SOG Field Knife Review: An Excellent Cheap Survival Knife

SOG has produced many fine knives including several now made in the USA again. I have several and enjoy the heck out of them, but my favorite SOG ride retails for over $200. But for one-eighth that amount, SOG has an excellent basic knife that has a fine handle, an excellent blade, and a pretty good sheath. Normally I shy away from cheap blades, but this time I’ll make an exception.

SOG Field Knife Review

A knife made in China is not automatically a bad thing. Patriotism aside, the negative issues most common with overseas production is poor quality control, substandard materials, and in the particular case of knives, inappropriate steel tempering even if the steel choice could be considered appropriate. However, SOG has a rich history of offering China-made blades that don’t suck. But many don’t rock either.

Related: Cold Steel SRK Knife Review

For some reason the Swedish-made Mora Knife is an acceptable non-USA made blade. German blades are exceptional as often are English blades. And Finnish blades are tops even when they are made in Japan. And Japanese blades are truly some of the world’s best. But China? Let’s just take that one knife at a time. The SOG Field Knife retails at a very affordable price.

The SOG Field Knife checks in at a paltry 3.8 ounces or well within an acceptable folding knife for EDC. However the blade is plenty thick at 0.13 inches and an overall blade length of four inches. That is well within the specs for many different field knives types including those for bushcraft, tactical applications, hunting, and survival needs.

KNIFE	DETAILS
Recommended	SOG Survival Knife with Sheath	The handle is a thermoplastic rubber The sheath is a hard plastic form-fitting blade cover low price	Check Price on Amazon.com

Also Read: Benchmade Bushcrafter

The handle of the SOG Field Knife is a thermoplastic rubber that works well but under hard use will likely not last a lifetime. Or even a decade. But that’s not the point of this knife. The grippy handle has an index finger notch and a contained finger area ending just before the tang meaning the blade metal extends all the way through the handle and out the other side. A reasonable guard is molded into the grip and serves its purpose well. The protruding metal is solidly jumped and can be counted on to transfer 100% pounding force to the very tip of the blade on the southernmost blade end.

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The sheath is a hard plastic form-fitting blade cover that is mostly no-nonsense. It holds on to the SOG Field Knife through a friction grip on the knife handle. A cut-out in the sheath allows for small access to the blade for shielded cutting of cordage.

The overall length of the SOG Field Knife is about eight and a half inches. That’s plenty for most uses and a highly respectable size for this price point. The blade steel is fairly unexciting at a 7CR17MoV, or in other words, a room temperature stainless with acceptable knife properties. 7CR17Mov is a step above 440 Stainless which is the go-to steel for many budget knife makers. With the hollow grind and clip point, many good things can happen. Add to that the choil to move a finger forward of the handle properly, and a jumped thumb placement on the spine again forward of the handle.

For general survival and bushcraft tasks, the SOG Field Knife scores highly. Give it extra points of the low price, and the SOG Field Knife is a winner worthy of attention. And here’s were my rubber words meet the road. I am a user of the SOG Pillar since its creation. The SOG Pillar is an American-made CPMS35VN super-steel knife that weighs twice as much, an inch-and-a-half longer, and is much nastier. But at arm’s reach, it’s quite similar but with a street price at least six times higher.

Also Read: ESEE-6 Knife Review

While I don’t endorse the SOG Field Knife as my first choice, second choice or even tenth choice, it is still an excellent choice when price is a serious consideration.

KNIFE	DETAILS
Recommended	SOG Survival Knife with Sheath	The handle is a thermoplastic rubber The sheath is a hard plastic form-fitting blade cover low price	Check Price on Amazon.com

Doc Montana

Doc honed his survival skills through professional courses, training, and plenty of real-world situations, both intentional and not. Doc lives to mountaineer, rock climb, trail run, hunt, race mountain bikes, ski, hunt, and fish. Doc Montana holds PhD’s in both Science Education and Computer Science and currently teaches at a University in the northern United States. Read his full interview here.