Customer Reviews

SOG Specialty Knives & Tools S66-N PowerAssist Multitool with Power Assist Blades

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Overall great quality put together piece. I love the compound leverage that is designed into the pliers and the high polish finish on the entire tool. What I don't like is the grip panel cover that covers the rest of the tools is difficult to open. I'm not sure if this is just my tool or not but a lot of the time as I try to open the cover, the entire thing pops off instead of pivoting where it is supposed to. I'm trying to bend the lips on the cover to find that sweet spot so it will still stay in place but not be so hard to pop open. Not a big deal but still a little annoying when you're trying to get inside it.

The only other gripe I have with it is that the straight blade has too much vertical and side to side play than I'm happy with. I'm not sure if this is something that can be adjusted but the serrated blade locks rock solid both vertical and side to side so I'm sure this varies with each specific tool. It is great to be able to get a blade out one handed and not have to search through the rest of the tools to do it. The assisted opening on both blades works well and there is a lock for each blade to keep it from opening when you don't want it to and it also acts as a closing lock if the release gets hit somehow.

Another plus for it is that you can buy and install yourself individual fold out parts for it to really customize the tool for what you'll be using it for.

Overall I think its a great tool it just looses some points for the blade play in the straight edge blade and for me having to play with the grip cover to get it to open with out it popping off.

I was really excited to open up the SOG box and pull this little gem out, snug in its' web case. It comes with a fairly sharp primary blade, and the smoothness of the opening and closing of the pliers is beyond comparison. I gave it only three stars because: #1. the spring assist on the primary blade is just a tad weaker than the spring assist on the serrated blade. Slight, but noticable. I am sure SOG would correct it, if I cared to part with it while it was in for repair. Minus one star. #2. No saw. I mean, really! What were they thinking? But a SOG tool can be fully customized with the tools you wish. But once again, I can't part with it that long. Minus another star. But seriously, I carry a 6-in-1 scewdriver and most of the rest of those tools in my EDC. It is the JAWS that I wanted. So precise and acute. And even Leatherman can't touch the power, smoothness or friendly operation of the SOG Power Assist pliers. I would have otherwise gotten the Charge TTI. But you can't beat SOG on pliers, with more than twice the squeezing strength of ALL of the others. It can cut a nickel in half. I am very happy with this purchase.

Straight out of the box and loved it. Alot bigger and heavier then I had expected but that does not distract from how great the SOG Power Assist is. Would have given it 5 stars but the fact that the V Cutter gets stuck on the can opener or vice versa really erks me. Other then that, everything else is so fluid and works great. A very reassuring tool to have on your belt.

Probably too tough for most people. If you don't work with your hands everyday in a blue collar sleeveless shirt, this tool might be too tough for you. A pencil pusher would look ridiculous carrying this monster. This is one big powerful tool. Above picture compares it to Leatherman Wave. I am brutal on my equipment and tools. I have to buy industrial or it will be in a landfill in no time. I always look for items that are "mil-spec" as you can be assured it is a tough as possible. I have been using and carrying a "utility" tool, daily, since 1988. (The first round in Iraq. When we had a justifiable reason to be there.) Back then it was just me and my Leatherman. After many years of service and so many sharpening sessions, (width of the blade narrows) I had to retire her. The SOG offers replaceable blades so I though I would try them. I tryed to contact them from their website and they were completely not responsive to my requests, 10 months ago, for buying a "BLEM" and blowing through another leatherman, I thought I would give them a shot, knowing full well that customer service is weak. I have been through dozens of "Utility" knives and they all have their drawbacks and benefits. This is the first SOG I have had. and it is impressively large and tough.

It is an A m e r i c a n Tool ~ BIG, Threatening, Flashy and Poorly Assembled

Sorry, but it's true, Ever since W. E. Deming, went to Japan to teach quality control, overall manufacturing skills here have never met the fit and finish available elsewhere.
Quality = Effort/Cost.
Now more than ever I seek the label Made In the USA, I will pay a premium or even accept an inferior product, for the sake of the American Worker. I know the 50's are gone, but somewhere someone else must yearn for the days of the Proud American Manufacturer. Where other countries are clamoring to import our products. Yada yada yada,, Ok
This is a great tool. slight adjustment was needed right out of the box. the V tool catches on the can opener when you open it. The "Power Assist Blade" had too mushy, and slow. (There is a give and take here.) If you want a fast blade you sacrifice the amount of "play" in the blade when locked into place. Also first shot at opening the cover for the blades it shot off. It does just snap back on and is useful, but it certainly surprised me, and I figured it will probably be the first thing I loose.
I have had my SOG for about 2 weeks now and I use it every day. On average I whip out the multi-tool 8-15 times a day, and over 14 days I probably get more use than most in a year. After using for hundreds of tasks she seems to be holding up well. If you want Heavy Duty, Daily Use. This is the one. The C-4 Detonator Crimping tool is also a nice touch.
SanLuisPainting

Not a great knife, but it has its moments. The assisted opening is why I purchased it and it does work well with one major flaw. Why the heck does it have a lock? I want the thing to fly open when I push on it. I find that the lock accidentally gets put on in my pocket, and when I need it to pop open I have to fiddle with the lock then open it. I could have opened any knife by that time. Also the studs are a little sharp and so forcing it against the lock actually starts to hurt. Locking a knife that is supposed to be quick opening in my opinion is a stupid feature. It's not going to fly open and kill you in your pocket. It's not a stiletto. I have other assisted opening knives that are much better, but of course they lack all the other features of this knife. I was hoping to stop carrying 2 knives, but I don't think that will happen. My Swiss Army Spirit Victorinox SwissTool Spirit Multi-Tool with Pouchis still my favorite for quality tools that are easy to get to and really strong. The SOG is built about as well as my leatherman but only just. The belt/cord cutter you could bend over with your fingers (No kidding). That said it is sharp and is more handy than I thought is would be. The other tools seem a little less brittle than a leatherman but not nearly as strong as the victorinox. The Pliers are strong and powerful but what you gain in power you lose in jaw opening. I find myself needing 2 hands to open the pliers around something but once I get something they don't let go. If I needed the power I'd probably be ok with going to get real pliers. The SOG is much bigger than my leatherman and this is mostly because of the gears that provide the extra jaw power. For some reason it feels about the same as the leatherman wave in my pocket. . . this maybe a personal thing but it doesn't feel as big as it is.

I think this thing has its uses but it really doesn't seem to live up to some of the other reviews. I had to sharpen it straight out of the box. Though it is now razor sharp. The tools are of OK quality but not nearly super tough and seem small. The assisted opening works well if the lock doesn't slip on (I'm considering crazy gluing them open.) The pliers are really good and its nice to be able to open them with one flick of the wrist, but they are hard to get around things with one hand. The one thing I really, really hate is that you can't have the handles open and the pliers closed. This is a little hard to describe but with all other multi tools you can create a really long screwdriver by opening the handles and tucking the pliers into one of the handles. The gears that provide the power prevent this on the SOG and so if you want to use the screwdriver you have to fold the handles all the way over or have the pliers sticking out, and this sometimes prevents you from getting the screwdriver into a tight place. I think I might take this if I'm working on a ladder, but in the end it will probably end up in a glove compartment. I really wanted to love it, and I only just like it.

This is just another great SOG product. Combining their Power Assisted blade system with their multi-tools was a great idea. In the time that I have been carrying the PowerAssist I have used it to tighten various bolts, I've disassembled and reassembled a laptop and used the v-cutter to cut up various bits of paper (testing, you know). It's just a very solid, useful all around great tool. The grip with the pliers is amazingly solid and the price here on Amazon really cannot be beaten.

The one knock on this thing is the buttons that allow you to close the blades and the safety locks are a little hard to actuate and if your a soft-handed cube-dweller like me their a little tough on your finger-tips. LOL

Anyway, a great tool, no question that it will last a life-time and probably longer.

I own other SOG products, and this was my first multitool from them, and I was actually pretty disappointed by this tool. On initially unboxing the tool, I took a look at the sheath and was overall satisfied with it. Nothing fancy, but good enough for it's intended purpose. Once I got my hands on the tool itself, I decided to try opening the plain edge blade, and expected the same quick, strong open I had with my other SOG assisted knives, but it fell completely flat and failed to open all the way. I tried it a few more times, and eventually got the method down a bit more, but the blade would still fail to open completely about 1 out of 4 tries. I had the same issue with both blades, and I was pretty disappointed at this point because SOG knives never had this issue in my experience.

In my testing of the knives, I also noticed that while gripping the tool to open/close the knife, my hand would rub against the safeties and nudge them back and forth. The safety switches themselves seemed very loose and just a gentle brush would move them back and forth. Again, a disappointment, as my other SOG knife safeties had nice, stiff safeties that would stay locked in their selected position. I would have hoped that giving up a whole handle's worth of tool space for the hardware for just two assisted open knives would have made room for decent hardware, but this was not the case.

Next, I opened the tool to get a look at the other small tools included in the handles. Most of the tools were adequate, but once I got down to the end with the V cutter on it, I ran into another issue. The can opener that was positioned next to the V cutter rubbed against it every time I opened either tool, and If I wanted to open one tool they would both come out together. This may have been intentional, "clumping" of tools like this is sometimes intended to make getting at tools easier, but in this case it was poorly executed. When I wanted to put one tool or the other back, the blades on the V cutter had too much bulk to them and made it very difficult to slide either tool individually. If I wanted to put one tool away, I would need to slightly bend them apart from each other to provide clearance. If I had gloves on, as I often would when using a tool outdoors, this would prove very difficult.

I did, however, like the compound leverage pliers. They functioned as described, and gave the tool a smooth feel with lots of pressure. They seemed more than adequate, and seemed very solidly put together. I don't doubt that you could cut a nickle in half with the wire cutters on these pliers.

I really wanted to like this tool, because assisted opening is really a big selling point for me, but this just feels like it was not thought out or built very well. I may have received a defective unit, but I didn't want to hassle with sending it back and forth. I bought a less feature rich, but better put together Leatherman 300 instead. It has more tools, none of them bind or grind together, and while I will miss the compound leverage pliers, I think it is the better product for me.

The power assist knife blades and pliers are decent as far as I can tell after 3 days, so I'm primarily reviewing the accessory tools (although the "blasting cap crimper" has got to be useful somehow):

1) File/large flathead: good. What else are you going to do with the end of a file?

2) Another flathead + bottle opener: good, again there's not much else to do with the end of this so I guess a screwdriver head is ok

3) Phillips + some kind of notch towards base: good. I don't know what else this is since there's no supporting documentation and it's not mentioned on their website. Maybe it's just the way they shape their tools

4) Another flathead with the same notch as the Phillips: This is nothing more than a flat head screwdriver. What would I do without a screwdriver? So far we're up to 3 flathead screwdrivers out of 6 available tools.

5) Can opener/small flathead screwdriver: can opener is good. I'm surprised at how often someone forgets a can opener at work. But we're up to 4 flatheads now

6) V-Cutter: at least this doesn't have a screwdriver on it anywhere. I haven't used this yet, but it looks pretty handy. It catches on the can opener every time I open it. At first I thought they were supposed to be used together somehow, but they just stick and have to be lightly pried apart.

I'd trade 2 of those screwdrivers for scissors, 1/4" drive, wire stripper or even an awl. All of these are available from SOG for the low, low price of $10 each.

And looking at it, I think the notch on the Phillips or on flathead #3 would work as a bottle opener, so tool #2 is a complete waste

The knife itself is great - SOG products have always worked well for me. Tried to pick this one up for my brother last Christmas but it wasn't out - got here just in time for this Christmas, was able to get it shipped to me in plenty of time. Tool itself is much heavier and bulkier than the one I carry day in and day out (Origional Leatherman PST) but the assisted opening knives and the compound leverage pliers are very well designed and it is great for those times when you need something a little more heavy-duty.

I am very disappointed in this multi-tool, the supplier shipping the defective tool, and on top with only 2 weeks with very little effort broke the Screwdriver not think it's for hard use, the tool and finally the supplier did not make a good job, not recommend for a really hard use, it is rather to a luxury and occasional use