This may offend someone but is SOG a budget brand?

I have two SOG knives. One falls into the category of not great for the price, the other is a great knife but probably over priced.

SOG Flash 2.
Good: good blade,Tini Coating is good, light weight, I like the features like deep carry clip and assist lock.
bad: Feels cheap, blade play.

SOG Visionary 1.
Good: good VG10. light, deep cary clip, no blade play, great open and close action, Great jimping. Arc-lock is great. equally good as Axis from BM, and Ball Bearing Lock from Spyderco. FRN with G10 like finish has outlasted real G-10 in grippiness.
Bad: Re curve blade hard to sharpen. Prefer Tini black coating vs powdercoat. Shart tip at bottom of blade (I might dull it).
 
SOGs are not enthusiast knives, they appeal to non-knife guys mostly.

When I decided buy my first "quality" knife when I was 18, I walked into Walmart and bought the most expensive one that looked good, a SOG Trident.
I think to the uneducated, a $50 knife is the pinnacle of quality. I was happy and proud of that knife and I never walked out the front door without it for 3+ years, and it served me very very well.

Still looks and functions great to this day. Only marks on the DLC are from some chemical I used it to stir, still deploys good without blade play and I abused the crap out of it.. I don't plan on buying another SOG, but they are (or were) great knives for being in the budget category. I still love the big chunky FRN handle.
 
I give props to SOG for their Titanium black coating and not some form of paint or powder coat. My flash 2 in tini looks great. Had it almost 10 years. Ow
 
I have the little Centi 1 and use it all the time. No complaints yet!
 
Hiluxx said:
SOGs are not enthusiast knives, they appeal to non-knife guys mostly.

When I decided buy my first "quality" knife when I was 18, I walked into Walmart and bought the most expensive one that looked good, a SOG Trident.
I think to the uneducated, a $50 knife is the pinnacle of quality. I was happy and proud of that knife and I never walked out the front door without it for 3+ years, and it served me very very well.

Still looks and functions great to this day. Only marks on the DLC are from some chemical I used it to stir, still deploys good without blade play and I abused the crap out of it.. I don't plan on buying another SOG, but they are (or were) great knives for being in the budget category. I still love the big chunky FRN handle.
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I have almost the exact same experience with my Trident. Many years ago, it was a full on impulse Home Depot buy (could have been LOWES). Either way, it has been used heavily over the years. Mostly doing chores that I would be afraid to use some custom or mid tech knife on. The DLC is holding on absolutely amazingly well. For the price of it, it is pretty impressive. Blade play? But of course, but I have never had to any real maintaince other than washing under water, spraying it out with the air hose and spraying what ever oily substance is with in reach. It still fires hard and smooth.
I can't speak on the many other SOG models. but for the Trident, it may be considered a budget knife, but it holds on strong. I would recommend it if you want a ugly work horse for a fair price that holds up well to being actually used.
 
Hiluxx said:
SOGs are not enthusiast knives, they appeal to non-knife guys mostly.
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I'd have to disagree with this statement. As an avid enthusiast with multiple Buck, Kabar, Ontario, Gerber, Benchmade, Cold Steel, Bark River, Blackjack, and Randall models, SOG is still one of my favorite brands. From collecting the Hattori made S1 and S2, the other seki made models, to their Taiwan generation bowies and seals (pup, team, Tigershark), I feel their knives, on their best day, mix function with form as an art. And as a wilderness survival instructor, I've use all of the above brands and models in the field, and never found any of the SOGs to be unusable. I'd just as happily take the S2 or tech bowie, seal team or pup into a survival situation as I would an SRK.

As for the blade play issue with the Trident folders, I've never understood why people can't apply an Allen wrench to the pivot bolt and adjust to their liking. This followed with a little hoppes gun oil and you're set. Sure the handle is liner-less, but so are those of many of your cold steel folders today.
 
I have a SOG Trident and Seal Pup, the Trident was actually gave to me by a co-worker as he knew I was into Knives and it did impress me. It looked like he had for a couple years at least and I used it as my Work EDC for the last 4 years. A little Blade Play but I tightened the Pivot Bit to settle that. Still a solid knife..
 
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SOG Can't decide what they want and have diluted their brand to such a degree that I feel that it's almost irreparable.

SOG sold their soul when they decided to provide Wal-Mart with hordes of cheaply made garbage knives for the ignorant masses. Despite this transition into the mire of the industry they still attempt to cling to legitimate life via some $100+ folders and fixed blades.

I can't take a company like this seriously.
 
SeppukuSamurai said:
SOG Can't decide what they want and have diluted their brand to such a degree that I feel that it's almost irreparable.

SOG sold their soul when they decided to provide Wal-Mart with hordes of cheaply made garbage knives for the ignorant masses. Despite this transition into the mire of the industry they still attempt to cling to legitimate life via some $100+ folders and fixed blades.

I can't take a company like this seriously.
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Spyderco always did the "budget" knife smarter. You can also find theirs at Walmart too. Still got their street cred unlike SOG.
 
Again, you have to keep in mind who was making those decisions and why. Who were they competing against? Not spyderco and benchmade, but really if you look at the lineup, they were head to head against cold steel. Cold Steel has "better" or at least more prolific marketing. So its a spaghetti against the wall approach, and it didn't quite work. But you look at certain pieces, and SOG has held its own in a lot of ways, sure there have been missteps, but as weird as it is, they took AUS-8 and tried to wring every last bit of performance out of it, instead of just hiding behind a new designation. I think they helped push a lot of the coatings that we take for granted now, other companies wouldn't have had to try so hard, but SOG did a lot of work in that area. Good or bad, doesn't matter, it helped move the market. Are they the top of the market, no. Are they to everyone's taste, not hardly. But to look at the decisions of a brand management company, and then regect the rest of the hard work, and claiming its "not for knife guys" is throwing the baby out with the bath water. Another example, SOG multi-tools are not for everyone, but they are a tool-guy's tool. No one else bothered to offer what they have. Not every innovation works, but at least they are still trying. They could have gone the way of all the taylor bought companies.
 
Sloop said:
I am more positive than some of you. The SOG Twitch XL is simply a great pocket knife, especially for the cost. Good size at 7 1/2" overall. It has been my EDC for five years and is solid as a rock.

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And I also own a FatCat. That is a mean modinker.
For the quality blade (VG-10) and titanium frame it is reasonably priced at various sites.

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Many SOG knives are made in the USA -- not just Japan and China.
https://www.sogknives.com/usa
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I have to +1 this. I have a "regular" twitch, and it's a great little pocket knife. Fit and finish on par with many more expensive EDC folders in my rotation.
 
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