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Post: Super SOG Bowie, bigger and better (Topic#847396)

outrider
Journeyman KnifeNut!

Loc: South East Tennessee
Reg: 03-01-09

03-18-09 10:05.20 - Post#1791917

SUPER SOG BOWIE

BIGGER, BETTER, AND STILL KEEPING TRADITIONS

I bought my first SOG Bowie knife nearly a decade ago, I quickly fell in love with the knife and it has been one of the constants in my field gear ever since. I still remember the day I bought it, and how I turned it over in my hand feeling the heft and marveling at the thickness of the blade, the comfort of the handle, the simplicity of the design, and the precision and attention to detail with which the entire knife was made. Nine years and many miles through the bush later, after many days in the field in all types of weather, and having set up many camps, it is still as fit for duty as ever with the only obvious signs of wear being that the finish is gone from the handguard and pommel from much use in a sweaty hand. Some weeks back I contacted the company to ask some questions about the newer knives; the properties of the new blade material, the hardness, the new finish, and a few other details that had impressed me about their knives. My email was returned by Chris Casbaugh and we got into a conversation about SOG knives with some time spent comparing new and old. One thing led to another and I was recently given the chance to work with the new Super SOG Bowie and examine the knife for myself. Because I am familiar with SOG’s knives, their history, and their excellent craftsmanship, to me this was a great opportunity.

Out Of The Box
Taking the knife from the box I immediately noticed the size increase over the original, however I also noticed just how true they had stayed to the original design. The sheath is made in almost identical fashion with the same style belt loop, retainer strap, and sharpening stone pouch. The only apparent differences are that this sheath is more form fitting to the blade, does not have the large washers on the rivets, and has the addition of a tab at the tip end which has two holes in it, lined with metal grommets, for the use of a thigh strap. I love how the retainer strap on this sheath positively holds the knife securely in the sheath with very little movement. I also love how the cutting edge of the blade never comes in contact with the retainer when drawing the knife from the sheath. The blade on the Super SOG Bowie has the same flowing shape, precision grind lines and extremely sharp faceted tip that one comes to expect from SOG’s Bowie knives. Now with a longer blade length this knife is not only more versatile in field craft, but will also penetrate deeper into vital organs in close quarter combat. The AUS8 steel has pretty much the same heft to it as the SK5 steel of previous models. It has the traditional double tined handguard and large flat areas on both the spine and edge sides of the blade at the handguard that were specified in the original design concept of the 5th Group Knife, which this knife is patterned after, in order to facilitate more leverage in pulls and twists when using the knife in combat, and for the purpose of extricating the knife if it becomes lodged in bone or cartilage during a CQC situation.

The History
For those who do not know the history, the 5th Group knife is named so because it was secretly designed for, and issued to the some of the most elite soldiers the world has ever known: the 5th Group Special Forces unit of the United States Army. The 5th Group conducted many clandestine operations in unauthorized zones in South East Asia and small bands of this unit, known as A-Teams, were often operating many kilometers inside enemy occupied territory and were the true pioneers in unconventional warfare. Because their missions were so secret, strict noise discipline was an utter necessity. These men would call on their fixed blades time and time again to quietly dispatch enemy personnel as well as many other tasks. The 5th Group Special Forces was at that time one of only three units in U.S. Military history to be issued a knife specific to their respective units.

Keeping Traditions
The Super Bowie has the traditional epoxied, stacked leather washer handle. It has a comfortable oval shape with some pretty serious finger grooves on the lower side as these grooves are a good bit deeper than those on the smaller classic Bowie. The finger grooves and oval shape offer an excellent grip even if the handle becomes slick with mud or body fluids, and instantaneously index blade orientation. The handguard is, just as before, soldered to the blade which prevents it from loosening with use, and the subsequent rattling which helps to preserve noise discipline in the field. The heavy steel pommel is made like the original and is attached with the use of a spanner nut. The new spanner nut has a six hole pattern around it’s circumference instead of having two slots like those used on the older Bowies and, as an improvement in my opinion, the nut is fitted into a recess in the pommel so that the top of it is flush with the surface of the butt end of pommel and does not protrude out from it. I like the way this offers some protection for the nut and threads if the pommel is employed as a hammer. The knife also comes with a twenty-four inch leather thong that could be used either as a thigh strap or a wrist thong which in this instance I chose to use for the latter.

Gearing Up
The sheath fits on a pistol belt very well but will not just slide onto it. In order for me to put it onto the pistol belt of my L.C.E. it was necessary for me to disassemble one end of the belt. By removing the side-squeeze clasp, and metal hardware I was able to pass the end of the belt through the belt loop, and then reassemble the clasp. Working at a leisurely pace, and using the knife itself as my only tool to spread the metal hardware, I was able to do this in about ten minutes using the tailgate of my truck as a work table. It may take a little longer if you have never disassembled one of these belts before.

In the field
Taking the knife to the field I set about some tasks commonly undertaken in the bush. To see just how well the knife handled, and how it would function in a field craft or “survival” situation, I made a primitive camp using only this one knife for my cutting tool. The edge on this knife, as with all other SOG knives I have worked with, is extremely sharp. That edge, along with the heft of the quarter inch thick, seven and a half inch long blade, and great grip made very short work of cutting poles. This knife is a very efficient chopping tool, and would serve well in functions such as cutting saplings to make a field expedient litter, or making a small clearing to create an L.Z. for an emergency extraction. Using it with the wrist thong and a somewhat rearward grip I was able to chop through small saplings with up to a two inch diameter with very little effort. The Hardcased ™ TiNi (Titanium Nitride) coating is very smooth and does not hang up in the wood while chopping like the rougher coatings on some knives do.

Potable Water
The hierarchy of needs in a “survival” situation is always specific to the situation at hand, however with the human body being 75% H2O potable water is always near, if not at, the top of the list. With this in mind the first thing I did was to set about making a pot hanger system for use with a fire, and I did this for multiple reasons. While this time it was of course primarily for the purpose of working with this knife and seeing what I could do with it when the time came, it was also because it is my opinion that this method makes more efficient use of a fire for decontamination. As we all know heat rises so obviously one can get the most efficient use of the heat produced by a fire by placing the “pot” directly over the heat source. Also in the field if you can hang your water boiling or cooking pot over a fire rather than setting it in or beside the fire you can go about other tasks such as tending wounded, building a shelter, gathering more firewood, food and water, or assessing your current situation with less worry about your precious water, or food, spilling into the fire, causing you to lose your water, your fire, and creating a big cloud of steam all at the same time when the firewood settles. This method is also more efficient because you don’t have to keep moving your pot, and losing heat, to add fuel to the fire under it. By doing this you can boil more water in a shorter amount time and use less fuel to do it and it’s even more efficient if you have an expedient means of adding a wind break. The pot hanger consists of two up-right forked sticks, one on each side of the fire, with another sapling laid into these forks and spanning over the fire to serve a cross member, and hanger made from a forked stick with one side of the fork longer than the other and notches cut into the long side of the fork for hanging the bale or wire handle of a pot on. The size and sharpness of this knife were a great aid in both quickly and easily chopping down the saplings for the structural members for the pot hanger and in quickly carving out the notches for holding the handles of the pots. For the purpose of boiling water the “pot” can be an actual Stock Pot or Dutch Oven with a bale handle, it can be an issue canteen cup with a short piece of trip wire wrapped around it and the working end looped back over and tied onto the wire on the other side to create a bale handle, or it can even be a salvaged tin can with a couple of holes punched in it and a stick passed through to serve as a hanging handle. The extremely sharp point on knife made very quick work of punching the holes in the tin can with no noticeable effect on the sharpness of the faceted tip and showed little damage on the part of the edge turned in the hole to open it up for the stick.

Dealing With The Elements
I built a quick poncho shelter using a sapling as a ridgepole tied between two trees, and a military issue poncho. I first chopped down a sapling about an inch and a half in diameter at the base and tied it between two trees about chest high. Then I cut some simple stakes about eight inches long from some small limbs. The heft of this knife made cutting the ridge pole a breeze and the cutting of the stakes a simple task with one clean diagonal cut on one end and then cleaning cutting the other ends flat using a stump for a chopping block. I draped the poncho across the ridge and tied the corners down to the stakes driven in the ground. The heavy pommel worked great as an improvised hammer. Limit of fire and trap stakes could easily be made and driven in this same fashion. A quick note here; a poncho shelter can serve more than just the purpose of protection from the elements. By digging a hole at the base of the backside one can also have a water collection point filled by the run-off from the shelter. This works even better if you have some plastic sheeting such as a trash bag to line it with. If not then at least pack the surface of the dirt as tightly as you can to slow the rate of water absorption into the surrounding ground.

Bush Furniture
I also put together what could be used either as a primitive grill or a work surface, which I happened use as an improvised table. This comes in handy for keeping packs and gear off of wet ground and out of pools of water. First I cut four forked branches, cutting them to the same length from tip to fork (roughly two feet), sharpening the ends, and using a leftover section of a limb for a baton I drove them into the ground about six inches deep in a rectangle pattern roughly eighteen inches wide by thirty inches long with the crooks of the forks in line with each other on the long sides. I cut two saplings and laid these in the forks as cross members for the structure, then cut smaller branches laying them across these about a half inch to one inch apart thus forming a surface area off of the ground. If I were to build a windbreak on three sides, preferably one long and both short sides, this could also be used as a very efficient grill for cooking meats, fish, palm grubs and other large insects, or making jerky.

Field Craft
Having made a way to cook, I wanted to try the knife out on small detail work so I decided to whittle out some utensils to use while cooking. The first things I made were a couple of forks for use in turning meat on a grill. While this would of course be done more easily with a smaller knife, a lot of thought has been put into this one to make it functional in many tasks. The flat spots on both sides of the base of the blade come in handy in more than just a tactical role. The wide ricasso also functions as a choil which used along with the thumb ramp on the spine allows for great control of the blade in whittling and detail work by allowing you to have you hand closer to your work. The upper tine of the handguard has been well rounded on the top and on the blade side so it does not dig into the joint at the base of the thumb and is very comfortable when the knife is used in this manner. I was able to whittle out the turning forks almost as easily as with a smaller knife. Next I split some seasoned Birch by using a section of limb as a baton, and chopped and whittled the split limbs into the roughed out shapes of spoons for stirring food in a pot, and for eating. While I was at it I also used the knife and baton to split some firewood. This knife made quick work of chopping and whittling the spoons out of the hard seasoned wood. It is also very tough and handled the batoning like a true champ with absolutely no negative after effects.

Food Prep
Having my camp set up, I decided to give the knife a go at food prep. For this I opted to make a pot of bone-in chicken soup as fowl is often a source of food in “survival” or wilderness situations and there are many necessary nutrients in the fat under the skin and in the marrow of the bones. Using this knife I easily cut a whole chicken into pieces; two leg quarters, two wings, the back, and breast then put it all in a pot of water. I also quickly whittled a digging stick and then dug up and chopped some wild onions, and sliced some carrots and mushrooms. I added it all to the pot with a few spices and put it over the fire to boil. This knife served very well in this undertaking. As the soup cooked I looked around at my little camp and at all of the cuts, and there were many, that I had made with this knife in the process of creating it. I turned the knife over in my hand a few times and I saw no wear at all in the finish, and there is no looseness what-so-ever in the handle after all the chopping and batoning. Then I felt the edge, shaved some hair from my arm and was really impressed at just how well the AUS8 steel had held its edge.

SOG Satisfaction
I have spent several hours working with this knife over the course of a few of days. The only issues that I have run into are that I had to disassemble my pistol belt to get the sheath on my L.C.E., which was quickly over-come, and that the tip and edge are so sharp, and the leather sheath is still so new and stiff that I sometimes worry that I will inadvertently run the knife clean through the side of the sheath in the process of sheathing it. I have made a lot of cuts, with many of them clean in one go, and have been very pleased with its capabilities. It even worked well in tedious tasks usually reserved for smaller knives. I must say that I have very much enjoyed working with it. It has been a great all-around field tool, has performed many tasks, and has performed very well in multiple roles. It is very comfortable to wield, and it has handled extremely well for a knife of this size. I would have complete confidence in it in the bush, and I think it is a wonderful addition to my gear. I know that it will definitely be making many trips to the field with me in the future. Thank you SOG, for keeping up the tradition of producing extraordinary blades.

For pictures of most of this follow this link;

http://knifeforums.com/forums/showt...

Specifications

Manufacturer: SOG Specialty Knives & Tools, LLC
6521 212th Street Southwest
Lynnwood, WA 98036
USA

Model: SB1T, Super SOG Bowie
Blade Steel: AUS8
Over-All Length: 12.75 inches / 32.4 cm
Blade Length: 7.5 inches / 19.05 cm
Blade Width: 1.5 inches / 3.8 cm at the widest point
Blade Thickness: 0.25 inches / 6.35 mm
Handle Material: Epoxied stacked leather washer w/ steel
handguard and pommel
Handle Length: 5.38 inches / 13.5 cm
Steel Finish: Hardcased ™ Black TiNi on all metal surfaces
Sheath: Black leather

"The irrationality of a thing is no argument against its existence, rather a condition of it"

Friedrich Nietzsche

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