SOG Twitch II Review (200K)

[kel_aa]

I've had the SOG Twitch II with spring-assisted flipper for about 6 months now and would like to share some thoughts and pictures. The blade is 2.7 inches, handle 3.5 inches, for an overall of 6.2 inches and a weight of 3 oz. The clip is mounted right side only. The blade is shinny satin finished, the scales are annodized alumiunum (quite durable), and the other parts bead blasted steel.

A shot closed:

The lock on the Twitch II is a "pass-through lockback design." The lockback is split into two to allow the flipper to pass through it. The halves appear to be bonded to eachother as they cannot move independently. In most senses, it is a lockback, although it employs a stop pin. The stop pin makes the blade rigid in the positive loading direction. Although if you grasp the blade and the handle in two hands and jiggle them with moderate force, you can feel some play. The same applies for sideways blade play: you don't feel it normally, but it's there if you jiggle it with both hands. The "thumbstuds" functionally provide a stop-pin in the closed position and to thumb the blade open if the the blade doesn't fully open (which never happens with the right pivot tension unless you block the blade youself). Pressumably, it also partially disguses the "auto" look.

On the clip side, the main pivot "hub cap" hides a coil spring. This part can be opened to be serviced or to remove the blade. Turning the "hub cap" adjusts the blade tension, but I was not able to dissamble the rest of the knife. The body of the other pins just rotate with the head when you turn them.

There is a safety behind the lockbar release, which limits the locbar moment to allow a positive lock in the Closed direction. The safety is not effective in preventing the lockbar from being depressed and the blade being closed. In my experience it has not been necessary to use lock the knife closed in order to carry it.

Here top shot and side shot along with a Vic Climber and an Cadet. The blade length is about the same as the main SAK blade. The handle thickness not regarding the clip is about that of the Cadet, and half that of the 3-layer Climber:

The blade stock is pretty thin, flat ground with an apparent distal taper (probably partially because the point drops too). It is throughout its length only slightly thicker than the SAK mainblade. The primary grind is not as agressive as the SAK though, leaving the edge considerably thicker. The Twitch is pictured with an approx 30 degree total factory bevel.

More to come in a min...

 

[kel_aa]

The steel is Aus8 with factory target of 57-58 hardness. I've found it to respond very well. When it still had its factory edge, a friend asked to borrow a knife during a chemical laboratory session. I showed him the Twitch II and a Rucksack and asked him which one would be more useful. He took the Twitch II, and after some minutes, returned it with an rolled over edge in the middle of the blade. Later, I asked him what he needed it for, and he said to score some Pasteur pipettes (as in to calibrate glassware by scratching in linear marks). I asked him if it was sucessful and he said no (gee, I wonder which is harder, steel or laboratory glassware). It was restored very quickly on a Sharpmaker.

In general the handle and the blade is fairly strong. The weak point is probably the pivot. This is a light use knife (cutting some fruits, envelopes, finger nails, hangnails, milkbags...), and as such, it maintains a very sharp edge very well. Due to the flat grind geometry and thin stock, it passes my rigorious Melon-Wedge Skinning Test (MWST). It joins the company of SAK's and Opinel and leaves the Delica in the dust. Totally immersive work such as wet food prepration is not suggested however as due to the mulitlayer construction (6 layers) there are a lot of crevices for liquids to seep into.

One apparent manufacturing flaw I can see is that on the two pieces of steel that form the lockbar, I see a small crack each side on the inside where the bend is, indicated by the red dots in the picture below. I guess there might have been too much coldworking forming the lockbar. It is only visible from the top side and hasn't noticably grown yet. If it does, it'll probably be returned to SOG for warranty servicing as it is clearly a manfacturing defect.

Overall, the knife left me quite a good impression of SOG design and its treatment of Aus8.

 

[BuckyKatt]

Nice... thanks for the shots comparing it to a SAK; I had always thought this one was a bit smaller.

 

[Cliff Stamp]

How comfortable is the flipper as a guard? Have you noticed a difference in edge retention of the AUS-8A vs SAK steel? Do they respond differently to the Sharpmaker? Any ergonomic concerns with the skeletonized clip?

Nice pictures.

-Cliff

 

[flipe8]

I'm happy for you that your experiences have been positive with your TwitchII. I wish mine were the same. I had considerable play in the pivot and my knife would only come out about 1/3 with the flipper. The only way it would out come more was by loosening the pivot to allow for an incredible amount of blade play. Alternately, the spring assist wouldn't work at all if I tightened the knife to take out the play. The spring ended up breaking after about 3 weeks for me. I contacted SOG and asked to have a spring sent to me, but was told that was against their policy and I'd have to send it to them. I declined and took the broken spring out altogether. Interestingly, I found I was able to eliminate most of the play now that it wasn't an AO. The other thing I noticed was that I could press the lock bar shut with the secondary lock engaged. This left me with less trust for the lock in total. It more or less turned me off SOG and AOs for that matter. Hopefully mine was a lemon.

 

[kel_aa]

This is of a 3 or 3 1/2 finger light-use knife. As such, I normally wouldn't consider ergos as important as say a full 3in blade/4 in handle knife.

Very good insight on the clip, Cliff. In my natural grip, the fixed end of the clip sits a little below the base of my ring finger. As such, it is not an issue at (I pressume my hand doesn't exert much force against the handle there). If the handle were 1/2 in longer or I were to grip it 1/2 inch above its natural position (the fixed end out then be below the base of my pinky), it indeed gets painful.

The flipper is as an guard doesn't get in the way of anything. But really an guard on a sub 3in knife is not needed per say. But it does give you a reference point for the grip. You can also disengage the lock with your thumb and pull back on the guard with your index finger start the process of closing the blade. Closing the blade can be done one-handled without too much manipulation.

I'm not a big user on abrasive stuff, so my main judgement would be its crispness (easy to get an edge that doesn't roll). As for the steel, I would call it very crisp. Similar to Benchmade 440C and Camillus Aus8. Forms a stable edge very easily, which makes my job as easy as possible, unlike SAK steel. After similar use over several months, the SAK can sparsely scrape a few hairs here and there while the Aus8 can still have readily.

Flipe: I just tried what you said, and yes, the lockbar can be depressed enough with the safety on to force the blade closed. So the safety doesn't seem to be useful in that regard. But I don't see this as an safety issue in general as the key words are depressing the lockbar and forcing the blade closed. I don't see how the lockbar can be depressed while in the palm as the cutout is very shallow and you need a finger to deliberatly do this. I think the strong point of the general design is that it allows a light duty flipper lockback with a stop pin, so it is rigid with positive blade loading.

 

[Cliff Stamp]

Thanks for the details, I have noticed similar for the steel comparison in terms of edge responce.

-Cliff

 

[bigbob68]

I just got the larger version and found your review "right on" I would buy another in a heartbeat and feel it is much better than the Kershaw leek that I own. I love how low it carries in the pocket, never have to use the safety, semi-traditional lockback, thin and made very well. I was waiting for a bigger blink or twitch to come out and the twitch II is great. I have knive ranging from $20 to $600 and find of the productions benchmades are hard to beat but this twitch II.

 

[kel_aa]

Yes, this knife is quite a usable size. Not as useful has a 3in/4in blade/handle knife, but still useful, elegant and easy to carry (partially due to thickness). I've read some of the reviews of the largest Twitch XL and apparently the assisted action is not tuned as well as for the smaller Twitches. I've had a Kershaw Chive, and would call the flipper a little too lose or promenant such that it opened up in the pocket once a while. Overall, the SOG makes me think of a more engineered piece and the Kershaw an more artistic piece.

Prompted by the Twitch II, I looked at the SOG Flash II, but really can't get over how thick and boxy the handle is. Additionally, I think that flippers benifit from assisted technology much more than thumb openers.