Usage limits on the Southard Flipper

Hairlesstwinkie

Hairlesstwinkie

Joined
Feb 4, 2013
Messages
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I love my Southard. It's my favorite knife right now. I'm just wondering if the Southard is restricted to only EDCing. The spine of the blade is quite thick and the whole thing is nice and solid. Can it handle a "survival" situation/hard use? I'm really wondering the limits on the knife, so I won't end up breaking it... Has anyone put their Southard to some intense uses?
 
I think bf needs to censor the word survival from the forums, it's a generic term that is now being thrown around Willy nilly that has no definition.

What will you be surviving? Hippo attack? Chemo therapy? Zombie apocalypse?

Listen, it's a very well built knife that is not dainty, and doesn't have a particularly fragile tip. I would feel 100% confident with it as my only backpacking blade. Then again, I can "survive" quite well backpacking or camping with only having to do light knife tasks. Carve tent stakes, carve some kindling, prepare food...
 
It depends on what your doing with it. I wouldn't baton with a folder and I wouldn't want to chop with one, but if you HAD to it could probably handle it. But the knife might have blade play or chips when your done. Now I don't have a Southard, but this would be my best guess. If you can carry a fixed blade in the woods, then that is always the better option.
 
I guess, semi to full on bushcraft is what "survival" has becoming to mean. I guess my main concerns are if the pivot would give out if you use it for chopping and maybe batoning if you're thrown in a situation where the Southard is all you have.

Thanks Luis G. I can't wait. Seeing your ZT test makes me want to get one now.
 
the funny thing is, in actual bushcraft, batoning and chopping with a knife are almost never done, yet those are often two of the most talked about tasks on forums. Learn to process wood without abusing your knife. I have never had to baton or chop with a knife to process firewood, even when a knife is all I had on me. And many outdoors types I know would never even contemplate using a knife like that.

That said, as poor of a chopper and batonner it would be, it should be able to handle it without breaking if you had to.

I have batonned a damn opinel just to do it, with no ill effect.
 
I think nutnpansy is somewhat to blame for the misuse of the word, because he misuses it all the time, and he has such a large audience.
 
If you want to baton wood, get a fixed blade or a hatchet. Folders have their place. Use the right tool for the job.
 
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