SOG SEAL Revolver

SOG have had a great deal of success with their SEAL series of knives, and the Revolver is certainly one of the most versatile in the range. It features two very different but useful blades – both made out of the same piece of AUS8 stainless steel hardened to 56-58 HRC.

At first glance the Revolver just looks like a survival style knife with an unusual blade shape, but you are only seeing half the story, as the blade can pivot to reveal a coarse tooth saw concealed within the glass-reinforced Zytel handle. The knife end and the saw end of the blade each have a 6mm hole drilled through them. A locking pin concealed within the handle engages with the hole of whichever tool is not in use at the time.

A release button on one side of the handle is pushed down to draw the locking pin out of engagement from the concealed blade, allowing it to swing through 180° on a pivot at the central part of the knife (at the guard). This means that the knife blade can be changed for a saw - or vice versa - in seconds. A patent number on the blade confirms the Robbie Roberson design pedigree for this simple yet clever transformation mechanism.

The knife blade is 4.75” in length and has an extended clip point giving it a distinctive profile with 1.5” of serrated edge and about 2.87” of plain edge sweeping up to a very fine tip. A 2.7” long swedge on the spine running back from the tip gives the blade a long lean look, while two long shallow choils on the remaining part of the spine add to this effect. These two indentations will also help to rest thumb or forefinger if choking up on the blade for fine work or more pressure.

The knife end of the blade is supplied extremely sharp - both on the plain and serrated edges. The saw end of the blade is about 4.5” long and has two rows of aggressive looking 10 to the 1” teeth, so should make short work of most hide building chores. Both blades have a black non-reflective coating.

The glass-reinforced Nylon handle is well shaped with finger ridges on the inside, a moulded in half-guard and chequering on the flats for a good grip. The handle is strengthened with stainless steel liners and it has a steel reinforced lanyard ferrule at the base.

The versatile Revolver weighs just 6oz yet seems robust enough for any normal hunting or outdoor tasks that you would expect to use a mid-size utility knife for. There is slight movement at the axis point, as you might expect from a pivoting blade knife, but it did not interfere with either cutting or sawing – and try as I might, I couldn’t force the knife to pivot ‘accidentally’, the locking pin being firmly imbedded into the steel handle liners.

The SOG SEAL Revolver comes complete with a Kydex belt sheath and costs just £31.95