Why does it seem like no one like the Spyderco Southard

[Quiet]

I was sent one of these by my buddy Kevin (FlatBlackCapo here) and got to use it for a time. Admittedly, it was nice, but I didn't LOVE it, love it. I didn't like the flipping action, didn't love the clip, though there were other things I did like about it. This has been a couple years, and my tastes have changed since then, so there's even less of a chance that I'd ever pick one up now. The Southard just ended up being not for me, which is ok, because there are plenty of other knives out there!

 

[Hackenslash]

I had a Southard a while back. I kinda liked it, but hated the clip. I bought a way-better clip on the Big Auction Site that improved the knife to kinda liked it better.

It seems that some guys love their Southards and some guys hate 'em. I was really ambivalent about mine and eventually moved on.

I'm in the same boat. It was a knife I lusted after, overextended myself at the time to get aaannnd...ended up feeling "meh". For a knife that looked so great in pictures, it really fell down at some basic knife-like tasks: wonky clip, weak detent (even after factory "adjustment"), slow motion flipping action, sluggish close, awkward ergos and a poor slicer. A Spyderco that's a poor slicer? That kind of melted my brain.

In the end it was a lot of money tied up in a knife that many cheaper knives seemed to outperform. At least in my hand...

I won't go into details but basically this. Except I never sold mine. It just sits there. :/

Yeah, me too. Mine isn't in my EDC rotation. It lives in a knife bag wearing an expensive custom scale and a special ordered lanyard. Lesson learned.

 

[Lapedog]

I got one, my thoughts:
Pros:
- Flips reliable
- Good ergos
- Unusual Blade Shape
- Lots of blade in small package
- Thin ground/slicey

Cons:
- Slight Lock stick
- Subpar Clip
- Smooth but not a free dropper
- Looks a bit awkward with the uneven sides

It's definitely a good and useful EDC, but it's not for everybody either.

I actually sort of like the extremely minor lock stick on my Southard. It is a soft kind of lock stick rather than a hard one where you push against the lockbar and it won’t move then suddenly “pop!” and it slides over. Rather the soft stick of the Southard creates a unique tactile feel when unlocking it.

S snrubwr The reason I most hear people disliking the Southard is the colour of the brown scale. They have a blacked out version but it took away the beautiful stonewashed blade which was one of the Southard’s best features imho.

Personally I love my Southard except for 3 key gripes. First even though it seems to affect Southards less often than other Spyderco bearings models, the Southard still can suffer from dishing of the support washers the bearings roll on.

Second the overly wedge shaped blade cutting geometry. The spine is very wide and the blade is not tall so it doesn’t have hardly any distance to come to a thin edge. What we end up with is a blade with the geometry of a hollow ground splitting wedge.

Last the blade has two stupid recurves. Particularly the small almost imperceptable recurve at the tip which skews the tip slightly down is a royal pain to sharpen.

Sometimes I look at the blade on the Southard and think, what was this knife designed for? Despite this I love my Southard. Very comfortable in pocket and I have no problem using the Spydie hole to open.

 

[snrubwr]

Thanks for the responses Im thinking about a ZT 0456 instead

 

[Hackenslash]

If you’re looking at a ZT I think the closest in spirit might be the 0609.

 

[snrubwr]

I've looked at that one but for some reason it just doesn't appeal to me aesthetically.

 

[Durham68]

I bought one last fall during all the big sales. I wanted to love the knife and even installed aftermarket bearings to improve the action but sold it in the end. I couldn’t get past the overly thick blade stock. I wish they used thinner stock and a full flat grind. Also, the cutout on the handle that allows access to the spyderco hole made the grip uncomfortable for anything more than casual use.

 

[BD_01]

Cupped washers.

Agreed. Although my user has cupped washers and functions well.

Most attitudes seem to run to love it or hate it.

True. And there ARE oddities about the knife. Perhaps I find it endearing because the oddities are so well executed.

Several years ago I traded away a beautiful old pivot CRK Zaan, for a southard and a gentleman Jim. It was by far the dumbest move I have ever made in my years of collecting,

My love for the Southard does have limitations. My ‘Zaans are going nowhere!

I must say that I have seen very few knives which bring out such a range of opinions about details and the overall knife.

I’ve been known to enjoy a polarizing knife, from time to time.

 

[Lapedog]

Agreed. Although my user has cupped washers and functions well.



True. And there ARE oddities about the knife. Perhaps I find it endearing because the oddities are so well executed.


My love for the Southard does have limitations. My ‘Zaans are going nowhere!

View attachment 939710



I’ve been known to enjoy a polarizing knife, from time to time.

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I see you carry Southard is like mine in that you sharpened off that tiny recurve at the tip and turned the blade into more of a regular curve. Mine still has the dumb little recurve by the flipper tab though.

 

[miso2]

Have there been any refinement on it over the years?
Especially after the Advogate.

Yeah, I wish the blade stock be 0.12" instead of 0.16".

 

[Danke42]

I guess there is always the Positron and the Hanan.

 

[Hackenslash]

I see you carry Southard is like mine in that you sharpened off that tiny recurve at the tip and turned the blade into more of a regular curve. Mine still has the dumb little recurve by the flipper tab though.

Dude! That's so appropriate! A picture holding a knife with a clear knife cut on the dominant thumb!

 

[Lapedog]

Dude! That's so appropriate! A picture holding a knife with a clear knife cut on the dominant thumb!

Lol! That’s one where the blade snapped shut faster than I expected.

 

[Hackenslash]

Have there been any refinement on it over the years?
Especially after the Advogate.

Yeah, I wish the blade stock be 0.12" instead of 0.16".

I suspect that the Southard Flipper hadn't been produced for some time before "Advogate" happened. I don't think it existed long enough for CQI to have an effect, which is a shame. It might have benefited from work on the clip, lock access, lock face, detent, blade grind and blade thickness.

I look at the line of Spyderco discontinued knives and have mixed emotions. I see a bunch that just missed (like the Southard Flipper) and a bunch that were perfect but cost too much to make (like the Slysz Bowie). I imagine what could have been in a perfect world. Imagine if the Southard was refined and improved? Imagine if the Slysz Bowie were offered in premium sprint runs?

It's similar to how many licks will it take to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Roll Pop. ONE...TWO...THREE. THREE.
I guess the world will never know.

 

[miso2]

Oops.
I didn't realize that it is discontinued.
My bad.

But a refined version, even limited, would be sweet.

 

[brandoak]

How many broken Southards have you seen?

I've only seen two and they broke in the same place. I decided not to buy one after I saw a disassembly video on Y/T.
I also decided not to purchase the MT Sigil because of the same reason. I've been reamed here on BF for spotting what I see as "potential" failures.....if you want to defend your house made of straw go ahead, whom am I to tell you otherwise. (and Im not speaking directly to you BladeScout) The pictures of broken Spyderco Southards just validated my concerns, just as the pictures of galled out/grooved bearing pockets on titanium knives with bearings keeps me from buying one as a hard use folder. I'm old and I've learned to kick tires before the ride.

 

[brandoak]

What is this design called? Internal pin stop? Seems kinda dumb to cut through 3/4 of the limb your standing on...?
Seems to me like there are better ways to go about this internal stop pin design...like the knife pictured on the right...

Red arrow..look how tiny of a connection...

 

[BladeScout]

I've only seen two and they broke in the same place. I decided not to buy one after I saw a disassembly video on Y/T.
I also decided not to purchase the MT Sigil because of the same reason. I've been reamed here on BF for spotting what I see as "potential" failures.....if you want to defend your house made of straw go ahead, whom am I to tell you otherwise. (and Im not speaking directly to you BladeScout) The pictures of broken Spyderco Southards just validated my concerns, just as the pictures of galled out/grooved bearing pockets on titanium knives with bearings keeps me from buying one as a hard use folder. I'm old and I've learned to kick tires before the ride.

Well, thats not quite how quoting someone works in this instance

Besides, one or two Spyderco Southards are hardly enough to damn all knives of this design to the nether regions of Hell.

Maybe back of a little with the 'house made of straw' rhetoric ...

 

[brandoak]

Well, thats not quite how quoting someone works in this instance

Besides, one or two Spyderco Southards are hardly enough to damn all knives of this design to the nether regions of Hell.

Maybe back of a little with the 'house made of straw' rhetoric ...

I was done answering you in my first sentence. If you want to take the rest personal even though I tried to make sure you didn't,.. go ahead. I dont give a rats a$#.

 

[Lapedog]

I never really considered my Southard a knife I would pry with. I don’t consider it a “hard use” knife. So I don’t know how I would snap it.

That said, I agree it was defintely a design oversight the way they did the internal stop pin design.