Greg Thompson designed the 179 variant of the SOCP dagger for rescue performance and less-than-lethal self-defense. The tool includes the Benchmade rescue hook design, a carbide glass breaker, O² wrench and the same finger loop and integral sheath design as the rest of the SOCP family.
Tags: Benchmade, Greg Thompson, SOCP
I think the SOCP dagger is best when it’s left to be the single-purpose tool it started as. I don’t really need it to be versatile; I just want easy access for sewing machine stabbing.
“Oh ok, this internet commenter said doesn’t need one. Lets cancel the project.”
-No one ever
Criticism. Of a variation of a product of which I already own. AKA feedback for a brand I routinely support.
The original SOCP dagger is awesome. The trend towards making them more of a utility blade takes away from the original intent. The only reason to change anything would be a single-edged design for those that can’t legally own or carry the original due to legal restrictions.
If Shiv Works added serrated edges and bottle openers to the Clinch Pick, I’d have the same criticism.
Yeah, these additions don’t fit the intent of the original design at all. It’s like putting a TQ holder on a Carl Gustav. Quick draw, low profile seat belt cutter and oxygen wrench on my kit? S&R sure is getting way ninja.
As someone who’s been on an ambulance for awhile and had to Tuggle with trauma sheers and finger faitigue while trying to cut through clothes – I ditched my sheers and started carrying aroudn an old issued strap cutter from Iraq. Worked wonders. This would of been better than the tiny strap cutter I had.
For those that use this kind of tool, it’s incredibly useful.
The above commenters are like the AirSoft commenters trying to give tactical advice. Just because you don’t work in that environment or see how a tool is useful doesn’t mean others won’t.
Pump the brakes, dude. I’ve been through the SOCP program, so I’d say I’m not at all “like the AirSoft commenters trying to give tactical advice” if I comment on a SOCP dagger variation.
This thing’s got a lot of features going on, but I’m not sure its form factor is advantageous, especially when compared to the #7 and #8 rescue hooks. Or a $10 ResQMe. You could even keep a spring-loaded glass punch in a pocket of your nifty EMT pants and tape an O2 wrench to the O2 bottle.
Ok sure. Not the original intent but still useful. Think now you can get the seat belt cutter into a smaller space that you couldn’t get the #7 into. You move the glass break further from the grip making a breach maybe a little safer for the user.
The last thing anyone needs is something that your lethal weapon can easily be mistaken for. One of the biggest issues with making tasers look and handle like pistols has been people drawing their pistol when they thought it was the taser. So now we have a rescue hook/glass breaker/ oxygen wrench/ kubotan that looks and feels and draws just like a socp dagger? While I know training and placement can fix this problem, why create it in the first place? How about just adding a glass breaker to the 8hook variant with the O2 wrench?
Not everyone carries the dagger version so it’s hard to mistake it for something you don’t have.
Ok, I’ll accept that. If you need a cutter that will fit in a pals channel and have no intention of carrying the dagger it makes a lot of sense.
I think a lot of the issues mentioned above would be solved if it was bright blue or orange, at least not matte gray, which could easily be mistaken for a dagger, if you don’t look closely.
I’d carry this long before I’d carry a dagger. I don’t need to shank people and if I did I have plenty of conventional knives that will do the trick, plus a lot more.
I held one yesterday and I’m really excited about it. The more streamlined form-factor and integrating a window punch with a decent standoff will be a big hit with our customers.
I could easily write three paragraphs about the versatility this offers and the problems it solves, but why?
You either take one look at it and get it, or you don’t.