'Card
Member
My best friend and I do a lot of camping/fishing trips on our kayaks. Typically, we choose about a 40-mile secluded section of river, then spend 4 or 5 days kayaking and fishing along the route. We'll paddle and fish all day, and then pull to the bank and make camp when it starts to get dark. The major challenge to this kind of activity is that you have to pack really, really light. Kayaks that are small and nimble enough to handle the kinds of rivers we run are very short on packing room, and the more weight you load on them, the worse they handle. Because of that, I'm always looking for ways to consolidate gear. Lighter and smaller, without sacrificing performance, are a very big deal - finding a single piece of gear that will perform the job of two is also a good thing.
So last spring, my buddy brought along this new SOG knife he'd found, called a Revolver. I was a little bit skeptical of it at first, because it just seemed too "gimmicky" to me. Plus, my buddy never served in the military, so he can be a little bit of a "wanna-be" sometimes, you know? Anything that says "SpecOps" on it is bound to get his attention, and he's drug along some highly useless crap on several occasions, just because he thought it looked "high speed, low-drag".
I was intrigued by the idea behind this Revolver, though.
Basically, the blade rotates around that big pin in the middle. If you're using the normal knife blade, the sawblade is locked inside the handle. Vice-versa if you're using the sawblade. So obviously, the reason this appealed to me was that it is one knife that performs the same functions as the separate saw and knife I used to have to carry with me on camping trips.
What makes it even better is that far from being a simple gimmick, this is a good-quality item. I picked one up for myself last summer after I saw how handy my buddy's was, and it's been a trooper so far. I've whittled with it, cut rope and cardboard, and skinned several deer and squirrels. The saw has been used to clear shooting lanes, take down small trees and saplings when setting up camp, cut bone on several of those deer, saw ice, and webbing. It's one hell of a good knife, or two good knives, depending on how you look at it. It locks solidly into place with no wiggle, and the grip has a good solid feel.
Of course, SOG knives are well-known for their sharpness when new, and this one held up well initially. It's also proven to be easy to sharpen (with my Lansky kit) since then, and holds an edge as well as any of my other knives. I haven't figured out how to sharpen the saw yet, but in all honesty, it hasn't needed it.
The price is quite reasonable as well for something this handy. The MSRP from SOG is over $100, but I got mine from a local knife shop for around $65.
SOG makes two versions of the knife. The SEAL Revolver is the one in the picture, but they also make a Hunter Revolver, which has a gut hook on the back of the main knife blade. I chose the Hunter version, because I wanted that gut hook for skinning, basically - but I think either one would be a good choice.
Links
SOG Knives homepage.
SEAL Revolver
Hunter Revolver
So last spring, my buddy brought along this new SOG knife he'd found, called a Revolver. I was a little bit skeptical of it at first, because it just seemed too "gimmicky" to me. Plus, my buddy never served in the military, so he can be a little bit of a "wanna-be" sometimes, you know? Anything that says "SpecOps" on it is bound to get his attention, and he's drug along some highly useless crap on several occasions, just because he thought it looked "high speed, low-drag".
I was intrigued by the idea behind this Revolver, though.
Basically, the blade rotates around that big pin in the middle. If you're using the normal knife blade, the sawblade is locked inside the handle. Vice-versa if you're using the sawblade. So obviously, the reason this appealed to me was that it is one knife that performs the same functions as the separate saw and knife I used to have to carry with me on camping trips.
What makes it even better is that far from being a simple gimmick, this is a good-quality item. I picked one up for myself last summer after I saw how handy my buddy's was, and it's been a trooper so far. I've whittled with it, cut rope and cardboard, and skinned several deer and squirrels. The saw has been used to clear shooting lanes, take down small trees and saplings when setting up camp, cut bone on several of those deer, saw ice, and webbing. It's one hell of a good knife, or two good knives, depending on how you look at it. It locks solidly into place with no wiggle, and the grip has a good solid feel.
Of course, SOG knives are well-known for their sharpness when new, and this one held up well initially. It's also proven to be easy to sharpen (with my Lansky kit) since then, and holds an edge as well as any of my other knives. I haven't figured out how to sharpen the saw yet, but in all honesty, it hasn't needed it.
The price is quite reasonable as well for something this handy. The MSRP from SOG is over $100, but I got mine from a local knife shop for around $65.
SOG makes two versions of the knife. The SEAL Revolver is the one in the picture, but they also make a Hunter Revolver, which has a gut hook on the back of the main knife blade. I chose the Hunter version, because I wanted that gut hook for skinning, basically - but I think either one would be a good choice.
Links
SOG Knives homepage.
SEAL Revolver
Hunter Revolver