Southern Ground Found, an EDC Story

About three years ago, I lost what at the time was my favorite EDC knife. It was a Southern Grind Bad Monkey folding knife with a partially serrated drop point blade and a carbon fiber grip. The blade included an Emerson Wave, something the current Southern Grind blades do not offer. To add insult to injury, it was the most expensive pocket knife I had ever owned, costing me $275 some eight years ago.

And for those who are wondering, yes, Southern Grind is a Zac Brown company. I didn’t buy it because of Zac Brown; I bought it because I liked it and thought it would be a good blade for both personal defense and survival.

Purists will tell you that a knife without serrations is better, and if I am whittling wood or skinning an animal, I agree. However, if I want to use my knife to cut through something tough, the serrations are hard to beat, so two out of my three past EDC blades have had partial serrations.

The Emmerson Wave is a patented hook on the top of the blade that allows you to open the knife when drawing it from your pocket. When you drag the wave against the back of your pocket, the hook catches the material and the act of pulling the knife out of your pocket flips the blade open. This gives the user an automatic knife without the normal mechanisms and potential legal hassles of a true automatic knife. That feature, plus the four-inch blade, made it my everyday carry knife when I worked in the city.

When I moved out to the country, the knife stayed in my pocket. Its primary use was cutting weeds to feed to the chickens. An inglorious use, perhaps, but one it accomplished with ease.

Poof! It Vanished

When I lost it, I thought I had lost it in the garden or chicken yard. I searched high and low, but it never turned up. I also looked in all the usual places where things tend to fall out of my pocket, including under my recliner and in the nooks and crannies in my truck, especially between the seat and the console. The recliner, in particular, is well known for sucking up remotes and coaxing keychains, phones, and even wallets out of pockets.

When the knife wasn’t found, I thought, “Oh well, it will turn up soon.” But it never did. We had a vendor working outside at about the time it went missing, and I always harbored a secret belief that someone on their crew now had my $275 knife in his pocket.

And then, just yesterday, while searching for my keys, I found it. I reached into the crevice of the very same recliner I have searched dozens of times over the years since my knife was lost, and I pulled out a 5.56 bullet (yes, I remember sitting in that chair loading magazines) and a working replica of the Austrian WWI trench lighter. But I felt something else in there, so using my arm like a veterinarian trying to help a cow birth a reluctant calf, I reached all the way up into the guts of the chair. My fingers hit something solid, and I tickled it towards me until I could grab it and pull it out. It was the missing knife. I was stunned.

Reunited

The knife had lint, dog hair, dirt, and grime on it, but I was delighted to see it. It is still sharper than my current EDC blade. I cleaned it up and was considering running it through the ultrasonic cleaner, but a quick online search changed my mind. Apparently, that method can be bad for carbon fiber.

While I was looking for things, I found my DeWalt tape measure. My Stanley tape measure is still MIA. Considering it is bright yellow, that’s quite a feat. Now you know why I own four tape measures: because while one is none, and sometimes two or even three can be none, too.

By the way, the keys were in the ignition of the Polaris, right where I had left them. I found them after I thought back to when I last remembered having them. This past weekend. What did I do this weekend? I harvest honey, and I used the Polaris Ranger to drive around the loaded supers in from the bee yard. That’s when it clicked: I left the keys in the ignition because I was wearing my bee suit and could not access my pant’s pockets. I figured I would get them later, and I did—four days later.

Early Knives

When I was nine-years old, I found a belt knife near a swimming hole while hiking with my family. Although our family rule was I had to be ten to own a knife, I was allowed to keep this one as long as I carried it only when hiking or camping. It was a very traditional looking outdoor knife with a leather heath. Somewhere around age 16, I lost it. I like to think some other ten year old ended up with it.

The Christmas after I turned ten, I received a Swiss Army knife. It was a medium one, meaning it had only 12 or 15 tools. I remember using the knife to notch the back of a homemade arrow to go with my homemade bow and giving my thumb a slice deep enough that I had to run home for some first aid. As she patched me up, my mother had a few comments to say along the lines of, “Maybe ten is too young to own a knife,” but I was allowed to keep it. (I guess my dad won that argument.) The scar is long gone, and so is the knife. Years later, I picked up a “real” Swiss Army knife, which I still own. It’s the model with the toothpick and the tweezer, and I have somehow managed not to lose either of them.

I carried several folders throughout my school years, but they were not anything memorable. These were simple Boy Scout-type knives, likely $5 or $10 Case look-alikes that rode in my pocket with the loose change.

EDC Knives

My first clip knife was an original Spyderco, purchased at a cutlery store in a mall in mid to late 1980s. I’ve been carrying a knife with a pocket clip ever since. A few years later, I got a boot knife. My guess is I purchased because it looked wickedly cool and there were times living in NYC where it paid to be armed. Sadly, it had a terrible sheath. I still own it—mostly because it is difficult to carry so it never had a chance to get lost. It still looks cool sitting on my dresser, but the Spyderco, which was far more usable, is long gone.

I then acquired a Cold Steel folder that was fully serrated. I carried this for some time, but decided full serrations were not the way to go. It rides in my EDC bag as a backup. I graduated from it to a CRKT with a partially serrated blade. I eventually lost that knife and bought an almost identical model. These knives were lightweight and easy to carry in a suit or dress pants. I still have that old CRKT, which I brought out of retirement when I lost the Bad Monkey.

The CRKT went back into my gun safe when I got a Bestech folder for Christmas. In size and weight, this knife is somewhere between the Bad Monkey and the CRKT. It’s served me well as a good all-around carry knife.

A Great Gift

When people get to be my age, it is hard to buy them gifts because they have spent the last few decades accumulating everything they want. Now they either own it or don’t want it. My parents’ generation—always watching every penny—got each other stuff like underwear. I hope I never have to in the position where I pretend to be grateful for a gift of underwear.

How to I solve the dilemma of being hard to shop for? I out things I want but don’t immediately need on my Amazon shopping list. When someone asks what I want for Christmas, I give them the link. For example, there’s a Wrangler Men’s Long Sleeve Sherpa Lined Shirt Jacket on my list right now. (If my wife is reading this, I prefer the color Admiral Blue.)

But we didn’t buy the Bestech knife on Amazon. So how did my wife pick out such a good blade? Here’s how that worked: we went to a store known for having a very nice collection of knives. I picked out three and left the room. She then purchased one of the three, which allowed me to be surprised at Christmas. I don’t know what her criteria were, but after carrying the Bestech daily for several years, I have no complaints. It’s been an excellent knife at a midrange price. I’d buy another without hesitation.

An EDC Must Have

My flashlight and my knife are the two EDC items I use most often, unless you include my phone. I certainly use them more than my lighter.

Perhaps I am lucky, but I’ve never needed my blade for self-defense, to make a fire, to cut myself free from an entanglement, or to save my life in some other manner. A knife, however, remains a useful tool, whether I am trying to open a cardboard box, an unintentionally child-proof plastic package, cutting a zip tie, or just need to shave a new point into my carpenter pencil. Occasionally, I will abuse an EDC knife by prying or even digging. And yes, sometimes I use it to peel, cut, chop, or slice, whether it’s a cucumber or apple for the chickens of a dollop of peanut butter for me.

Which brings me to an important reminder: clean your EDC knives occasionally (especially if you use them to eat, do meal prep, or cut acidic foods), and check the screws holding them together at least twice a year. I’ve had knives that never came apart but I’ve also had pocket clips that came lose so often I had to use thread locker. Both the Bad Monkey from Southern Grind and the Bestech have been trouble free.

And the Winner Is…

So, what knife will I carry? I am going to stick with the Bestech for the time being. I am used to it and it is lighter and has a longer clip that offers better retention in my pocket. Besides, I’d hate to lo

When I go to the city or travel far from home, I carry a second spare magazine, just in case I need 15 extra rounds. I am planning to make the Bad Monkey part of my city EDC as well.

If you’re carrying a favorite blade, let us know what it is in the comments below.