I love the Southard blade. It's very general purpose and use it in food prep all the time. The ZT 561, even though bigger, is not so great in that role. The blade is a little too thick and that flipper sort of gets in the way once deployed. But it's pretty straightforward (pun intended) to sharpen and maintain, and the 566 will be the same way. They are also a bit more "tactical" than the Southard, unless you modify the Southard's jimping which wouldn't be hard to do. I'm also looking into rounding off the G10 on the Southard so that the edges of the scales are the same on both sides, and replacing the clip with a Ti low-rider. The deployment of the Southard is the nicest of any of the knives I own, with the possible exception of a Zing blem I bought from Kershawguy.
