SOG Seal Team Knife Review

The story of SOG’s  inception began in Vietnam where members of a highly classified US special ops unit carried a unique combat knife into the jungle on covert missions.

This special unit was known as MACV-SOG (Military Assistance Command, Vietnam – Studies and Observations Group) and its existence was once wholeheartedly denied by the US Government. So it wasn’t until long after the end of the war that the SOG story could even be told.

Years later in 1986 that special knife inspired a young designer named Spencer Frazer to found SOG Specialty Knives. His mission is to reproduce the original SOG Bowie knife and pay tribute to the special ops unit that created it.

What began as a single commemorative model soon became a full line of innovative tools; field-proven by US Special Forces and even honored as the Navy SEAL knife of choice.

Today, SOG knives are carried with confidence into the most demanding situations. So whether you’re protecting others, leading an epic hunting expedition, tackling one of life’s everyday challenges or facing your most extreme conditions yet, lead the way with SOG.

SOG’s mission is to be the creators of the most distinctive gear; gear made especially for adventurous people who like to “live on the edge”. Also their vision is to design and create gear of the highest quality, distinction, and value that delivers what consumers need and, in order to do so, always define the leading edge of technology.

SOG Seal Team Knife Features:

Consequently, with that mission in mind, SOG has created the Seal Team fixed blade knife as part of their “tactical” line of fixed blade knives. This knife features overall length of 12 3/8 inches with a partially black, powder coated, partially serrated, clip point blade that is 7” inches in length and is made from AUS-8 hardened to 57-58 Rockwell (which is fairly hard for a working knife made from this steel).

It also features a Glass Reinforced Nylon handle with molded quillions, a checkered surface, finger grooves, a lanyard hole, and an exposed “glass breaker” tang.

Thus, in my opinion, this knife would serve quite well as an outdoor survival knife.

First of all, I do like the choice of a clip point blade since I feel that this is the most versatile tip shape in existence and the 7” length gives the knife enough heft to perform light chopping jobs.

In addition, the choice to use AUS-8 for the blade steel is a wise choice for a tactical fixed blade knife because it is a stainless steel (13 to 14.5% Chromium) and, hardened 57 to 58 Rockwell, it is actually quite hard for a working knife. This steel has a Carbon content of 0.70% to 0.75% making it only a moderately high carbon steel which prevents it from being too hard and yet it also contains 0.10% to 0.26% Vanadium (produces a fine grain structure in the steel which enables the edge to be sharpened to a very keen edge) as well as 0.10% to 0.30% Molybdenum (bonds with the Chromium during forging to form hard, double carbide, to improve the abrasion and corrosion resistance of the steel).

Consequently, we would expect it to hold an edge rather well and be highly corrosion resistant. In addition, we also like the molded quillions, the checkered surface, and the finger grooves on the Glass Reinforced Nylon (GRN) handle since they provide the user with a positive grip and are also impervious to absorbing moisture as well as chipping, cracking or splitting. However, while a partially serrated edge might be useful in a tactical knife, it is not useful in an outdoor survival knife and thus, we would prefer it to have non-serrated edge instead.

Like all SOG knives, the Seal Team is a very well designed and strongly built knife that incorporates an excellent choice of materials for the intended purpose. We can say with some authority that it would make a reasonably good choice for an outdoor survival knife or a fighting tactical knife.