Customer Reviews

SOG Specialty Knives & Tools FSA-7 Flash I Straight Edge

5 star:		(53)
4 star:		(22)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Length:: 9:18 Mins

In the field of daily carry knives, the SOG FLASH 1 is a fast, lightweight, well-built, and securely carried companion. I have many of these knives and have used them extensively for both duty and personal use. As my VIDEO shows, the FLASH 1's size is perfect as is the deep carry clip. Add its good quality AUS8 steel and most importantly it's feathery 1.2 oz weight (not 1.4 oz ike I said in video) and you have the near-perfect daily carry knife. For a knife you'll have on your person at ALL times to open packages, cut food, etc. it's my top recommendation.

I bought both the Flash I and the Flash II. My reason for buying the knives was for a pocket knife to carry around day to day. With this goal in mind i sent back the Flash II.

Size wise the Flash I is ideal. It's big enough to get the job done and with SOG's low profile clip it absolutely disappears in your pocket while remaining very accessible. The Flash II is still a great knife, but along with the added length it has added width as well. Flash II's added girth makes it a little too big for day to day carry.

One last note: I found for a day to day knife the serrated edge versions of these knives is NOT the way to got. For hunting and other more extreme uses these serrations may come in handy but for cutting tape on packages and other such "office related" tasks they tend to get in the way.

I really like this small knife.

But there are a few cons:

The finger side of the grip seems like it is made for a child, my index finger would sit right on top of that little hump. I did not like this at all. In fact, I took some course sandpaper and removed it. Also the latch to disengage the blade lock is a little difficult to operate, I tried lubricating it and working it back and forth and its just not as smooth as it should be.

The Pros:
Discrete, sturdy, opens fast, nice and sharp, the shape allows it to be totally unnoticeable and VERY SECURE in your pocket. You can actually reach into you pocket and hardly notice it's clipped in there. I find most knives get in the way if I am reaching for my keys, or whatever I need.

First off this knife is everything you may have read about it. I don't know much what to add in terms of its positive features. In summary:

* The combination of its light weight yet positive and solid lockup is awesome.
* The plain blade rocks (unless the blade is a foot long and it's dedicated to slicing bread there is almost no reason to buy any knife with serrations).
* The reversible and point-up clip is great.
* The S.A.T. is great fun and wonderfully practical.
* It came real sharp. I usually spend a lot of time with my Spyderco SharpMaker getting blades into serviceable condition but it was not necessary here.
* The locking mechanism works fine (although it won't get much use).
* The FRN texturing is effective for what this knife will be used for.
* The blade shape is ideal for nearly any reasonable task you'd ask a small EDC knife to carry out.

And on the downside:
* The blade came with some annoying play side-to-side (horizontally). This was easy to correct though as you can just tighten up the pivot pin a wee bit.
* There is a little lateral play however that the pivot pin has nothing to do with. It is very minor but is a fault in manufacture.
* The finger swells/grooves suck. If you are over about 12 years old there is nowhere to grip the handle with authority. I fixed this however and took a bastard file and sand paper to the handle and smoothed out the profile to look a little more like the SOG Aegis. Now not only do I get a sure grip on this little knife but the thumb stud is much easier to access for blade deployment.

Even with the things I don't like I still give this handy knife 4 stars. It's functional, handy, sharp, fun, almost invisible in the pocket, and is priced competitively - here on Amazon anyway. It's a great EDC blade and I foresee carrying it on my person (whether in jeans or a suit) for many, many years.

First, I would like to say that I really tried to like this knife as I have been looking at them for a number of years. However, I tend to be extremely picky when it comes to my blades because I us them pretty often and for hard use tasks. This was going to be my everyday carry, or EDC, knife to have with me at all times. Despite the excellent price, there were certain quality issues that made me decide not to go with this knife after getting it into my hands.

I want to begin with the positives as there are some. When looking for a knife, you need it to be sharp; this is a sharp knife from the factory. It'll shave the hair of your arm with ease and rip through cardboard boxes. The AUS8 stainless still is adequate, but not the best for edge retention or corrosion resistance. Again, it is decent. However, you do not want a $200 EDC knife that you ar going to abuse. The AUS8 is affordable and easy to sharpen, exactly want you want in a blade of this type. Also a plus with this knife is its featherweight feel in the hand. It is a mere 1.2 oz, making you forget you even have it and proving easy to carry. If weight is of a concern to you, this knife may be something to consider. This knife also has a knife clip that is reversable for left and right hand carriers. I am a lefty and many knife makers are oblivious to us southpaws, so its nice to know that SOG is one of those companies helping us out. Since it is a spring assisted opening knife, it deploys extremely quick, nive for when it is needed immediately. Lastly, the knife just looks tactical and cool. The blade shape is really nice looking and effective for cutting tasks and the full-flat ground blade is razor sharp.

Now for my critiques on this blade. First the locking mechanism used to close the blade is not ambidextrous and seemed awkward for me, as a lefty, to engage this mechanism; seemed like for righties it is not a problem. Next, the handle, or scales, did not have much traction at all and although lightweight, felt very cheap to the touch. I know this is an inexpensive knife, but I've held cheaper knives with better scales. Also, this knife is small, so this may be a problem for people with bigger hands or needing to do bigger jobs. My biggest issue with this knife was the LOCKUP; it was horrible. I have purchased all Spydercos before buying this one, so I be be picky because they lock up like a safe, so be it as it may. The SOG Flash 1's blade had a considerable amount of up-and-down and side-to-side blade play. Usually, you can fix this issue by simply adjusting the pivot screw, but this was not the case. When I adjusted it to eliminate the blade play, the knife became a stiff manual knife as apposed to a quick assisted opener. It was extremely disappointing to me. It is truly the little things and attention to the itricate details that people must see. This lapse in quality really bothered me and led me to return the item. That being said, not all the Flash 1s are like this but I did not feel like returning and trying a new one. The inconsistant quality control is what led me to ultimately get rid of this knife. However, I plan on trying a sog Twitch 2 in the future. Hopefully, I have more luck with that knife.

Nutinfancy's video review was pretty persuasive and I bought the Flash I, plain edge, to see if it was better than the Kershaw Skyline as a pocket knife. After carrying both for a few days, it's hard to say that it beats the Skyline as a pocket carry knife, but it has its good points.

The blade is an inch shorter than the Skyline. This is something of a problem if you do food prep; the more knife length and area, the easier it is to make thin flat slices - for whatever reason. If you don't do food prep, never mind.

The assisted opening feature is good, but still a bit tricky. If you don't PUSH the opening stud straight, you don't get a clean open. In addition, the safety lock is unnecessary and would not be a problem if it would stay where you put it (on or off). I just had a mysterious 'safety on' problem -- sure you can crazy glue the safety slider, but why have to? It's there mainly to protect the company from morons who play with folding knives in their pocket, accidentally open them, lurch against a wall and end up in the emergency room. ("Well we gave you a safety - why didn't you use it? Forget about suing us, incidentally.")

The blade has a good profile, arrives razor sharp (really razor sharp!), but is neither mirror polished nor sandblasted. You can still see some fine machining on the blade. Just a minor aesthetic problem and only noticeable if you look for it - if you don't care about that sort of thing, don't worry about it, as I said, barely noticeable. Another fine point - it's fastened with screws - one tiny torx screw for the pivot, the rest are hex head screws. Why not all hex or all torx? Means you have to haul out two sets of tools to work on it. Not a big issue, but puzzling.

Good points? It is small, light and unobtrusive. That is nice, no pocket bulge, and increases the chance it will be there when you need it - but it could be a problem if you forget to always check all your pockets before boarding an airplane or going through security in some buildings.

For those of you that insist that the only knife you'll carry be approved by SAS assassination squads or some godawful Russian covert ops unit, this is not your cup of tea. Incidentally, what's that "tactical" stuff all about? Unless you're training under military supervision for real military operations, you're very likely to have your knife fed back to you the first time you get in a fight. More likely, you'll be carrying a knife into a gun fight, bad idea. Tactical, schmactical. If you have a genuine need to protect yourself, carry a .45 caliber S&W loaded with hollow points, or better yet, stay out of bad neighborhoods.

I like the clip a lot. If you rely on pocket clips - you'll wish everyone would copy this clip design.

The assisted feature is both good and bad. Good because you can quickly open it one handed; bad because if you get stopped, it increases the likelihood that some law enforcement officer will freak out and erroneously conclude it's an illegal switchblade. In some jurisdictions it IS an illegal knife. (All of the United Kingdom, for example, although their concept of law gives the police a very wide scope of discretion in deciding what's legal and what's illegal, kind of weird to us Americans). I should also note that because this knife has no metal frame, it cannot utilize a frame lock, and therefore uses a piston slide lock that makes it difficult to close one-handed. Not impossible, just difficult.

It's a good knife, but at least for me, the Kershaw Skyline is a better fit for the above reasons, but as always, YMMV.

UPDATE 10/15/2009: I feel a bit more positive to this knife than I was a month ago, largely because of the small size. It doesn't add much to pocket clutter and that's a big plus. I still prefer a larger blade for some uses, but packing a large blade into a small knife requires engineering technology that probably won't be available for another hundred years or so. Conclusion: pretty good quality pocket knife at a good price.

Kudos to nutnfancy and the TNP!
Small, extremely sharp, light, concealable. It was either this or the Kershaw Skyline. Came with some side to side play on the blade and chip but that is easily fixed with a T6 and hex wrench.

I just returned this knife to Amazon. I have owned a Flash II for several years, and have been impressed with its feel, construction, and general useability. It locks up well, doesn't rattle, and holds an edge as well as I can expect. The one hand open is smooth, easy to operate and fast.

However, the baby brother of this pair is not as user friendly for me. I wanted an assisted opening smallish pocket knife, and this isn't it. It is too small in my hand for me to use the assisted open feature, and for some reason the unlocking button on the side flops back and forth at will. Not so on the II model, where it is held by spring pressure.

So, maybe the knife is a great one, just not for me. Bear in mind, please, if you buy this knife it is small. Like a little Case plastic handle folder small. It disappears in my hand small.

I'm going to order a Kershaw/Onion Leek, which is the next step up the size scale. I'll let you know.

I bought this knife based on multiple online reviews, including the one featured on this page by nutnfancy. I agree with nutnfancy 100%--I love, Love, LOVE this knife! My blade is tight, with no side to side movement (which I have seen comments on here and figure some folks got knives with an assembly defect). It does take a bit to get the hang of the assisted opening and the thumb tab really digs into your thumb by the time you spring it. Fortuantely I have small hands and this knife fits perfectly--I'm really glad I didn't buy the Flash II as EDC--would have been overkill. If I wanted a camp knife, I'd buy a fixed blade (Moras are great for this). And I suppose it might even serve the purpose of modest protection should the need arise; one certainly could inflict some damage with this SHARP blade. I'll repeat that--THE BLADE IS SHARP--so watch yourselves unless you are really used to handlinig knives like this. Everything positive you read here about this knife is true--light, sharp, fast-opening--a winner!

My ONLY complaint is that Amazon appears to have dropped the price $3.00 since I bought it last week!

I read lots of knife reviews before choosing this one. I will probably still get a Benchmade Mini-Griptillian for a heavier duty knife, but this SOG is great for having a light-duty knife that is hardly noticeable in the pocket. It took a while to get the right grip down for quick deployment of the blade with one hand, since it is small, but after a little practice, it feels natural. The clip allows the knife to ride low in the pocket, which was an important factor for me. After a month of use, I can say it is the perfect size for the small cutting jobs I carry a knife for.