Hello,
A few months back, I picked up a SOG Tellus. There has been a lot of discussion as this being a "budget bush crafter" and being a competitor to Mora, Condor and Cold Steel offerings in class.
On paper the knife looks great with a full tang, <4mm blade thickness , versatile sheath, and good ergonomics. I put the knife through it's paces over a couple of outings including camping for the weekend and processing a lot of fire wood. The 440C stainless blade showed pitting of the blade edge even though most of the wood was fairly soft deadfall collected from the forest. I haven't had time to resharpen the blade to see how easily it is restored but being stainless it might take a bit and involve a fair amount of material removal to get out the pitting. The sheath is ok with good retention and versatility. The proprietary Universal Mounting System that SOG uses is absolute crap, and is impossible to hold together under field conditions. I replaced it with Tek-loc knock off which works very well.
My opinion is that this is not a good bush crafter due to choice of steel, the feel of the handle in hand, shape of the drop point blade, flat grind vs scandi or convex, and the sheath clip issues. I would say that this would be a good hunting or camp blade so long as chopping or batoning is minimized. It is an excellent food prep knife and is really easy to cleanup. Being a rugged knife at a moderate price, I also think this would be a good utility knife for a home owner or contractor. At a $59.95 MSRP, I think this is a moderate value, as compared to the Condor Terrasaur, Cold Steel SBK, Mora Bushcrafter and Kansbol, and maybe the Gerber Downwind. If this drops to a steel price of $40, it would be a fantastic value option.
Here is a link to a video I made on the knife with some action shots.
A few months back, I picked up a SOG Tellus. There has been a lot of discussion as this being a "budget bush crafter" and being a competitor to Mora, Condor and Cold Steel offerings in class.
On paper the knife looks great with a full tang, <4mm blade thickness , versatile sheath, and good ergonomics. I put the knife through it's paces over a couple of outings including camping for the weekend and processing a lot of fire wood. The 440C stainless blade showed pitting of the blade edge even though most of the wood was fairly soft deadfall collected from the forest. I haven't had time to resharpen the blade to see how easily it is restored but being stainless it might take a bit and involve a fair amount of material removal to get out the pitting. The sheath is ok with good retention and versatility. The proprietary Universal Mounting System that SOG uses is absolute crap, and is impossible to hold together under field conditions. I replaced it with Tek-loc knock off which works very well.
My opinion is that this is not a good bush crafter due to choice of steel, the feel of the handle in hand, shape of the drop point blade, flat grind vs scandi or convex, and the sheath clip issues. I would say that this would be a good hunting or camp blade so long as chopping or batoning is minimized. It is an excellent food prep knife and is really easy to cleanup. Being a rugged knife at a moderate price, I also think this would be a good utility knife for a home owner or contractor. At a $59.95 MSRP, I think this is a moderate value, as compared to the Condor Terrasaur, Cold Steel SBK, Mora Bushcrafter and Kansbol, and maybe the Gerber Downwind. If this drops to a steel price of $40, it would be a fantastic value option.
Here is a link to a video I made on the knife with some action shots.
