PocketKNIFE

A couple of posts ago I mentioned this knife when blathering about the big and little SOG Flashes. I said I might show this off, and I never did. Well, here it is.

This is an OG Trident, not the current "Trident AT" that's being sold at the time of writing and is Yet Another Axis Clone. No, this knife is over two decades old.

This original SOG Trident is mechanically related, if not identical, to the Flash. But where the Trident differs is that it's tactical. Oh, it is so tactical. And it's such a perfect expression of that early 2000's time it existed in.

The SOG Trident wears shades and a trenchcoat over cargo shorts and jungle boots. The SOG Trident hunts vampires, and it does it listening to Trent Reznor and Billy Corgan. The SOG Trident hangs out in underground clubs inside abandoned warehouses and broods over its Jägermeister.

It's got the same not-Axis-lock plunger lock system as the Flashes, as well. It's the spitting image of the one on the Flash II. We can see it's got the same kind of chunky injection molded glass filled nylon handles, a very highly sprung spring assist opening, and ambidextrous thumb studs on either side. And the Trident is big: 8-1/2" long open from tip to tail, with a 3-1/2" blade that's got a big fuck-you tanto point on it, made out of AUS-8. It's 4-1/8" long closed and rides just under the hem of your Jnco pockets with an early generation deep carry clip that's reversible the same way as on the Flash, by undoing a screw and pulling it out of the end of the knife. It's 104.5 grams/3.69 ounces, and a solid 9/16" thick not including the clip.

In case you didn't get how hard core the Trident told you it was the first time, it's got its makers mark carved into the pocket clip. Its blade is black. Of course it's black. There's a seatbelt cutter notch in the back of the handles that exposes a little section of the blade. And it has a pseudorandom interrupted diamond embossed grip pattern down the sides of both handle slabs.

The Trident is so hard core it came with a safety on it to keep it from going off in your pocket. Of course, that was designed just like the one in the Flash, too, with all the same problems. So I removed it back in the day, and I'm sorry to say that I lost it. So it's missing in all these pictures.

The Trident is actually nearly exactly the same dimensions as its brother, the Flash II. But somehow its design elements make it feel and seem bigger. Maybe it's the sawback jimping on it, or the absurdity of the rake on its tanto point. It's still a damn sight bigger than my usual CQC-6K. You can have one of those little Crocodile Dundee moments when you pull it out, but edited for TV. "ғᴏʀɢᴇᴛ you, ᴍʀ ғᴀʟᴄᴏɴ. This is a ғʀɪᴄᴋɪɴ knife."

The Inevitable Conclusion

Once again, the utility of this screed is a little limited because you can't buy this version of this knife anymore. It's in the past now, obscure, unnoticed, not noteworthy. No one will be nostalgic for the Trident because it and others of its ilk were never trendsetters and in the end didn't shape the direction of future knife design like others did.

But it's still there, in the knife drawer. Waiting in the dark.

Ready.