- Joined
- Sep 9, 2014
- Messages
- 1,378
This is probably my first post in this subforum, so I don't know if anyone has ever posted the anatomy of this most excellent knife.
I love knives, almost anything with an edge calls my inner child to play, so I recently bought this Southard here in the exchange, it is basically brand new, and as it usually happens with any Spyderco I get, I love it. The action is just perfection, it opens almost effortlessly; the construction is flawless, the centering perfect.
I have a PM2 with camo scales and DLC black blade that has not left my pocket for the last three years, I think this will probably displace it soon; I really need to start using all my knives, not just one; for the sake of variety and to keep the fun going.
I love Spyderco knives, I love other brands too as it is obvious (I have to be honest); but I have had more Spydies than any other brand, and that is for a good reason, actually several good reasons; and this is what this post and rambling is about; I hope I don't bore you, sorry if I do.
I'm a mechanic by trade, and have always taken things apart since I was a kid, (I'm 56 now); but putting them back together was a different matter though; and everytime I get a new knife I usually take it apart to see how it is constructed and sometimes to clean and lubricate them. I'm also addicted to FrogLube; I know there are some excellent lubricants out there but this works great for me.
Anyway; I always wanted to get a Southard but could never afford it, ( I still can't, but I got one, it's amazing what I can justify in my mind) the one I'm showing off; so I thought 'I shall put some frog lube in it', and went to town with the torx wrench; wow, I now know why the price is a little steep for this blade.
The materials, and fit and finish are really top of the line; if this knife was made here in the USA it would probably cost a lot more, probably twice as much.
Let me start with the beautiful stone wash finish, I'm not a metallurgist but this particular steel, CTS-204P, is very cool looking when finished like this:
The knife is held together by ten screws, 2 T10 in the pivot, 6 T6 in the stand offs of the handles, and another 2 T6 holding the pocket clip; which brakes away from the typical branded clips and it's perfectly positioned to the side of the R.I.L.
The lanyard tube is pressed fitted into the scales so I was having a hard time taking them apart, I gently pried them open with the handle of a pair of tweezers wrapped in electrical tape:
I hope you guys don't mind the greasy microfiber rag; it works to keep all pieces in one place though. (I'm on my laptop now, and I see my dog's hairs in there too, oh well, I love my black Labrador but his hair is all over the place!
) The tube is also perfectly flush with the handles.
One thing that impressed me is that the G-10 brown scale has two short pins installed to keep it from sliding out of position from the titanium liner, I have the torx wrench tip pointing to them in these pics:
Here is one of them without the liner on top of it:
Here are the major components separated:
As you can see, the blade has a cut out, or channel for the internal stop pin, which is securely held in a hole machined in the titanium liner/handle combination; I hope that makes sense.
Next comes putting some lube in the ball bearing washers; this is the whole purpose of taking the knife apart; for this I hold the parts to be lubed under a halogen lamp just to warm them up and melt the grease; the theory behind this step is that metal expands as it gets hot, allowing the grease or lube to penetrate into the surface; (in fact these are the instructions for use that come with frog lube):
As I was doing this, I discovered that the ball bearing washers sit on top of a flat stainless steel washer that is nested in the titanium liner/handle washer pockets; this is obviously to prevent wear from the stainless balls riding on bare titanium; I thought this was not only necessary but also genius:
Here are some more pics, I probably missed some details that I will eventually include; I'm writing this on my phone since it makes it easy to upload the pictures (with Coupe's hair in them, yeah my dog's name is Coupe, last name DeVille). In the end, I thought it would be nice to see the internals of this great knife in a thread for the purpose of exalting Spyderco's construction of their first "flipper" knife ( I think it was their first, or was the Domino the first? The experts can correct me if I'm wrong) and to give Brad Southard the thumbs up for a great design; I think it is destined to be a classic, if it's not already.
This will also help those who, for various reasons, are not able to handle small parts because their hands do not work well, (and I am thinking of my friend Wes here), or are not mechanically inclined, and would not venture to take their knife apart.
The Frog Lube grease:
The pivot/over travel lock stop (genius, again):
Let me know what you think; the only thing I noticed that might be a negative is that the brown G-10 slab is too thick compared to the titanium locking side, and it makes that side of the knife thicker than the lock side; but it's no big deal since it feels great in hand; now I need to look for a black-washed edition of this awesome Spyderco, or maybe not, I really like the way the stone washed finish sparkles under the light, it's awesome. Thanks for your time.
(I forgot, if you would like to see some more anatomies, just let me know; the only bad thing is that I recently sold a bunch of my Spyders here in the forum, so I would only be able to do it on what I currently have; just a thought to keep the fun going; since I have a lot of time in my hands due to a back injury).
Merry Christmas to Spyderco's fans and employees!!
I love knives, almost anything with an edge calls my inner child to play, so I recently bought this Southard here in the exchange, it is basically brand new, and as it usually happens with any Spyderco I get, I love it. The action is just perfection, it opens almost effortlessly; the construction is flawless, the centering perfect.
I have a PM2 with camo scales and DLC black blade that has not left my pocket for the last three years, I think this will probably displace it soon; I really need to start using all my knives, not just one; for the sake of variety and to keep the fun going.
I love Spyderco knives, I love other brands too as it is obvious (I have to be honest); but I have had more Spydies than any other brand, and that is for a good reason, actually several good reasons; and this is what this post and rambling is about; I hope I don't bore you, sorry if I do.
I'm a mechanic by trade, and have always taken things apart since I was a kid, (I'm 56 now); but putting them back together was a different matter though; and everytime I get a new knife I usually take it apart to see how it is constructed and sometimes to clean and lubricate them. I'm also addicted to FrogLube; I know there are some excellent lubricants out there but this works great for me.
Anyway; I always wanted to get a Southard but could never afford it, ( I still can't, but I got one, it's amazing what I can justify in my mind) the one I'm showing off; so I thought 'I shall put some frog lube in it', and went to town with the torx wrench; wow, I now know why the price is a little steep for this blade.
The materials, and fit and finish are really top of the line; if this knife was made here in the USA it would probably cost a lot more, probably twice as much.
Let me start with the beautiful stone wash finish, I'm not a metallurgist but this particular steel, CTS-204P, is very cool looking when finished like this:
The knife is held together by ten screws, 2 T10 in the pivot, 6 T6 in the stand offs of the handles, and another 2 T6 holding the pocket clip; which brakes away from the typical branded clips and it's perfectly positioned to the side of the R.I.L.
The lanyard tube is pressed fitted into the scales so I was having a hard time taking them apart, I gently pried them open with the handle of a pair of tweezers wrapped in electrical tape:
I hope you guys don't mind the greasy microfiber rag; it works to keep all pieces in one place though. (I'm on my laptop now, and I see my dog's hairs in there too, oh well, I love my black Labrador but his hair is all over the place!
) The tube is also perfectly flush with the handles.
One thing that impressed me is that the G-10 brown scale has two short pins installed to keep it from sliding out of position from the titanium liner, I have the torx wrench tip pointing to them in these pics:
Here is one of them without the liner on top of it:
Here are the major components separated:
As you can see, the blade has a cut out, or channel for the internal stop pin, which is securely held in a hole machined in the titanium liner/handle combination; I hope that makes sense.
Next comes putting some lube in the ball bearing washers; this is the whole purpose of taking the knife apart; for this I hold the parts to be lubed under a halogen lamp just to warm them up and melt the grease; the theory behind this step is that metal expands as it gets hot, allowing the grease or lube to penetrate into the surface; (in fact these are the instructions for use that come with frog lube):
As I was doing this, I discovered that the ball bearing washers sit on top of a flat stainless steel washer that is nested in the titanium liner/handle washer pockets; this is obviously to prevent wear from the stainless balls riding on bare titanium; I thought this was not only necessary but also genius:
Here are some more pics, I probably missed some details that I will eventually include; I'm writing this on my phone since it makes it easy to upload the pictures (with Coupe's hair in them, yeah my dog's name is Coupe, last name DeVille). In the end, I thought it would be nice to see the internals of this great knife in a thread for the purpose of exalting Spyderco's construction of their first "flipper" knife ( I think it was their first, or was the Domino the first? The experts can correct me if I'm wrong) and to give Brad Southard the thumbs up for a great design; I think it is destined to be a classic, if it's not already.
This will also help those who, for various reasons, are not able to handle small parts because their hands do not work well, (and I am thinking of my friend Wes here), or are not mechanically inclined, and would not venture to take their knife apart.
The Frog Lube grease:
The pivot/over travel lock stop (genius, again):
Let me know what you think; the only thing I noticed that might be a negative is that the brown G-10 slab is too thick compared to the titanium locking side, and it makes that side of the knife thicker than the lock side; but it's no big deal since it feels great in hand; now I need to look for a black-washed edition of this awesome Spyderco, or maybe not, I really like the way the stone washed finish sparkles under the light, it's awesome. Thanks for your time.
(I forgot, if you would like to see some more anatomies, just let me know; the only bad thing is that I recently sold a bunch of my Spyders here in the forum, so I would only be able to do it on what I currently have; just a thought to keep the fun going; since I have a lot of time in my hands due to a back injury).
Merry Christmas to Spyderco's fans and employees!!
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