'd get a SOG.

One of the designs I like is the FATCAT.....but €575 at a local store (and $575 on the web) for a simple knife with Kraton and VG-10? Are you freaking kiddin?

I'd rather get an A.G. Russel Acies or 2 custom folders for that price and still have money left over.

they're nice....but WAY overpriced in my book which is why I'll probably never own one.
 
I had one SOG and it was a piece of junk. I lost interest in them after that. Now that they're ripping off other peoples designs further puts them on my sh!t list.
 
I own a sog tac auto..with the black tini blade...its an incredible knife....I also own spyderco, benchmade, kershaw, case, boker, remington, buck, schrade,frost(old) bear,bulldog and puma. I like them all,,,I wouldn't have picked them if I didn't like them..
but if I had to go out into a tough spot. and could choose only one knife to bring...It would be that sog tac auto.....2nd choice would be my case classic clasp knife..3rd would be the benchmade 950 rift....
 
My EDC for a couple of years in the mid-90's was a fully serrated Air SOG. That was before I discovered the pocket clip and before I knew much about high end knives. I bought it at a kiosk in the mall.

That knife served me well, and I still own it, though I haven't used or carried it in probably 10 years. Do I regret buying it? No, I don't. It did everything I needed a pocket knife to do and would probably continue to serve my future needs just fine. Would I buy it all over again? Not if I knew what I know now. I would have bought a serrated Delica instead and gotten more bang for my buck.
 
Well if Kershaw, Spyderco, Benchmade, Buck and others were not around, I would like SOG just fine. :p But really, for me, it boils down to SOG's offerings are average at best at above average prices for a given feature-set. There are better choices that are better values. Just my $.02.

Then the had to go and steal intellectual property... :thumbdn: :mad:
 
IDEAL, I didn't even bother reading the responses to your question because I'll bet most of the reasons don't stand up to any intellectual scrutiny. An even more hated knife company on this forum is Cold Steel. A lot of people also don't like CRKT and Gerber.
What these four knife companies have in common is the fact that most of their products are actually affordable and not made of the most exotic steels available.
I own a ton of CS , a fair amount of Sog and a smattering of CRKT and Gerber. I may like some models more than others, but all have been easily worth the money.
I think some people attack these brands because they're easily led sheep, who love to denigrate companies they've learned to regard as fair game. Others are simply snobs who think the only worthwhile knife is one that costs multiple hundreds. Can you imagine spending $800.00 for a Busse when you can get a knife, at small fraction of that cost, that can do anything a reasonable person could ask of it?
Cold Steel once challenged Busse to a torture test comparison between the CS Trailmaster and the Busse Battle Mistress [ I think that was the model] Needless to say Busse didn't take them up on it.
 
Larry Turko said:
Cold Steel once challenged Busse to a torture test comparison between the CS Trailmaster and the Busse Battle Mistress [ I think that was the model] Needless to say Busse didn't take them up on it.
Click to expand...

My understanding is that Busse holds an open challenge to anyone during the knife shows. As far as I know, CS hasn't taken them up on any of them. I'm not a CS hater either, especially with Demko's recent contributions.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top