Justification, finally, for dropping $200 on a Spyderco Southard.

Comeuppance

Comeuppance

Fixed Blade EDC Emisssary
Joined
Jan 12, 2013
Messages
4,765
I've had my Southard for maybe two months. I bought it to use it, and I've made an effort to never hesitate to do so.

It arrived surprisingly not all that sharp, and the grind is so freaking shallow and lopsided that sharpening it took a lot more work than most of my knives have. Ultimately, though, I managed to put an absolutely terrifyingly sharp edge on it. Cool. Now I can use it with pride.

...I sure hope I don't have to sharpen it again any time soon, though.

So, earlier today, I'm at work. Outside of the building where I work, we have a long metal-pipe fence that we have banners on. I decided it was time to change out the weather-worn zip-ties on the banners and make them nice and taut. What better knife for this than my Southard?

So, I get to work, popping zip ties and putting on new ones. One of them was giving me a lot of trouble, because it was really one hell of a zip tie - thing had to have been 1/8" thick. So, I get the tip of my knife under there and start pulling up. After a lot of force, it cuts through, and-

*PANG*

my blade hits the pipe fence, edge first, hard enough that it resonated through the fence. I felt it in the hand I had on the fence to brace myself.
My heart sunk. I didn't even want to look at the edge. $200 knife, difficult to sharpen, and now it probably has a huge stupid chip or fold in it. I close the knife and put it away without looking. I finish the job with my RAM and head back.

Back inside, I sit down and mentally prepare myself to assess the damage.
I open it up, and this is what I see:

PhotoMar3085249PM.jpg

PhotoMar3085301PM.jpg


not
a
damn
scratch.

Still shaves my arm hairs after 90+ days of regular use AND hitting the fence so hard it left an indentation in the pipe.

I love this stupid thing.
 
Smokinape said:
What do you use to sharpen it?
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I gave it about a dozen gentle passes on either side using a ceramic stone from my Smith's 3-in-1 sharpener (I just hold the stone in my hand and carefully guide the blade), followed by a couple passes on my strop.
 
I accidentally hit some aluminum with the tip of my Southard and I thought for sure it would have dented the extremely acute tip. I looked for damage but I honestly couldn't find any. This steel seems to resist damage very well. I have a feeling this is going to be a great knife, I have yet to put it to really hard use but so far it's been fantastic!
 
I thought you said it was hard to sharpen? :confused:

My son dropped mine on a tile floor while flipping it open (I don't think he expected it to fling open so quickly and easily). It landed on the edge in the middle of the edge's belly (seemed in slow motion and it was all I could do to stop my foot from trying to "catch" it). Did produce a small flat spot but no rolled edge. A few strokes on a fine stone and some stropping and good as new. Stupendously great knife.
 
Just the story made me cringe.I freakin' love my Southard!Another thing that should justify spending 200 on a Southard is that 200 is a killer deal for a Southard!
 
Officer's Match said:
I thought you said it was hard to sharpen? :confused:
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It took me a dozen swipes on either side, and I didn't end up actually improving the edge until the last 4 strokes or so. It was pretty frustrating accidentally dulling my expensive knife :P
 
I recently dropped my toothbrush on the floor and it didn't break. This is pretty much akin to a reasonable quality knife not chipping in the circumstances you describe - I've baton cut through nails with a 12c27 folder and it really didn't mind (a piece of furniture by girlfriend wanted trashing was stuck in a doorway, and I was willing to trash the knife to get out of Comedy Sketch Hell and go to work.) Unless you combine freakish strength with outlandish klutzness and permanent hyper enthusiasm, an upwards slice at a zip tie is pretty small stuff.

This doesn't mean the Southard isn't a nice knife - just that you should expect any knife that isn't hyper-tweaked for aggression to survive what is really a pretty low energy impact with a piece of metal.
 
TotalDbag said:
I may have to get one now.
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It's worth it. I use mine everyday and have carried it for almost 3 months now. Haven't had to sharpen it yet. My favorite knife under $350 as of now. And also about the steel and edge,I dropped mine with the blade open on ceramic tile from about 5 feet. It had a little flattening on the edge and some micro chips but slowly I just used it and stripped them out.
 
meanwhile said:
I recently dropped my toothbrush on the floor and it didn't break. This is pretty much akin to a reasonable quality knife not chipping in the circumstances you describe - I've baton cut through nails with a 12c27 folder and it really didn't mind (a piece of furniture by girlfriend wanted trashing was stuck in a doorway, and I was willing to trash the knife to get out of Comedy Sketch Hell and go to work.) Unless you combine freakish strength with outlandish klutzness and permanent hyper enthusiasm, an upwards slice at a zip tie is pretty small stuff.

This doesn't mean the Southard isn't a nice knife - just that you should expect any knife that isn't hyper-tweaked for aggression to survive what is really a pretty low energy impact with a piece of metal.
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I get what you're saying, but I've had s30v chip with (what sounds like) less drama to the blade. I also have a little roll on a blade of m4, same thing. I'd be pretty happy if my Southard took a decent whack to the edge and had absolutely nothing wrong with it too.

I've noticed something on these boards. You can go straight from "xxxx steel will take an incredibly acute edge profile and still take no damage from (whatever incredible act)" to "well, what did you expect? You're expecting waaaay too much from the blade... It's just steel..." in the same thread.

From my actual experience steel at an acute edge angle (relatively speaking, let's call that 30° inclusive or less) will be damaged fairly easily. If it doesn't happen when I think it will is reason for a little bit of joy.
 
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