SOG
Authorized Dealer • Vietnam-Inspired Since 1986
SOG Specialty Knives was founded in 1986 by Spencer and Gloria Frazer to reproduce the original MACV-SOG Bowie — the covert combat knife designed for the Military Assistance Command, Vietnam Studies and Observations Group, the joint-service special operations unit that ran the deepest classified missions of the Vietnam War. Today SOG builds on that lineage with the Pentagon Blackout OTF automatic, the BAR15T tanto bayonet, the Tactical Tomahawk and FastHawk (modern evolutions of the Vietnam Tomahawk), and the SOGfari machete — field-proven edged tools trusted by special operators, military professionals, and outdoorsmen worldwide.
About SOG at Keep Shooting
Keep Shooting is an authorized SOG dealer carrying a curated selection of the brand's most historically significant and operationally proven designs: the Pentagon Blackout OTF automatic, the BAR15T Tanto Bayonet, the SOGfari Machete, and the Tactical Tomahawk and FastHawk — modern descendants of the Vietnam-era tomahawks that helped give SOG its distinctive special-operations identity.
SOG Specialty Knives was founded in 1986 in Santa Monica, California by Spencer and Gloria Frazer with a single, unusual mission: to reproduce the original MACV-SOG Bowie knife and pay tribute to the covert U.S. special operations unit that created and carried it. MACV-SOG — the Military Assistance Command, Vietnam Studies and Observations Group — was the joint-service unconventional warfare task force that ran the most sensitive classified operations of the Vietnam War, including cross-border reconnaissance into Laos and Cambodia, prisoner-recovery raids, agent insertions, and direct-action missions too politically sensitive to acknowledge at the time. The original MACV-SOG knife was designed by Benjamin Baker, Deputy Chief of the U.S. Counterinsurgency Support Office (CISO), and issued exclusively to SOG personnel — meaning the knife never entered conventional military inventory and the surviving examples are among the most sought-after edged weapons in American military collecting. Spencer Frazer's decision to resurrect that design and attach its name to a new American knife company is the single founding act that has defined SOG's identity for nearly four decades.
SOG's earliest production S1 and S2 bowies (1986 through 2006) were manufactured in Seki City, Japan by master bladesmith Ichiro Hattori — arguably the most respected post-war Japanese blade-maker working on contract for Western knife brands. Seki City has been Japan's cutlery capital for more than 800 years, dating back to the samurai sword-smithing era, and a Hattori-made Japanese bowie represented the fusion of American special-operations design intent with Japanese heat-treat and grind-geometry craftsmanship. That original Japanese manufacturing arrangement established SOG's reputation for blade quality that far exceeded what its price points would suggest, and the Hattori-era SOG bowies remain collector pieces today.
The SOG Tactical Tomahawk and its compact sibling the SOG FastHawk are the brand's most direct historical callbacks outside the Bowie line. Both are modern evolutions of the Vietnam Tomahawk — the famously unconventional edged weapon that American advisors and special-operations personnel carried in Southeast Asia, considered at the time one of the more unusual weapons in the U.S. inventory and later rediscovered by the modern special operations community in the post-9/11 era. Our Tactical Tomahawk features a stainless-steel head on a black glass-reinforced nylon handle with an included nylon sheath, and the FastHawk is a lighter, faster, more carry-friendly variant intended for breaching, throwing, and close-quarters utility applications. Both tomahawks are among the most recognizable pieces in the SOG catalog and are routinely issued to individual operators in military and law enforcement units as personal preference items.
The SOG Pentagon Blackout OTF Automatic Knife is a true out-the-front automatic — a premium double-action mechanism that deploys and retracts the blade with a single slide actuator, one of the most mechanically demanding action types a modern knife maker can produce. The Pentagon nameplate itself is an intentional callback: the original SOG Pentagon was one of the company's first tactical folders, and the OTF Blackout carries that same name forward into SOG's highest mechanical-complexity product tier. The blackout finish, tanto-pattern blade geometry, and full automatic action make it a serious-use tactical tool, and the $296 price point reflects the machining tolerances required to build a reliable OTF action at production scale. Note that OTF automatic ownership is governed by state-specific switchblade statutes — we recommend verifying your local legality before ordering.
The SOG BAR15T Tanto Bayonet is a relatively rare offering in the modern SOG catalog — a purpose-built M16/AR-15-compatible bayonet with a tanto-style blade geometry that deviates from the standard-issue M9 bayonet's clip-point profile. The tanto tip gives the BAR15T significantly more thrust-penetration capability at the cost of some slicing efficiency, making it a specialty-preference bayonet rather than a general-issue piece. The SOG Sogfari Machete is built for the brush-clearing and field-utility role that machetes fill in tropical, subtropical, and heavy-vegetation environments — built to SOG's performance standards rather than to the commodity-machete price tier most outdoor retailers carry. Competing American knife brands are covered in the Ka-Bar, Kershaw, Gerber, Cold Steel, and Ontario Knife Company brand pages.
SOG's broader product catalog extends well beyond what we carry — including the legendary SEAL Pup and SEAL 2000 fixed-blade knives (both on permanent display at the U.S. Navy SEAL Museum in Ft. Pierce, Florida), the Flash assisted-opening folder line, the PowerLock multi-tool, the Seal Strike survival knife, and dozens of additional tactical folders, fixed blades, flashlights, axes, and specialty gear. In December 2021 SOG was acquired by GSM Outdoors — the same outdoor-industry parent company that owns TekMat, BOG, Stealth Cam, Muddy, and a broad portfolio of hunting and shooting-sports brands — which has expanded SOG's distribution reach while preserving the Vietnam-SOG design heritage that defines the brand.
Every SOG product at Keep Shooting is covered by SOG's limited lifetime warranty against defects in materials and workmanship, and we ship every order from our Pennsylvania warehouse with free shipping on orders over $49.95 and hassle-free returns. Whether you are a Vietnam military history collector seeking tomahawks and bowies in the MACV-SOG tradition, a tactical-folder enthusiast looking at the Pentagon OTF, an AR-15 owner completing a bayonet setup with the BAR15T, or an outdoorsman who needs a machete built to a higher standard than the commodity tier, every SOG piece we stock is genuine factory-authorized inventory from one of the most historically significant American knife brands of the modern era.
Frequently Asked Questions — SOG
Yes, we maintain inventory of the most popular SOG products. Each product listing shows real-time stock status. If an item is temporarily out of stock, you can sign up for back-in-stock notifications on the product page.
Yes! All orders over $49.95 qualify for free shipping, including SOG products. Orders typically ship within 1–2 business days.
Keep Shooting offers hassle-free returns on SOG products. If you're not completely satisfied, contact our customer service team for a return authorization. All products must be in original, unused condition.
Yes, Keep Shooting is an authorized SOG dealer. All products are sourced directly and include full manufacturer warranty coverage.