Brad Southard is a highly regarded American custom knifemaker and designer based in Holland, New York. He is widely recognized for his mastery of titanium frame lock flippers and historic production collaborations with premier brands like Spyderco.

Released in 2012, the Spyderco Southard was the first flipper knife ever integrated into Spyderco’s product lineup. It successfully combined Southard's custom flipper geometry with Spyderco’s signature thumb hole and a premium ball-bearing pivot system.

Southard designs are famous for their sweeping ergonomic handles, distinct finger choils that protect the hand, organic blade shapes, minimalist pocket clips, and precise detent tuning that ensures fast flipper deployment.

Yes. His designs utilize narrow, highly pocketable profiles that carry deeply and comfortably, combined with premium steels that hold an exceptionally sharp utility edge through long periods of work.

The Performance Series consists of high-end mid-tech models built to ultra-strict custom tolerances using advanced automated machining alongside hand-fitting, balancing custom quality with production availability.

Production models heavily utilize premium wear-resistant alloys such as CTS-XHP, CPM-20CV, and Bohler M390, selected specifically by Southard to optimize toughness and edge retention properties.

While his Spyderco models feature the round opening hole, the internal detent geometry is tuned heavily for kinetic flipper tab deployment, meaning a decisive press on the tab yields the fastest, smoothest action.

Keep the angled face of the blade tang and the titanium lockbar contact point clean and free of excessive oils. Many models feature steel lockbar interface inserts to prevent metal galling and lock stick over time.