Sosakonline Archive

Please note that all content in this section has been imported from our old Sosakonline website and may contain broken links. We are revising it as we can, but these things take time, and it's a lot of content to get through!

 Some of you noticed that there were no ALOX articles last month- the first time in quite a while that some ALOX model or another hasn’t been shown off! Well, for those of you who didn’t get your fix last month, here’s enough ALOX to hold you for a bit!

Tradition is a wonderful thing, but it’s not always something that needs to be followed. Once in a while it’s nice to break from tradition, which is what we are doing with this year’s SOSAKOnline Knife Of The Year. Usually Travis comes up with some options and we have a vote on it, but another project I have been working on seems to have been held up for a variety of reasons, but is finally a go, and I decided to merge it with the KOTY project.

With camping and outdoor season upon us in my neck of the woods I thought I would take a close look at some of the various methods available for securing ropes for people like me- the unskilled at knot tying. Amusingly enough, I work in the shipping industry, often verifying the security and integrity of cargo, so you’d think I would know a bit about knots. This is not the case, and my personal knot repertoire is limited to granny and slip knots. So, since I’m sure I can’t be the only SAK collector who spends time outside and appreciates a good method of safely and quickly securing a rope, I thought I would have a look at a few different types.

For years I have heard folks talking about great finds ate flea markets, yard sales and other informal gatherings, and it’s been a source of frustration for me as I’ve never found anything worth bragging about myself.The closest I ever got to finding a hidden gem was the white scaled, black bladed Richartz knife I wrote about some time ago.


 Since another year has passed I thought I would celebrate it by recounting a few of my favorite articles of our fifth year. Some of them were mine, some are from others, but each one sticks out in my mind as having had something specifically interesting about them. So, in no particular order, here are some of my favorites:

 For over a year now I’ve been running EDCSource as an alternative to the Big Guys and all of their increasingly overbearing rules and fees. I felt that people deserved a market where they could buy and sell knives, tools and outdoors gear in an open, friendly environment and we’ve had at least some limited success with it so far. 

Yes, you read that correctly, we are six years old as of this month!The SOSAK forum at Knifeforums.com is a lot older than that, but this site has been online for a full six years now!And, for those of you noticing how late this month’s offerings are, being late is a bit of a tradition around here!

 

Originally it had been scheduled for a June launch instead of July, but I’d had a nasty bout with some kidney stones in the end of May that lasted a few weeks.The doctor that performed the stone removal insisted that he’d gotten them all and claimed I was faking it as the pain went into its second week, and I was a wreck, barely able to function.Of course, my job was also in transition at the time and so wondering whether I was still going to be employed wasn’t helping.A week later I passed the final stone (the one the doctor insisted wasn’t there!) and I instantly felt better- sure I was about 35 pounds lighter and exhausted, full of residual morphine, Demerol, dilaudid and oxycontin, but I could finally stand up straight!

 

So, we went back to work putting the finishing touches on the site and getting it ready to fly.In those days it was just Esteban and I, and Esteban was also busy putting together the store software for Tim and Tom in what became the Felinevet and Rotokid shops we’ve been featuring here since the very beginning.

 

All in all SOSAKOnline has been a lot of fun over the years, but the reality is that I’ve just been regurgitating information provided by members, so it’s really a celebration of all of us, not anything I’ve done specifically.This year we passed 10,000 members, and are already well on our way to 20,000, so my guess is that we are doing something right!

 One of the many SwissTool variants that made my “white whale list” is the Australian Army Issue Black SwissTool. Well, it seems that particular white whale has been caught, not by shrewd searching or unyielding focus on my part, but because it saw fit to throw itself in my boat! Putting that crude metaphor aside, the real story is that a friend helped me buy another oddball SAK, but when it arrived on my doorstep, it had also brought this SwissTool with it!

    If you run a Swiss knife company in Switzerland, how many blades do you make with the year 85 stamped on the tang?   How many Alox scales do you need for the annual military contract?  The Swiss are very frugal and hate to waste anything. Not very much gets thrown out. They are also very conscious of their environment. I have seen one picture from a Swiss Army website that shows an aluminum pan underneath an army truck getting refueled.  What has this got to do with SAK’s?  I think you are now starting to get the idea of how many variations can be found out there. Everything gets used. I think we all own a Standard Soldier model. Let’s look at some exceptions.

One of the more amusing points of my existence is that every year the first birthday present or Christmas present or card I get is from a local brewery, called Moosehead. Some time ago I must have signed up for something, but for the life of me I can't remember what it was. Just to add a bit more amusement to the story, I rarely even drink Moosehead products, and yet every year for my birthday or Christmas, or any other event, before most folks are even thinking of what to send me, there's a package from Moosehead with some coasters, coupons, a shirt or even- and get this, a pair of socks.