I just got a bad monkey a few days ago. The knife is amazing. the finish is way better than the best spydercos and I am going to say it is approaching sebenza levels (I have a 25 so I can say this). I let my co worker, another knife knerd like me, carry it for a day and he stated to me that he felt the finish was better than his Spydercos, as good as or better than his ZTs and Striders and he even commented that he felt it was approaching sebenza levels. I never told him that. He just randomly said it. Everything about the knife is so good.
The steel choice... I look at it this way... I love my Kershaw Leeks and they have the same steel, run softer and extremely thin at the shoulder. I never broke or chipped a leek and they sharpen up so easily. 14C28N has some nitrogen in it which improves corrosion resistance and allows higher hardness while remaining ductile. The grain structure of sandvick 14C28N is exceptionally fine, approaching powder metal steels. SG hardens their blades to 59-61. Their grind is much thicker than the kershaw leek, so I am sure that I will get great performance, easy sharpening, rolled edges instead of chipped edges with a high level of corrosion resistance. I can tell you that on my leeks and on my Bad Monkey the steel's edge is so fine that it feels sticky. It shaves easily. Pick a hair, push it over with your blade and as soon as the hair gets trapped between the blade and skin, it will pop right off. One thing that Southern Grind doesn't advertise is that their edge is a convex, mirror polished edge. Convex edges are more durable than traditional bevels.
Knowing Zack Brown loves Emerson knives and thinking about his steel choice, I realized that the Bad Monkey is like a combination of a kershaw skyline (a very popular edc) and an Emerson, with custom/midtech build quality. I have had many ZTs, Spydercos, a few Chris Reeve knives and lots of lower cost blades. To me the Bad Monkey is worth every single penny.
