New Knife - SOG Ultra XR

There are many models, especially older knives from SOG that have always looked exciting in my eyes. You know classic folding knives like Tomcat and Stingray and fixed blades like Government, Pentagon, Bowie, and Tigershark just to name a few. Then the company kind of disappeared from the radar for a while, at least mine. But the comeback feels solid and now they have several very interesting knives in their catalog.

The program is now even wider and among the more "tactical" and outdoor-oriented models there are also knives for pure "EDC use". Among them is this model SOG Ultra XR.

SOG Ultra XR

The knife in question is one of the knives that not only jumped on the bandwagon where you find successes such as Benchmade's Bugout and Al Mars' Falcon. It actually beats them! We are talking about a knife that weighs in at 34 g (according to the manufacturer). Nevertheless, it offers a blade over 7 cm with a height of 27 mm, ie a "real" knife blade. But to achieve the low weight, of course, a concession is required somewhere and it can be seen below!

"Ultra" in this case stands for ultralight and ultra-thin

An earlier attempt by SOG to make extremely light knives
did not turn out as well, SlimJim was the name of the model

Building an ultra-thin knife certainly makes it very comfortable in the pocket in general, but it also offers some challenges. How to get the ergonomics so that it is at least decent and how to make the knife stiff enough laterally? SOG has tried the concept before with mixed results. Above you see the XL version of "SlimJim" which was marketed as "the world's thinnest assisted knife". It certainly was, but it was also one of the worst with terrible ergonomics, poor action, and simple materials.

All that has now been changed to Ultra XR. As the name suggests, SOG's proven XR lock is used, which is a cross-bolt variant similar to Benchmade's Axis lock. The sides are no longer made of thin, folded steel but instead, high-tech carbon fiber, the clip is made of titanium and the blade steel is S35VN. So all materials are of the highest quality. The knife is not assisted either. 

So here we have a well-built knife with an excellent lock and top-notch materials. As a bonus, the knife is also no longer marked as a grocery bag from the supermarket! Improvements all around in other words.

Overall, it made me curious. A review is coming as soon as I have used and carried the knife!

/ J

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