Gayle Bradley 1 - Spirit/Exclusive

[Catchadroppimgknife]

Yes - longer blade and This! “ …increase lockbar access just a bit…”.

Heck ya! The lock bar access was terrible - I sold mine because of it. Sure you could modify yourself, or use the “finger nail” approach - but why? Just fix the lock.

[ABX2011]

I think there's a chance BHQ would do an exclusive of the GB1. I'd love to see different scales and a DLC blade.

[abbazaba]

I think there's a chance BHQ would do an exclusive of the GB1. I'd love to see different scales and a DLC blade.

It does seem possible. However I'm still puzzled by the Cruwear choice on the GB2, with M4 being the gold standard. K390/10v would have been ideal for me, but at least a true stainless for everyone that had been asking for a stainless GB2 for years. I still think we'll see a black blade TiCN GB2 from BHQ at some point.

[WilliamMunny]

I think there's a chance BHQ would do an exclusive of the GB1. I'd love to see different scales and a DLC blade.

A BHQ M4 Natural Jade G10 GB1 would be pretty awesome.

[Ramonade]

A new Bradley design won't happen, an exclusive/sprint-run of the GB1 would be nice however.
I personally prefer the 2 because the ramp on the first one is too close to the handle and too high for me. But the knife still is impressive and very nice to have and cut with ! I juste don't use that ramp.

[Bearcat1]

When the GB1 first came out they had solid liners. The later ones had skelontized liners. The solid liners obviously had more weight but both have a hefty weight to them. It is funny there were many on the secondary market after they came out as some did not like them. Now that they are discontinued there seems to be more of an interest in them. That is probably typical of most Spydercos.

[Ramonade]

When the GB1 first came out they had solid liners. The later ones had skelontized liners. The solid liners obviously had more weight but both have a hefty weight to them. It is funny there were many on the secondary market after they came out as some did not like them. Now that they are discontinued there seems to be more of an interest in them. That is probably typical of most Spydercos.

Most definitely, the high end ones like the Slysz Bowie, K2 or Nirvana do fall in that category IMO

[Red Leader]

Just got back from the SFO. Had a great time w/ the crew there, always fun to nerd out.

While we checked out dozens of knives, I definitely directed interest to the Gayle Bradley 2, with paying all the thoughts in this particular thread in mind.





The overall experience was positive, w/ caveats. The knife felt solid, smooth, and the weight was just a little north of average. Lockup was good, I didn't notice any lockstick. I had thought that the knife came w/ smooth, glassy carbon fiber, but it does not - in pictures it looks just like regular carbon fiber, but it is textured just like peel-ply.

The liners sticking out is a swing and a miss, IMO. I was trying to think of what the reason for that was, because it was obviously intentional. The only thing I could think of is for the knife to dig in a little better in your grip, whether you are just w/ bare hands or gloves, to resist twisting. However, I can easily see it being unconfortable, because it was, as you gripped tighter. I can see other ways to design around the problem rather than liners sticking out. Just seemed odd.

The lockbar access wasn't difficult, but it was annoying, and sharp, and leaves one with the impression of 'why'? I understand that the intent was to create a fixed blade in the form of a folding knife, but you did make it folding, of which I think there is engineering/design accountability for that, and it probably shouldn't be done by having the knife work against you.

The kick/ricasso area seems a bit like an afterthought. I asked to look at a Tenacious to contrast the two designs...




With the Tenacious, the blade comes all the way up to the handle, which allows for an extremely useful feature - the ability to plunge the knife into material (cardboard, cloth, etc), up to the depth of the handle, allow the handle to be used as a stop guide, and zip the knife through the material. With the GB2, if you do that, you are going to get stuck in no man's land between the edge and the handle. Who designed the Tenacious? What a smart design. I really hope a lot of the import/value designs get translated over to the nicer knives. Man, I'm just impressed with how thoughtfully those knives were designed.

I'm now sort of wondering if they could take the blade edge, and literally just sweep it right down to the lower handle point, ala the Bodacious. They'd have to re-adjust the front shape of the handle a bit to accomodate, but you'd get so much more blade in the same side package.

Regarding comfort, the knife was very comfortable to hold. While I wouldn't say it was very versatile, as in multiple hand positions, I had no qualms with the way it held (other than the protruding liners) and think the shape is definitely an 'all day user'.




All in all, I think it is good knife, but there are some areas that seem very open to improvement. If this cannot be done within the GB lineup, then maybe they can make a knife in a similar vein with some of these changes.

The real winner for me personally was the Canis. Whoa, that knife. I had held it once or twice before, and came away impressed and intrigued. This time, it really sealed the deal. What an incredible knife that is! Of course it is way uglier than the GB2, 100%. But form follows function, as Spyderco is well acquainted with, and I sort of like it's stance. Weighty blade, reinforced tip w/ hollow grind...actually quite similar to the GB2. Really love this model, and can't think of anything I'd really want to change, other than maybe some different blade steel options.



Here's a great lineup of peel-ply Taichungs.

[Vamais]

Lil' Temperance 3 = Gayle Bradley 3

[Red Leader]

Lil' Temperance 3 = Gayle Bradley 3

Now that is a knife I do have, and I absolutely love it, but it has some problems of its own, different than the GB. Plus there are some pretty big differences, FFG/4mm/Comp lock vs HG/3mm/liner lock.

Great news here is that there is something for everyone, and always room for improvement.

If the 'GB series' does end with the 2nd, then we won't see these types of changes and the story ends here. That's okay too, a new one will start up somewhere else