I haven't followed all the way through this thread yet, but will circle back when I get a chance to check things out here. In the meantime, while I've been meaning to post here for a while, I ran into something recently that I thought might be worth a passing mention. I was carrying my Southard Performance Series Tolk the other day and went over to Brad's website wondering about other models, saw some pics of his Avo there, and was immediately reminded of my PJ iMamba--a knife that I seem to like more every time I carry it. I'm certainly not suggesting anything here other than that many of us have mentioned a similar design language between Chris Reeve's work and what we've seen from two generations of the Bernards, which of course is not a bad thing at all as the knives from both makers are excellent. There's also the South African connection, of course.
This Southard Avo sure does bring the the iMamba to mind despite the differences in handle milling and other details. Size and general shape are certainly similar as well as both being frame lock flippers on BBs.
And then there's the blade, too.
I've been wanting another iMamba--an inlayed one, maybe ironwood, to go with my PJ, though I'm very fond of its plainness--but I can't get the Southard Avo off my mind now, though I guess there aren't very many of those around to be had. Anyway, just a bit of an aside here, FWIW....